There Was No Catpocalypse

Tim at History for Atheists has a video on the supposed catpocalypse (or, if you prefer, the “holocats”) caused by the Catholic church during the Middle Ages. It’s a minor myth, I think because deep down people know it sounds too ridiculous to be true and don’t want to push an idea that might cause. Large-scale witch burning via the Catholic church, which also didn’t happen, at least has a patina of believability to it.

Some atheists and even some prominent scientists claim that the Black Death was caused or at least made worse by a wholesale massacre of cats ordered by the Catholic Church in the Middle Ages. But is this true? And where did this strange story come from? In this episode on the History for Atheists video channel we look at this claim and several others associated with it, examine the history of the pandemic of the 1340s known as the Black Death and discover the source of these common but, actually, completely false ideas.

I wish Youtube had downloadable transcripts of their published videos; I would post it here if they did. Luckily, Tim doesn’t goof around in his videos so there’s no need to skip around so you don’t waste time.