Ancient Atheism

You might think that atheism is a relatively new phenomena. But you would be wrong, disbelief in gods are as ancient as religion itself. I guess as long as there is religion there will always people who will not accept it as true.
One of these ancient atheists was called Diagoras of Melos a Greek who lived in the fifth century BCE. You would probably call him the first atheist activist. He was very outspoken about his disbelief in the Greek gods and this got him in trouble with the powers that be from time to time.
One story has it that he was shown the pictures of people who were saved from sea storms by making offerings to the gods. He simply replied “there are nowhere any pictures of those who have been drowned.” Another time he was on a ship that was in an intense storm and the superstitious crew thought that they were be punished by the gods by having a noted nonbeliever onboard. He simply asked if there were other ships in the same storm who had other Diagoras’ aboard. Another time Diagoras tossed an wooden image of the god Hercules into a fire to cook his meal and said to the crowd that saw this, that the god could perform another miracle and save itself from the fire. He also convinced many people to not to join the Eleusinian mystery cult. These actions over time led to much ire among the people of Athens and ultimately led to him leaving Athens after they publicly condemned him and put a price on his head dead or alive. He fled to Sparta and lived out the rest of his life their.
It seems that ancient or modern, people who are atheists often provoke the anger among the pious. We simply point out the absurdity of the belief. This makes people uncomfortable and want to silence us. In the ancient world it was the threat of violence; today its vote bots on YouTube. We will not be silent and no amount of threats or slimy cowardly tricks will stop us. Reason will ultimately prevail.