Are you an Atheist? Do you live in the state of Massachusetts? If you answered 'Yes' to both of these questions, you could be facing up to a one year imprisonment and three hundred dollar fine for your transgression.

File this one under insane, obscure, unconstitutional laws that are probably never enforced.

Chapter 272: Section 36. of the General Laws of Massachusetts states:

"Whoever wilfully blasphemes the holy name of God by denying, cursing or contumeliously reproaching God, his creation, government or final judging of the world, or by cursing or contumeliously reproaching Jesus Christ or the Holy Ghost, or by cursing or contumeliously reproaching or exposing to contempt and ridicule, the holy word of God contained in the holy scriptures shall be punished by imprisonment in jail for not more than one year or by a fine of not more than three hundred dollars, and may also be bound to good behavior."

It makes you wonder how laws like this could have ever been passed and why they are not repealed.

I know this law would never be enforced, but I do think that the valuable time of our politicians could be spent better looking through the existing laws and repealing ones like this that are never enforced and are blatantly unconstitutional.

This would be a far more constructive expenditure of their time than their current actions. Declaring the watermelon the official state vegetable, for example, is just a waste of time.

Oh no I am not stirring anything up. I am just interested on Atheism. My original question was where did it start? Who invented it? Was it scientists or historians. Was it there all along?

Then the website led to discrimination of Atheists, which led me to find some unusual laws that shouldn't be in the books.

It is dissappointing that the Government worries about fundraising, lobbyists earnings, and deciding if a watermelon should be declared as a states vegetable.

They should clean up the law books. Erase anything that shouldn't be in there. That would be one way to spend our hard earned tax money.

I believe as long as those laws are still in the books the government can decide if they want to use them or not on a unlucky individual. We as the people shouldn't allow it.

Oh no I am not stirring anything up. I am just interested on Atheism. My original question was where did it start? Who invented it? Was it scientists or historians. Was it there all along?

Atheism didn't start anywhere. All children are born atheists. It takes HEAVY indoctrination to teach them otherwise.

The question you should be asking is where did belief in God start?

Atheism did not start anywhere. It is not something that had to be "invented."

I didn't mention that Americans are going door to door grabbing Atheists and throwing them in jails. I just mentioned that it is one country that still has laws against those who don't believe in a God. I know the grounding fathers of this country wouldn't have enjoyed these later laws put into the books, but they are there and should be taken out of context.

Now other countries especially the Muslim countries have stronger laws against infidels as they call them. Go to Syria and say you are a atheist. You will have many people upset with you in a heartbeat.

Singapore did have laws that are strong against atheism for they had many riots. I know they have strong laws against Jehovah Witness members also and set some laws in. Singapore is a successful Asian country, but do have some of the strictest laws in the world. It seems to keep order though. Throw a piece of gum on the street and see what happens. lol

Well the fact that an American couldn't apply for a government job if he indicates he is a Atheist in 7 of those states that I mentioned is discrimination. I guess a Buddhist will have a hard time working for the government if he chooses to. And although many laws that are not practiced anymore can still be used as a defense from the government if choosed to be. I think that is wrong.



and the fact that if one who works for the government that one must swear oath to god is something that should be worked on also. Perhaps one can just say I swear to the best of my knowledge.

I quoted Bush because it amazes me that so many Americans voted for him at the time. Not once, but twice! I also believed his cabinet helped trigger much of the recession we have today as the money spent could have been more effectively used such as erradicating probably half of the laws in the books, fighting illegal immigration, restoring the budget, and creating new jobs.

I know your position on what you believe in Jeannie concerning religion and spirituality. I never contradicted your belief system.

In the long run what I am saying is anything that is written in a law book (even if not used) shouldn't be taken lightly.

Atheism didn't start anywhere. All children are born atheists. It takes HEAVY indoctrination to teach them otherwise.


More popular than what? Around 79% of americans consider themselves christians.
Worldwide estimates say:
1.Christianity: 2.1 billion
2.Islam: 1.5 billion
3.Secular/Nonreligious/Agnostic/Atheist: 1.1 billion
Since those are all lumped together in #3 it's likely the number is very small.

Oh no I know of these statistics all to well.

I actually found the answer I am looking for.

I guess atheism existed since man was born

but the word itself is what I wanted to know. t

I see that the ancient Greek word atheos began to be used in the sense of denying of the gods in the 5th Century BCE.

The word was transliterated into the Latin word atheos, in which it was commonly used by Hellenists and Christians to refer to one anothers' disbelief in the others' god. For centuries it was used mainly as a pejorative term. It did not become a self-avowed belief until around the 18th Century in Europe.


so in the 18th century is when it became a self avowed belief.

Are you an Atheist? Do you live in the state of Massachusetts? If you answered 'Yes' to both of these questions, you could be facing up to a one year imprisonment and three hundred dollar fine for your transgression.

File this one under insane, obscure, unconstitutional laws that are probably never enforced.

Chapter 272: Section 36. of the General Laws of Massachusetts states:

"Whoever wilfully blasphemes the holy name of God by denying, cursing or contumeliously reproaching God, his creation, government or final judging of the world, or by cursing or contumeliously reproaching Jesus Christ or the Holy Ghost, or by cursing or contumeliously reproaching or exposing to contempt and ridicule, the holy word of God contained in the holy scriptures shall be punished by imprisonment in jail for not more than one year or by a fine of not more than three hundred dollars, and may also be bound to good behavior."

It makes you wonder how laws like this could have ever been passed and why they are not repealed.

I know this law would never be enforced, but I do think that the valuable time of our politicians could be spent better looking through the existing laws and repealing ones like this that are never enforced and are blatantly unconstitutional.

This would be a far more constructive expenditure of their time than their current actions. Declaring the watermelon the official state vegetable, for example, is just a waste of time.

The reason these laws have not been repealed is because other laws have rendered them mote points. But I agree that they should be taken off the books and that it should not be so difficult to do that, but it is.

There is still a law in Colorado that you can hang a horse thief on the spot, but that law is null and void because of other laws.

You can literally find hundreds of ridiculous laws still on the books that are not enforceable, so citing these laws is pointless.

If you want to stir something up find one that is being enforced and then I will pay attention.

If this law was created I can GUARANTEE that it was enforced at least once . . . .
I do not agree that it is pointless.

Perhaps the better question would be who made atheism more popular?

ITS ALIVE! ITS ALIVE I TELL YOU!

Smiless - you asked, so I'm responding "history lesson"

The field of anthropology includes a treasure trove of material from all over the world regarding what humans have believed. The earliest known beliefs were that of Animism and it existed in most of the aboriginal and native cultures. While there are a diverse number of characteristics between all these beliefs, there seems to be one basic commonality; spirituality. It was believed that every object was endowed with a spirit. The spirt was the life force of the object and existed as an immaterial spirit when it was no longer part of the life force of the object. The immaterial spirit was not individual, it was a shared, common, universal spirit.

Many of these beliefs carried in the follow up belief systems of pantheism.

The earliest idea of a separate god is often linked to sex. Since animism was a complete veneration of all life force, and all life force, “spirit” existed in every natural object, it was nature that was venerated. As man began to develop a sense of understanding that, in nature, it was only females that brought forth life, it was believed that women were the givers of that life force. This is how god became a separate notion. In most cultures it was Earth, itself, that became the ‘supreme’ live giving force, because Earth yielded all that was necessary for the continuance of life (ecosystem).

Later developments included the goddesses of matriarchal societies. But women tended to be more transient, following their men ‘husbands’ and leaving their rightfully inherited fortunes to their male members. As cultures developed many of the them share the same transitions. As men gained power through their new ownerships, intellect was also gaining momentum and it was realized that women were only a vessel and it was the seed of ‘man’ that created the life force. History then shows new gods appearing if the male form.

At some point it was acknowledged that men and women were equal necessities to the emergence of new life force, and therefore there must be a greater singular creative force – monotheism was born. There had to be a dualistic nature to the one god as ‘He’ created a dualistic nature in the universe, requiring both male and female to give life. It was this idea, and the questions surrounding this notion that eventually became the Christion idea of god in three persons – God the father, God the son (remember by this time societies were patriarchal and they still believe God favored them as the ‘carrier’ of the ‘seed’. They didn’t yet understand that about the seed and the germ. And then, of course, we can’t leave the oldest belief system known to man totally out of the picture, thus there was God the ‘spirit’.

This is all very, very brief, and there is much more in the way of time and developments, but I’ve given the highlights.

So there you have it – ALL gods are the creation of man and not the other way around. In fact – all humans began as atheists because animism did not have any god or gods, only spirit – ‘the life force’ and it was a universal ‘one’, so all the universe was connected and was one with the spirit.