Doubt about religious faith is as old as religion itself – Tim Whitmarsh’s brilliant book carefully explores literary and philosophical sources to make the case for a questioning of the gods in Greek and Roman times It seems likely that there will be a female president of the US well before there is a self-professed atheist in the Oval Office. Ted Cruz declared last year that someone who does not begin every day on “his knees” (sic) is not fit to be commander-in-chief. Atheism is controversial, in the US as in many other countries around the world. But both its detractors and its supporters tend to portray lack of faith in a divine power as a possibility or danger available only in modern times. Those in the Cruz camp often view atheism as a marker and a cause of the degeneration of contemporary society; Cruz’s father famously declared that it is the cause of sexual abuse. The defenders of religion point to the fact that all human cultures throughout history seem to have had religious beliefs and practices, and therefore religion is sometimes said to be an essential feature of human nature. Continue reading...
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