9 Books Censored or Destroyed for Challenging Religion

1. Protagoras, On the Gods (5th c. BCE)

The Greek philosopher Protagoras challenged religion out loud, fled Athens under a death sentence, and died in a shipwreck.

Although his book On the Gods was destroyed by the Athenian authorities, the first two sentences have survived in quoted fragments:

Concerning the gods, I have no means of knowing whether they exist or not or of what sort they may be. Many things prevent knowledge, including the obscurity of the subject and the brevity of human life.