The Return of the Village Atheists

[truthfinder9]

From The Return of the Village Atheist, by Joel McDurmon (American Vision, 2007):

"The character of the 'village atheist' reappears from time to time in history, usually after the latest scientific announcement or the latest natural disaster. His title is akin to that of 'village idiot'....The idea is that every village has its 'idiot' who was full of opinions and advice on every topic, would never shut up, and made little sense. No one took the guy seriously.

"Like the village idiot, [the village atheist] knows everything, argues till he is blue in the face, never shuts up, and yet never learns and like the village idiot, no one really takes him seriously, either."

For more on the latest futile attempt of the village atheists, see the current issue of the Christian Research Journal (Vol.30, #5), pp. 6-9.

[AnAmericanMother]

FWIW, the Village Atheist was a staple of the cartoons in Punch magazine in Victorian times. Definitely a figure of fun.

There was one (wish I could remember the cartoonist, pretty such it wasn't Phil May or DuMaurier and definitely not John Leech) where a group of stereotypical village folk are sitting under the spreading chestnut tree gossiping. "Did you hear that Sally Brown's dead, that was pew opener at the parish church for 60 year?" Village Atheist (an aged character with a smock and Newgate fringe): "Ah! Ye see what comes from pew-opening!"