Honest atheist

In this review of James Hannam's God's Philosophers: How the Medieval World Laid the Foundations of Modern Science, atheist Tim O'Neill writes (Armarium Magnum, October 17, 2009):

One of the occupational hazards of being an atheist and secular humanist who has the lack of common sense to hang around on atheist discussion boards is to encounter a staggering level of historical illiteracy. I like to console myself that many of the people on such boards have come to their atheism via the study of science and so, even if they are quite learned in things like geology and biology, usually have a grasp of history stunted at about high school level. I generally do this because the alternative is to admit that the average person's grasp of history and how history is studied is so utterly feeble as to be totally depressing.

So, alongside the regular airings of the hoary old myth that the Bible was collated at the Council of Nicea, the tedious internet-based "Jesus never existed!" nonsense or otherwise intelligent people spouting pseudo historical garbage that would make even Dan Brown snort in derision, the myth that the Catholic Church caused the Dark Ages and the Medieval Period was a scientific wasteland is regularly wheeled, creaking, into the sunlight for another trundle around the arena.

Related

• "Cartoons and Fables - How Cosmos Got the Story of Bruno Wrong" (Armarium Magnum, March 18, 2014)
• "'Agora' and Hypatia - Hollywood Strikes Again" (Armarium Magnum, May 20, 2009).