By another atheist, who actually knows a bit of history. The decline of new atheism has resulted in, among other things, atheists having to pick up their game in history:
In August 2019 I wrote a detailed analysis of a series of claims about history made by the atheist activist who calls himself “Aron Ra”, all of which were completely wrong. As a result, I entitled my article “’Aron Ra’ Gets Everything Wrong” and, over 6,000+ words, detailed exactly what he gets wrong and what the actual historical information is. That is, after all, the focus of this blog: atheist activists who mangle history and repeat errors and myths without checking their facts. “Aron Ra” is a classic example, and one worth tackling because (i) the myths he presents as fact are ones commonly parroted by other atheists, (ii) he has something of a platform thanks to his anti-Creationist work, with 35,600 Twitter followers and 246,000 YouTube subscribers and (iii) he delivers his pronouncements on history with vast self-assurance and more than a little pomposity.
Tim O’Neill, ““Aron Ra” responds … badly” at History for Atheists
Ra, of course, defended himself but O’Neill dismissed his defence.
Here are two of the Ra claims O’Neill thought were wrong, with some thoughts from me (O’Leary for News):
- That Copernicus was in danger of being “caught and killed” and avoided this by his timely death
(No. The Polish Church was pleased with Copernicus because his theories were thought to show that Poland was not the science backwater that the Vatican suspected it was.) - That Galileo’s heliocentrism was something he could “show to be true” and the Church forced him to “lie” about this
(No. No one could have shown that heliocentrism was true at that time. Cardinal St. Robert Bellarmine advised Galileo to treat his theories as a hypothesis – which would likely be safe – but Galileo insisted on portraying them as fact, and that’s what got him into trouble.)
So far as we know.
See also: How did new atheism become the godlessness that failed?
As to, “No one could have shown that heliocentrism was true at that time.”
Nor can anyone show that heliocentrism is true at the present time. As the following article states, “We can’t feel our motion through space, nor has any physical experiment ever proved that the Earth actually is in motion.,,,”
And as Stephen Hawking himself stated, “the real advantage of the Copernican system is simply that the equations of motion are much simpler in the frame of reference in which the sun is at rest.”
In fact, the Copernican Principle, and/or the Principle of Mediocrity, which holds that there is nothing special about the earth in general, or humanity in particular, has now been overturned by our two most powerful theories in science, by General Relativity and Quantum Mechanics respectfully.
i was i touch with this ‘Aron Ra’-guy back in 2017. We exchanged a few emails.
This is how he introduced himself:
“I am an American atheist. In fact I served as Texas State Director of American atheists for a few years and will likely now become Southwest regional director for that organization. American Atheists is the very first atheist activist group, founded 55 years ago.
I went to the American Atheists site just for giggles.
Twilight Zone stuff there.
Andrew
From their AtheistVoter page:
“The effects of religion in public policy issues can be seen in every level of government: from anti-LGBT discrimination to restricting the healthcare choices of women, from preferential treatment for religious group in the tax code to the excuse of “it’s tradition” for allowing Christian ideology to remain part of everyday government practices.”
Sounds like American Atheists are just Leftists. Why would that follow?
Andrew
“American Atheists envisions a world in which public policy is made using the best evidence we have”
Surprise, surprise. The FIRST thing in the AA Vision is *Politics*.
Bless my stars and garters!
Andrew
Heliocentrism and geocentrism aren’t even hypotheses, let alone theories. They’re just different ways of expressing a formula, like V=IR and I=V/R. Use whichever works best for the situation.
asauber @ 4 included from the AtheistVoter page, ” from anti-LGBT discrimination to restricting the healthcare choices of women…”
Since evolution denies the existence of free will, how can anyone be anti or pro anything? There is no morality to base anything on. In regards to healthcare, Margaret Sanger was clear about her idea of healthcare. During a time when only black American were segregated, she made it clear that it was sterilization or segregation as the only viable options of those she deemed to be nothing more than human weeds.
“Since evolution denies the existence of free will, how can anyone be anti or pro anything?”
BobRyan,
You are right. But that doesn’t stop any brain-dead Atheists/Leftist from making noise, does it? 😉
Andrew
Coherence, ko-herence, shmo-herence, who cares?