Doubt in the 17th century. [View all]

[defacto7]

In 1696 a medical student at the University of Edinburgh named Thomas Aikenhead said that theology was " a rhapsody of feigned and Ill-invented nonsense" and that the scriptures were " so stuffed with madness, nonsense, and contradictions, that you admired the stupidity of the world in being so long deluded by them." He also said that Moses, "if ever there was such a man," had, like Jesus, "learned magic in Egypt, but that he was both the better artist and better politician.

He was executed for blasphemy in 1697. He was 20 years old.