Atheism in those days was associated with poor uneducated people, the same way racism is today. Citation? Don't you mean paganism, rather than atheism? And by

Atheism in those days was associated with poor uneducated people, the same way racism is today. Citation? Don't you mean paganism, rather than atheism? And by pagan I mean the jumble of indigenous beliefs that you get with a pre-literate people, freely mixing local superstitions and the official religion (in this case Christianity).