I wonder what a liberal Roman Catholics lurking on this site must think of all these posts.

[BainsBane]

123. well this book connects atheism to modernity

And say its emergence first as a philosophical concept and later as a cultural phenomenon is a product of modernity--and that post-dates the Inquisition. It specifically states that atheism can only be understood in a world in which God becomes an object of thought rather than the source of all thought (through the Enlightenment). It confirms what I have said, but through philosophical analysis.

Now if the poster entered a time machine and went back to the 12-16th century, he would no doubt have been strung up on the rack. But that is obviously an impossibility. The key point is that historical actors did not think like 21st century Americans. We are all products of our time, and the range of philosophical and theological ideals we consider are formed by the cultural context in which we live.