Were there any atheists in the middle ages?

Mr. X. I am sure there were. Just how publicized they were I haven't a clue.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_atheism#The_Middle_Ages

Pretty much, since the first person decided to make up a deity, there were people who continued to believe in reality.

We were incognito in those days. The dark ages was when religion had a firm grip on humanity. The renaissance was when religion lost some of that grip.

Yes. But in the name of keeping their head attached they probably didn't tell anyone.

Yes but they were usally burned to death

Of course there were! You know what they were called then? Firewood.

they stayed in the closet.
people are more open to it now and dont bully them anymore

They would be called heretics

Yes there were atheists in the Middle Ages. As another Y!A member pointed out to a wiki page.

Yes.

probaly not openly atheist because they burned those who they suspected were witches in the middle ages

There were many untill the catholic church burned them alive or threw them in prison for the rest of their life.

Evil has existed in all ages, and continues to do so.

Yes they were the ones they burned

Yes, there were. But when identified, they tended to be tortured and killed as heretics.

So, they would have tried to keep a low profile and pretend to be believers.

Yes there were many. Most of them were present at all the BBQs the Christians were throwing, with atheists being burned at the stake.

.

Not many of them would "come out"

otherwise

the Roman Catholic Church would accuse them of heresy

and probably have them killed . . .


.

No reason to think not...

However admitting it was hazardous to your health, Christians weren't known for their tolerance and were extremely brutal in their judgments, so I wouldn't exactly expect to see a long list being published...

IMHO

Probably. People have always tried to escape their duties.. or lose faith over a fallacy.

where have u been?

While there may have been a few that were documented (I'm unaware of any, but that is not saying much), there is no really good means of determining what the thousands of people believed or thought throughout the ages. From the middle ages, we have only some writings from the educated (i.e. the nobility and the church) but we have relatively little clue about what the middle and lower classes actually believed. It is also likely that the writings of the educated classes are influenced by the church as it was common practice for the church to kill anyone espousing anything that it did not agree with.

Religion was a political, many powerful people were religious because of the political connections.

Religion was more about the centralisation of knowledge. So speaking out against the Christian religion was generally punished.

Also religion was the source of knowledge (law and religion were tightly linked). There were many people who were pagans in Europe, especially in the early days (Eg, Longshanks of England)

So while Atheists were very rare during the middle ages, there were many people who espoused views that challenged christian views on the nature of the world...without rejecting God.

It was not until the renaissance and in particular the age of enlightenment did it become common to pose the idea of the non-existence of God.

Midveal atheism is well documented by priests and the pope.
You see the pope made lists of heresies after they encountered
not as some theoretical counterargument though in priest schools
as modern religious say. No thats an afterconstruction.
Under the cathar heresie, actually many heresies where reported.
It begun with city in france where people started to talk freely about everything
just like we do today. One was atheism.
Cathar become a kitchensink.
Holy Bergit reported in the letters noble atheist speaking out in sermon.

There where no way of life in the dark ages, Not in the sense that everyone believed in the same time.
Thats an modern afterconstruction to point out the positive with religion.

No religion is standard or have any power in any society
if people are allowed to think and speak freely.

Probably not. Religion was the way of life in the middle ages, in Europe. Atheism would've seemed beyond absurd to the people living at the time.