How to be an Atheist in Medieval Europe
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 25 ส.ค. 2024
- Alec Ryrie takes a tour of medieval unbelief, showing why some believed that God was being used to swindle and manipulate them.
A lecture by Professor Alec Ryrie, Gresham Professor of Divinity 27 September 2018
www.gresham.ac...
There was no intellectually sophisticated or articulate 'atheism' in the Middle Ages, but there was plenty of raw scepticism and incredulity. Church courts regularly heard blasphemy cases which went as far as outright denial of God.
This lecture will take a tour of medieval unbelief, showing how and why some medieval people defied the powerful orthodoxies of their day: fired not by intellectual or philosophical doubts but by suspicion that 'God' was being used to swindle and manipulate them.
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The title totally grabbed my attention immediately & not one minute was a disappointment!! Fantastic presentation not advocating or denouncing atheism in the medieval ages, but shares with us stories & people from all over the map, ages, finances, sexes, religious leanings or in one of the sects like the Lollards who were exploring faith in God & the best way to go about worshiping Him. The lecture was like listening to a tennis match the way it went from a quote & situation then switched over to tell an opposite viewed story, all of which were well presented & gave definite pause for thought, I will definitely be listening again to this lecture & look forward to seeing what else this channel has to offer!!!!! Thank You!!
Did I hear him incorrectly? I thought he was saying that theists were more likely to be uneducated, (peasants and common people in medieval times),than atheists. That is certainly the case today. Uneducated people are far more likely to be religious than educated people are.
@@8698gil that's not their fault though. Also, he called being religious a counter culture, so that contradicts what you said a bit.
01:53 Darwin didn't explain the origins of life - just how it evolved once it had appeared.
And Spinoza did not defined a "world without God" at all.
Fantastic view into the medieval mind, thank you.
It sounds more like God started dying when the Church lost the ability to use violence to silence criticism.
I think its unfortunate that Atheism is so often framed as something that is in opposition to Christianity; I'm fascinated by the implications it has on wider religious thought. Is there any evidence for unbelief having origins in Eastern civilizations?
There is Charvaka, an ancient school of Indian materialism and atheism, which appeared at roughly the same time as Buddhism and Jainism.
Unbelief comes from original sin, this is a source all this turmoil about faith, all comes from original sin. This is part of our nature wounded by our furious enemy.
I liked the lecture a lot but the way Machiavalli was presented didn't sit right with me. He loved the idea of a Republic and had morals and principles, he just thought that, given no other option, the Principe would be the only way of unifying Italy. I personally think that he meant what he wrote in The Principe, I just think that it really needs to be put in context, bot with his other work and whit what's in the book itself. The ending of the book really speaks volume about what his motivations were. Other than that, great presentation!
Plus, I wholly disagree with the fact that Machiavelli omits God o religion from 'Il Principe'. In the last chapter, just to give an example, he plainly states that liberating Italy is an holy mission, and that God wills it. He also cites many miracles done by God, as proof that with his help anything is possible. If that's not religion...
It's hard to hear him call Christianity a philosophy of mercy when the people he's describing where being executed by the church in this time period.
Wait... you're talking about the Spanish Inquisition? Nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition
Such a great lecture! Beautifully articulated, very well delivered, and presenting a fresh and compelling look at atheism!
I always thought the Three Impostors (- or the rumours about it) was a logical conclusion out of the 11th century Sephard story of the three sons & their false magic-rings, that was very well known even outside the Jewish community by the 13th century. It made its way in the collection of Il Novellino. Perhaps it originated in the surrounding of Maimonides when the forced convertions happened and travelling traders converted and practised at need, depending on where they lived at the moment, caught in between contradictions quitting all faith.
Interesting lecture that informative, provocative (in a proper sense - provoking different thoughts and views).
7:52 It sounds like he was using epistemological methods to help others thoroughly examine their beliefs but those have a strange way of inviting ire and mistrust as can be seen with the case of Socrates.
Thanks Prof Ryrie
Very good 👍 research
There may have existed the odd atheist before the Greeks, but it was the Greeks who were the first systematic and vocal atheists.
oooo. I'm looking forward to the next installment.
"religious practice is a countercultural stance" oh please, why don't you tell that to bernie sanders who was accused of being an atheist as if it was a crime, or me who lives in a country that despite its growing lack of religiosity still has countless publicly funded Christian schools, a monarchy, and places in government specifically made for certain people in the church. Being any kind of religion is far from being a counter culture, not that it matters that much. Well, unless you count being muslim in certain areas of America i suppose, but not for much longer hopefully.
it was the medieval high priests who lacked faith or any alusion to humanity. they know more than the followers that it is a game of money and power and ruthlessly destroyed those who diminish either of those in the eyes of the masses.
16:36 1299, Tattalessina, a notoriously tightfisted moneylender from Bologna ...
I think, like the former, we are dealing with _businessmen_ ... I think the type still exists.
Love the lecture although very many Atheists I know are extremely well educated and scientifically informed rather than uneducated as this professor suggests.
I agree. The 21st century has produced a shocking "mentality", imho 😕
We see cyber-Christians who are beyond rude and judgmental, and who have tossed all of our advancements in understanding our world - _for a flat Earth and a much anticipated global destruction of which they will be raptured beforehand and sit above to watch all of the evil burn!_
And then, you see atheist channels who (for the most part) engage in dialogue and exchange of ideas and opinions.
And then, there are those who push every Conspiracy, thinking they are some how helping, when the truth is that if a shred of evidence were to be found, a fair trial would be non-existent.
And then, we have blinded political followers who buy into a divide and conquer mentality and many have been reduced to racism and bigotry.
Imho, Atheist appear to be holding the "high ground" and "Intellectual fortitude."
Good grief - why have we not moved beyond war and warring with one another and adopted a *"just do no harm to one another"* attitude?
He compared us to flat earthers. Ouch
where's the source for what the pope said frederick ii said in private i could not find this mentioned before.
I think this guy does not know the usa very well
Become a member of the clergy. Solved. A warmongerer for god; start a religious war.
at 16:32, what was the name of the Bologna money lender?? "de Talitsina" ? I couldn't quite hear how he pronounced it...
According to Alec Ryries lecture notes, the name is spelled: "Uguzzone dei Tattalisina".
However, the only google entry when searching that name redirects to the lecture. So that can't be correct...
Ah! Found it. *Uguzzone (dei) Tettalasina* is the right way to spell the money lenders' name.
I wonder if perhaps the money lenders and the Toledo servant boy were recently forcibly converted from Judiasm. Their ire seems more Christianity specific than general anti-gd. And it isn't like their gd or their parents' gd struck them down for breaking the first commandment anyway. I suppose one would have to research the laws regarding Jews and money lending for the time and places of those examples.
Unbelief intellectually goes back to absolute divine simplicity
thanks
Re-upload? I watched this right here on 27 September.. (status of that previous video now is "unlisted") Maybe the comments will be better quality this time.
Hi Michael. For every lecture, we keep the live-stream up on all our platforms until a final edit is done. This then replaces the live-stream, which is then made unlisted.
16:02 "..do you think there is any soul in the body, other than the blood?" Possibly based upon Leviticus 17:11 (and similar verses) : "For the life [Hebr = Ne-pes, 'soul') of the flesh is in the blood: and I have given it to you upon the altar to make an atonement for your souls: for it is the blood that maketh an atonement for the soul [Hebr ban-ne-pes]." (KJV)
How about with reference to reality ?
When debating, it does nothing for your argument to cite a source your opponent believes is false, Christian dogma in this case. Rather, you should seek out the commonalities you share and start from there.
I feel so smart after watching that. ;)
Trop cool 😎
00:00 Because violence
Doctrine and the liturgical life of the Church aren't competing with virtue, they support each other. Catholicism accepts that unbelievers can be saved if they are actively striving to know and follow truth and goodness, ie to lead virtuous lives, but they are only doing so because they are following God's grace which comes from Jesus's self sacrifice. So they are still being saved by Jesus. That is only a problem if you subscribe to certain types of protestantism.
very ineresting
unfortunately, I live in the USA where religious fanatics have taken over the government, especially since 2016. I'm thinking about seeking political-religious asylum in Mexico just to get away from Donald Trump. Any chance GB would consider taking some of us back? Thanks
American here. They have not. The religious right has taken over the Republican party along with the RINOS. Our government has not made any biblical laws. People are allowed to be religious or not, but what they are not to do is have the government make biblical laws or establish a religion. The First Amendment still stands, regardless if the looney Christians yell for a theocracy, it won't happen.
13:12 Do you think after Lucien Fèbvre, a Geocentric _in France_ could be likelier to be thought a drunkard?
14:11 It so happens, while Flat Earthers are somewhat ludicrous, contradicted by travels and travel times, as to shape of Earth, as well as having a Flat Earth map contradicting the Bible's four corners (which could be those of continents on a globe earth), that doesn't automatically mean they have nothing to say on Geocentrism.
There are also Geocentrics who are definitely not Flat Earthers. Myself included.
Took a long time to say little..
I think your talks a very good...and i'll tell you why...I know you have a passion for God...I know your a Christian...that's, quite a skill to not lean too much either way (by that I mean type of Christian)...therefore, I feel you are being as honest as you humanly can...Merci...⚜️🥀🙏
In fact, the notion that the earth is stationary is well-defined and true in physics. The principle of relativity states that there is no absolute reference frame which can be used to judge such things. Whether or not something is moving depends on whose reference frame is used, and this choice is arbitrary. The laws of physics are the same regardless of which massive object you choose to mark the stationary center of coordinates, and the peculiar quality of (massless) light is that it lacks such a reference frame. If you use something outside the solar system as your point of reference, then neither the sun nor the earth are stationary, and the earth's orbit looks more like a helix than an ellipse. Whether or not the earth is chosen to be stationary is entirely a matter of convenience.
You're misunderstanding physics. It does NOT mean the earth is standing still, just that we can't tell its velocity with respect to any other body by our senses of movement or measurement, except relatively.
But we are not an inertial frame of reference. :)
You mean heretics?
15:08 Orbits and laws of motion ... if an astronomer says _all_ laws of motion applicable to celestial bodies and they'd include earth, are on that size, gravitation and inertia, they are in fact appealing to atheism and anangelism. If they say gravitation and inertia exist, but they do not exclude voluntary agents, which on that scale would exclude men and only include God and angels, how can they exclude voluntary action overrides the influence of gravitation and inertia at some point?
If I drop a pen, gravitation may say it will hit the ground, but I can override that by catching the pen in the other hand.
With this in mind, an astronomer has no argument to actually exclude Geocentrism - except to some, "argumentum and homines" (not to be confused with the fallacy "argumentum ad hominem"), with atheists and therefore also anangelists as their prime audience.
*☼ WHAT'S HE DOING IN PUBLIC! TACKLE HIM! MASKS...MASKS EVERYONE!* . gr8 lct. simpler times
If your reading this Jesus loves you
How to be an atheist in medieval Europe?
Live in medieval Europe and become the biggest fool you've ever known...