Baron D'Holbach

An earlier reference to the first modern Atheist since Classical antiquity here.

1st Atheist

First since Classical antiquity to insist, in System of Nature, 1770, that there was no God.

"If we go back to the beginnings of things, we shall always find that ignorance and fear created the gods; that imagination, rapture and deception embellished them; that weakness worships them; that custom spares them; and that tyranny favors them in order to profit from the blindness of men."
- Paul-Henri, Baron d'Holbach [1723-1789]