Battling the Gods: atheism in the ancient worldTIM WHITMARSH(FABER & FABER, 290 PP, £25)Tablet bookshop price £22.50 • Tel 01420 592974 Tim Whitmarsh has conducted an excavation into classical Greek religious thinking with the aim of finding evidence for atheism, or at least scepticism towards the gods. Like feminist classical ­scholars who have retrieved hitherto ignored material and stories of the lives of ancient women (a comparison he makes himself), he has set about finding indications of atheism in the ancient world. The common view is that religion was “embedded” in all aspects of ancient Greek life and thought.Whitmarsh argues that disbelief was a continuous and distinct strand in ancient thinking. His brief Preface disavows any apologetic mot