Who's the first mass media atheist?

M

Michael R-4

New member
Some will say Bill Maher. I submit that you're very wrong if you do.
By "mass media," I mean that they have communicated via a medium that reaches a wide audience. This would include widely distributed magazines and periodicals. The first mass media outlet was probably the Penny Magazine, founded in 1832. It reached a record 100,000 readers.
The Penny reached 100,000 readers per week.

Also, novels had wide distributions. The Origin of Species had several thousand readers. But other books had far greater readerships. Consider the French!
 
Robert Ingersoll: It is infinitely absurd to suppose that a god would address a communication to intelligent beings, and yet make it a crime, to be punished in eternal flames, for them to use their intelligence for the purpose of understanding his communication.
If we have the right to use our reason, we certainly have the right to act in accordance with it, and no god can have the right to punish us for such action.
~
Robert Ingersoll:
The king said to the people: "God made you peasants, and he made me king.
He made rags and hovels for you, robes and palaces for me.
Such is the justice of God."

And the priest said: "God made you ignorant and vile.
He made me holy and wise.
If you do not obey me, God will punish you here and torment you hereafter.
Such is the mercy of God."

The king ruled by force, the priest by fear, and both by both.
The king owned the bodies and the priest the souls, of men.
One lived on taxes, the other on alms.
One was a robber, the other a beggar, and each was both.
~
Robert Ingersoll: Take the Devil from the scheme of salvation -- from the atonement -- from the dogma of eternal pain -- and the foundation is gone.
~
Robert Ingersoll: Eternal punishment is eternal revenge, and can be inflicted only by an eternal monster.
~
Robert Ingersoll: Each nation has created a god, and the god has always resembled his creators.
He hated and loved what they hated and loved, and he was invariably found on the side of those in power.
Each god was intensely patriotic, and detested all nations but his own.
All these gods demanded praise, flattery, and worship.
Most of them were pleased with sacrifice, and the smell of innocent blood has ever been considered a divine perfume.
All these gods have insisted upon having a vast number of priests, and the priests have always insisted upon being supported by the people, and the principal business of these priests has been to boast about their god, and to insist that he could easily vanquish all the other gods put together.
~
 
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