Hypatia Day, March 15

[Alex]

A pagan, and probably an atheist, Hypatia of Alexandria was a woman of remarkable intellect who advanced the science of astronomy in her time. Her death at the hands of a christian mob in March 415ce has been described as marking the end of classical antiquity.

If pagans and atheists had saints she would be foremost among them and it is for this reason that it is only right that she is celebrated. As only the month of her death is known, the date for this occasion has been placed at the mid point of the Ides of March (the 15th).

According to one story she was flayed alive by monks using scallop shells, so to mark this day I am suggesting the wearing of a shell as jewellery. In doing so we remember the tragedy of the Christian destruction of classical learning, from which it can be argued the West did not recover for 1000 years. It is a sobering reminder to always be prepared to look again at history before assuming that things could not have gone another way.

In her own words:

"All formal dogmatic religions are fallacious and must never be accepted by self-respecting persons as final."

"Reserve your right to think, for even to think wrongly is better than not to think at all."


Hypatia Day! March 15th! (Carl Sagan, YouTube)
https://youtu.be/3v3l6VayqNQ



Alex's comment:  Let us forget not the dark side of Christian faith, and perhaps religious faiths in general.