Mapping the territory

There have always been freethinkers, dissenters and atheists - these were certainly to be found in ancient Greece, but following Constantine’s conversion to Christianity, admission to any doubts about the existence of God could, for several centuries, be to risk one’s life, and certainly it would have been to risk exclusion from many aspects of social life right into the twentieth century. Indeed, although there is no official law against it, it would currently be well-nigh impossible for a professed atheist to be elected to the most powerful office in the world: the U.S. Presidency.