this post was submitted on 15 Jun 2026
190 points (100.0% liked)

Atheism

6151 readers
71 users here now

Community Guide


Archive Today will help you look at paywalled content the way search engines see it.


Statement of Purpose

Acceptable

Unacceptable

Depending on severity, you might be warned before adverse action is taken.

Inadvisable


Application of warnings or bans will be subject to moderator discretion. Feel free to appeal. If changes to the guidelines are necessary, they will be adjusted.


If you vocally harass or discriminate against any individual member, you will be removed.

Likewise, if you are a member, sympathizer or a resemblant of a group that is known to largely hate, mock, discriminate against, and/or want to take lives of any other group of people, and you were provably vocal about your hate, then you you will be banned on sight.

Provable means able to provide proof to the moderation, and, if necessary, to the community.

 ~ /c/nostupidquestions

If you want your space listed in this sidebar and it is especially relevant to the atheist or skeptic communities, PM DancingPickle and we'll have a look!


Connect with Atheists

Help and Support Links

Streaming Media

This is mostly YouTube at the moment. Podcasts and similar media - especially on federated platforms - may also feature here.

Orgs, Blogs, Zines

Mainstream

Bibliography

Start here...

...proceed here.

Proselytize Religion

From Reddit

As a community with an interest in providing the best resources to its members, the following wiki links are provided as historical reference until we can establish our own.

founded 3 years ago
MODERATORS
top 17 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] RunawayFixer@lemmy.world 1 points 9 hours ago

The existence of this black robe regiment was invented in 2010 by David Barton: https://boston1775.blogspot.com/2015/02/the-roots-of-black-robed-regiment-in.html?m=1

David Barton is known for persistently making false claims: https://www.peoplefor.org/rightwingwatch/post/david-barton-keeps-spreading-false-christian-nationalist-history One of his books won a vote for "least credible history book in print", before it was pulled by his publisher: https://www.splcenter.org/resources/reports/christian-historian-denounced-propagandist-sees-book-withdrawn/

So it's a recent myth, invented by a known fraud, which means that those republican Texans are bound to know that it's completely made up. That they still want to add this to the official curriculum shows where their priorities are: indoctrination > knowledge and understanding.

[–] darkmogool@feddit.org 1 points 10 hours ago

fake, fake… but different… but sill fake

[–] Tollana1234567@lemmy.today 5 points 22 hours ago* (last edited 22 hours ago)

fake, as opposed to fictional canon.

[–] Formfiller@lemmy.world 6 points 23 hours ago

Is Ghisline Maxwell’s family going to publish those textbooks too?

[–] Kolanaki@pawb.social 1 points 22 hours ago
[–] hydrashok@sh.itjust.works 75 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Spoiler: Christian history is already fake

[–] DarkCloud@lemmy.world 17 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (1 children)
[–] Hobo@lemmy.world 1 points 15 hours ago (1 children)
[–] DarkCloud@lemmy.world 2 points 3 hours ago

Fun fact, Mormonism started with the claim someone found inscribed golden plates burried and they had some weird writing on them....

Orthodox Jews when a plate has had food on it that's not kosher, they burry it over the Sabbath so God can cleanse it.

Isn't that funny? Mormons found plates, and Jews bury plates! What a funny coincidence huh?!

[–] Murse@slrpnk.net 19 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Fake Christian History

As opposed to some other kind of Christian 'history'?

It's all fake... that's how it and any other mythology works.

[–] captainlezbian@lemmy.world 13 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Christian history is the real history of the religion. Stuff like Constantine, the crusades, the 30 years war, etc. This is fake Christian history because they're claiming something that didn't happen to be part of it outside the mythological framework. It's like if they started teaching that there was an extra crusade.

[–] Murse@slrpnk.net 4 points 1 day ago

Fair enough. Good distinction.

[–] jordanlund@lemmy.world 20 points 2 days ago (1 children)

This is concerning. I had never heard of the "Black Robe Regiment" so I ran a Google search to see just how mythological it was...

All of the top results, including the AI summary, talk about it as though it were a real thing. It looks as though theological activists were successful in poisoning the algorithm.

AI Overview:

"The Black Robed Regiment refers to a group of influential, patriotic Protestant clergy during the American Revolution. Named mockingly by the British for their traditional black clerical robes, these pastors actively promoted liberty, preached against tyranny, and sometimes took up arms or led local militias."

Search Result #1:
https://wallbuilders.com/
"The Black Robed Regiment was the name that the British placed on the courageous and patriotic American clergy during the Founding Era (a backhanded reference to the black robes they wore).1 Significantly, the British blamed the Black Regiment for American Independence,2 and rightfully so, for modern historians have documented that:

There is not a right asserted in the Declaration of Independence which had not been discussed by the New England clergy before 1763.3"

Search Result #2:
Reddit /r/revolutionarywar
"Beware of the Black Robe Regiment. During the American Revolution many clergymen were influential in the separation of the British Empire. I portray a clergyman of the Reformed Protestant Dutch of German Flatts in the Mohawk Valley, New York."

Search Result #3:
https://appleseedinfo.org/ "Who was the Black-Robed Regiment?

The Black Robed Regiment was the way the British referred to the American Clergy, a backhanded reference to the black robes they wore. For generations, the ministers had kept alive the doctrines of the seventeenth century and had presented them to their people."

Search Result #4:
Facebook (sigh):

Search Result #5:
Facebook post linking to:
https://teachinghistory.org/history-content/ask-a-historian/24635
"Question

Did a black-robed regiment really exist during the American Revolution, or was it just a myth?

Answer

The term “Black Robe Regiment” referred not to a literal regiment of soldiers that wore black robes into battle but rather to the influential clergymen who promoted American independence and supported the military struggle against Britain. By encouraging the Patriot cause, those ministers helped muster critical support among members of their congregation—support the British begrudgingly acknowledged as vital to maintaining the colonists' frustrating resistance to British attempts to restore Parliamentary rule."

Search Result #6:
Link to a sermon on PuritainBoard.com

Search Result #7:
https://historum.com/
"Question:

Apparently the 'Britishers' during the American War of Independence, according to Americans today, dubbed this American regiment the Black Robes. My question is why did the British name these soldiers or the clergy attached to them, Black Robes? Did this name have anything to do with Jesuits within the ranks of the Black Robe Regiment? Did the term 'Black Robe or Robes' at the time of the American War of Independence among the British refer to the Jesuits?

Answer:

The term “Black Robe Regiment” referred not to a literal regiment of soldiers that wore black robes into battle but rather to the influential clergymen who promoted American independence and supported the military struggle against Britain.

Try Google. Incidently, these were mostly Congregationalist or Presbyterian clergy. Anglican clergy were paid by the crown, supposed to pray for the royal family every day, and almost all were loyalist. The first Episcopal Bishop, appointed after the Revolution, had been a chaplain in the British loyalist forces.

There weren't many Jesuits. Less than 1% of the population was Roman Catholic, most of those in southern Maryland. There were not that many Baptists and Methodists yet, atleast not formal churches, but those clergy were also strongly pro-patriot."

[–] WhoIzDisIz@lemmy.today 19 points 2 days ago (1 children)
[–] Spacehooks@reddthat.com 4 points 1 day ago

Texas toast

[–] BigTuffAl@lemmy.zip 12 points 2 days ago

Texas history is already fake so it will fit right in

[–] 30p87@feddit.org 5 points 2 days ago

What's next? Fictional novels?