Nearly half a millennium ago during the Spanish Inquisition, a person professing a lack of faith was declared a heretic and either jailed, tortured (back into the faith), excommunicated or executed. The best tactic was to make outward expressions of faith, but privately (that is, in one’s mind or amongst likeminded friends and family) challenge the status quo. Such were the times. But the times have certainly changed, so much so that atheists are now cultural forces and celebrities, making speeches at an increasing number of conventions and debating clerics on television.
MORE: http://www.deathandtaxesmag.com/181915/atheism-conventions-all-the-rage-in-2012/
