It’s all ‘Greek’ to me…

Atheism

Back to the Divinity School and... it's obviously an unlucky charm for today. The title of this afternoon's talk Battling the Gods: Atheism in The Ancient World proved irresistible, while the speaker's pedigree was 24-carat. And as icing on the cake, the event was also packed, so there was a great sense of... anticipation. But for some reason, it just didn't 'click'. The talk was given by Professor Tim Whitmarsh, who chose to explain why atheism is far from a modern manifestation; and how the intelligentsia of this era were in fact openly doubtful about the existence of the Gods. And boy-oh-boy did it look promising. Sadly however, it just didn't deliver the goods (and even it did, it all got lost a bit in the hugely academic way it was presented). I liked the speaker, and really, really wanted to get immersed in the subject of his talk, but it just proved too scholarly. If the audience had been made up of Classics or Greek History undergraduates it would have made sense, but to the layman - and I recognise how stupid a criticism this will sound about a literary festival - his vocabulary was stuffed full of words that were just... too long. So I sat there and strained to try and keep up - like I do when I watch University Challenge - but on this occasion, I don't think I scored a single point.