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Tim O'Neill - History for Atheists @timoneill.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

Consummatum est! Ten years in the planning and after over twenty years of reading and at least one year of writing, Galileo - History and Myth is complete. historyforatheists.com/2026/10/gali...

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Tim O'Neill - History for Atheists @timoneill.bsky.social · 18/08/2026

It's hard to know where to begin with this. No, she did not block me after I made negative comments last year before I read her book and I didn't claim this. She blocked me back in 2023, when I challenged her about her claims of "Christian book burning" (below). I detailed ...

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Tim O'Neill - History for Atheists @timoneill.bsky.social · 18/08/2026

... A more honest and serious person would do the obvious: address my actual arguments. But Roberts is not honest or serious. Instead, we get the patent misrepresentation below:

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Tim O'Neill - History for Atheists @timoneill.bsky.social · 18/08/2026

... her anti-religious activism as a prominent member of HumanistsUK. But I stated publicly at the time that, despite some well-founded misgivings, I would wait until I read the book to make judgements on it (see below). So I did. And I found the book ...

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Tim O'Neill - History for Atheists @timoneill.bsky.social · 18/08/2026

It seems I've annoyed @profaliceroberts.bsky.social. And apparently I'm a terrible person and a "misogynist", no less! 🤔 Some context. Last year Roberts, a biologist, paleopathologist and sometime TV presenter, went well outside her areas of

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Tim O'Neill - History for Atheists @timoneill.bsky.social · 22/07/2026

... enitrely white line-up", Serkis answered as per the quotes below. And so began a firestorm of outrage from some:

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Tim O'Neill - History for Atheists @timoneill.bsky.social · 22/07/2026

"Concering Hobbits" - So last week actor/director Andy Serkis kicked off yet another tedious culture war via an interview with the BBC. He's filming an unasked-for bit of IP squeezing by Warner Brothers, who need to get cash from their purchase of rights to *The Lord of the

Picture of the three types of ancestral hobbits: a Stoor, a Fallohide and a Harfoot.

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Tim O'Neill - History for Atheists @timoneill.bsky.social · 17/11/2025

Coming soon to the History for Atheists channel …

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Tim O'Neill - History for Atheists @timoneill.bsky.social · 30/10/2025

New on History for Atheists: my long awaited and rather long critical review of Alice Roberts' new book *Domination*: historyforatheists.com/2025/10/revi...

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Tim O'Neill - History for Atheists @timoneill.bsky.social · 28/09/2025

Just uploaded to the History for Atheists channel, my conversation with Dr Dan McClellan @maklelan.bsky.social on the Hebrew Bible, its texts, contexts and misconceptions. www.youtube.com/watch?v=P7kS...

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Tim O'Neill - History for Atheists @timoneill.bsky.social · 09/09/2025

Who is going to give me “both barrels” over what exactly? The person above has me blocked, so if they want to engage with me they’re going about it rather strangely. 🤔

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Tim O'Neill - History for Atheists @timoneill.bsky.social · 21/08/2025

Help make it happen - help raise the speaker's fee so Bart Ehrman can appear on History for Atheists on @indiegogo Help make it happen - help raise the speaker's fee so Bart Ehrman can appear on History for Atheists on @indiegogo

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Tim O'Neill - History for Atheists @timoneill.bsky.social · 06/08/2025

New on History for Atheists: The Great Myths 16 - The Conflict Between Science and Religion. If there is a foundational myth that underpins a great deal of anti-theist bad history, it's the notorious Conflict Thesis. historyforatheists.com/2025/08/the-...

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Tim O'Neill - History for Atheists @timoneill.bsky.social · 01/08/2025

My next interview on the History for Atheists channel will be with Dr Dan McClellan ‪@maklelan.bsky.social‬ on things atheists get wrong about the Hebrew Bible/OT, early Jewish beliefs, the history of ancient Israel etc. What would you like me to ask Dan about?

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Tim O'Neill - History for Atheists @timoneill.bsky.social · 29/06/2025

Just uploaded to the History for Atheists channel, my interview with @ProfTCSchmidt on his new book *Josephus and Jesus: New Evidence for the One Called Christ* (Oxford, 2025) www.youtube.com/watch?v=9L2b...

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Tim O'Neill - History for Atheists @timoneill.bsky.social · 11/05/2025

New on History for Atheists - Stephen Woodford aka "Rationality Rules" (@RationalityRule) takes aim at Tom Holland's *Dominion* and ... shoots himself in the foot. historyforatheists.com/2025/05/rati...

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Tim O'Neill - History for Atheists @timoneill.bsky.social · 27/04/2025

Just uploaded to the History for Atheists video channel, my interview with Dr Ada Palmer on her very entertaining book *Inventing the Renaissance: Myths of a Golden Age*. www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lq1k...

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Tim O'Neill - History for Atheists @timoneill.bsky.social · 23/03/2025

Just posted to HIstory for Atheists: "Did the Pope Apologise to Galileo?" historyforatheists.com/2025/03/gali...

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Tim O'Neill - History for Atheists @timoneill.bsky.social · 19/03/2025

... innocuous if Roberts wasn't also vice-president of Humanists UK and someone who has repeated utter nonsense about Christians destroying Classical learning in via "book burnings". I asked her to elaborate on the tweet below and she dodged several times and then bravely blocked me on Twitter.

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Tim O'Neill - History for Atheists @timoneill.bsky.social · 19/03/2025

Oh dear. Well, I suppose it's been eight years since Catherine Nixey's *The Darkening Age* peddled a highly selective Gibbonian narrative about Christianity causing "the Dark Ages, so it was inevitable we get another such book. @profaliceroberts.bsky.social is well qualified in medicine, ...

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Tim O'Neill - History for Atheists @timoneill.bsky.social · 30/01/2025

Just uploaded to the History for Atheists video channel, my interview with Dr Nathan Johnstone on his book *The New Atheism, Myth and History* and bad anti-theistic historiography. www.youtube.com/watch?v=5X5b...

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Tim O'Neill - History for Atheists @timoneill.bsky.social · 29/01/2025

What is "medieval" about a "plague doctor" in a SEVENTEENTH century mask? Try to be less sloppy.

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Tim O'Neill - History for Atheists @timoneill.bsky.social · 06/01/2025

... aid the Allies and assist the German Resistance in several attempts to overthrow and even assassinate Hitler. Mark Riebling's *Church of Spies: The Pope's Secret War Against Hitler* (2016) documents this in detail and is a good antidote to the "Hitler's Pope" myth.

Cover of Mark Riebling's book *Church of Spies*.

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Tim O'Neill - History for Atheists @timoneill.bsky.social · 06/01/2025

... Ben Macintyre on which the series is (loosely) based, gives a brief account of the capture of Augusta by the SAS/SRS raiders, with some amusing anecdotes about their celebrations, but nothing at all about this church incident. So it appears to be a pure fiction of Knight's.

Screenshot of Ben Macintyre's account of the SAS capture of Augusta.

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Tim O'Neill - History for Atheists @timoneill.bsky.social · 06/01/2025

No sensible person would get their history from the BBC drama *Rogue Heroes*, which tells a slightly fanciful, "boys own adventure" version of the beginnings of the SAS in WWII. The show itself warns in its credits that it isn't really history. But its depiction of a Nazi flag...

Screenshot from *Rogue Heroes* of SAS raiders burning a Nazi flag in a Sicilian church.

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Tim O'Neill - History for Atheists @timoneill.bsky.social · 15/12/2024

I've included a clickable index for easy reference and to allow peole to link directly to particular sections:

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Tim O'Neill - History for Atheists @timoneill.bsky.social · 15/12/2024

It is accomplished! I have finally completed my long, detailed and fully referenced article on the various claims about "pagan origins" Christmas. It's a long one - nearly 12,000 words. historyforatheists.com/2024/12/paga...

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Tim O'Neill - History for Atheists @timoneill.bsky.social · 07/12/2024

The dreaded “medieval filter” strikes again.

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Tim O'Neill - History for Atheists @timoneill.bsky.social · 07/12/2024

... played by this guy, because it's the BBC so of course he is. 🙄

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Tim O'Neill - History for Atheists @timoneill.bsky.social · 07/12/2024

Ugh. Judging from the first photos of the upcoming BBC "historical [sic!] drama, *King and Conquerer*":, the budget didn't extend to a historical consultant who could tell them what 11th century clothing and armour looked like. It seems old *Game of Thrones* gear was used instead. So, as usual,...

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Tim O'Neill - History for Atheists @timoneill.bsky.social · 27/11/2024

Okay, let's see if we can have a calm, reasonable conversation about anachronistic "diverse casting" in historical dramas, using the new season of *Wolf Hall* as an exemplar. In the interest of everyone staying calm and reasonable, please note the key word above is "anachronistic". I am very ...

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Tim O'Neill - History for Atheists @timoneill.bsky.social · 26/11/2024

... later, NOT a genuine issue at the time. Leading Galileo scholar, Maurice A. Finocchario dismisses it as a legitimate element in the Galileo Affair in several of his books, including his *Retrying Galileo: 1633-1992* (2005 ) p. 62 (below).

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Tim O'Neill - History for Atheists @timoneill.bsky.social · 26/11/2024

... arguments were put in that character's mouth. And we do have evidence of Urban's sensitivity to mockery. A letter from 1632 mentions a rumour that the appearance of an image of three dolphins, each with its tail in the mouth of another, on the books' frontispiece was queried as a possible ...

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Tim O'Neill - History for Atheists @timoneill.bsky.social · 26/11/2024

The idea that the "real" cause of the 1633 trial of Galileo was that "he was a huge dick to the Pope" is not the most egregious myth about the Galileo Affair, but it's still essentially wrong. The frustrating thing is that it's almost right and is often argued as a counter to other, more common ...

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Tim O'Neill - History for Atheists @timoneill.bsky.social · 24/11/2024

A “classic thought” written by two screenwriters in 2012.

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Tim O'Neill - History for Atheists @timoneill.bsky.social · 24/11/2024

You’re a Tolkien superfan, but don’t recognise that he … didn’t write that.

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Tim O'Neill - History for Atheists @timoneill.bsky.social · 23/11/2024

Utter nonsense. The name "Gollum" derives from a noise the character makes and has no connection to the word "golem". Nazism is not "completely tied to Nazism" and Tolkien hated Nazis and hated Antisemitism. See below for his response to a German publisher in who inquired if he was "Aryan" in 1938.

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Tim O'Neill - History for Atheists @timoneill.bsky.social · 23/11/2024

Here’s what I said that got me blocked. What a terrible person I am!

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