SocratesIn existographies, Socrates (469-399BC) (IQ:180|#168) (Cattell 1000:29) [RGM:10|1,500+] (Murray 4000:12|WP) (FA:11) (GPhE:4) (ACR:8) [CR:122] was a Greek philosopher, a Nietzsche uberman, noted, supposedly, to his aversion and negative reaction to atomic theory, because it assigned reality to matter rather than to the mind, and hence the theory left no room for freedom of choice, a basis of morality, and for the premise that one can be master over their own destiny. [1]
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Atheism | Trial
In 399BC (age 70), was put on trial for not believing in the gods, “Zeus” specifically, in whom the city believes, teaching atheism, corrupting the youth, and for instead teaching the youth about “daemons”, something considered, then, as godlike, power, fate, spirit guides, or forces of nature, depending on translation; Plato, who supposedly was at the trial recounts the court proceedings, wherein his main accuser Meletus interrogates him, as follows: (Ѻ)

[SOCRATES] Nevertheless, speak to us, how do you say that I corrupt the youth, Meletus? Or is it clear, according to the indictment that you brought, that it is by teaching them not to believe in the gods in whom the city believes, but in other daimonia that are novel? Do you not say that it is by teaching these things that I corrupt them?
[MELETUS] I certainly do say this, most vehemently!

[SOCRATES] Then before these very gods, Meletus, about whom our speech now is, speak to me and to these men still more plainly. For I am not able to understand whether you are saying that I teach them to believe that there are gods of some sort—and so I myself do believe that there are gods and am not completely atheistic and do not do injustice in this way—but that I do not believe in those in whom the city believes, but in others, and this is what you charge me with, that I believe in others. Or do you assert that I myself do not believe in gods at all and that I teach this to others?
[MELETUS] This is what I say, that you do not believe in gods at all.

[SOCRATES] Wondrous Meletus, why do you say this? Do I not even believe, then, that sun and moon are gods, as other human beings do?
[MELETUS] No, by Zeus, judges, since he declares that the sun is stone and the moon is earth.

[SOCRATES] Do you suppose you are accusing Anaxagoras, My dear Meletus? And do you so much despise these men here and suppose that they are so inexperienced in letters that they do not know that the books of Anaxagoras of Clazomenae are full of these speeches? Moreover, do the young learn these things from me, when it is sometimes possible for them to buy them in the orchestra for a drachma, if the price is very high, and then to laugh at Socrates if he pretends that they are his own, especially since they are so strange? But before Zeus, is this how I seem to you? Do I
believe there is no god?
[MELETUS] You certainly do not, by Zeus, not in any way at all!

was regarded as an atheist by the Athenians (Aristophanes, c.390BC); he was convicted of atheism, by vote of the majority of the dikasts (male-citizen jurors chosen by lot), and sentenced to death via drinking poisonous hemlock.

I know nothing?
Socrates is famous in “smartest person ever” discussions, per an anecdote, aka the "Socratic paradox", in which “someone”, either Socrates himself, as reported by Xenophon, or Chaerephon (Ѻ), and friend and follower of Socrates, as reported by Plato, went to see Pythia, the oracle of Delphi, regarded as the most accurate prophet in the world, and asked her: “who is the smartest person in Athens or the world”, depending, to which she replied: Socrates. When Socrates herd this, however, he laughed, and to test this label, he is said to have conducted an experiment of sorts, namely he went around and interviewed all the so-called intelligent people of Athens, namely: poets, politicians, businessman, architects, and others, to see what they “really knew”, therein finding that each of them, believing themselves to be very knowledgeable, in fact knew very little. Socrates, supposedly, therein saw that there were many ignorant “great” minds. [4]

“I seem, then, in just this little thing to be wiser than this man at any rate, that what I do not know I do not think I know either.”
— Socrates (c.410BC), according to Plato’s Apology [5]

That he was aware of this ignorance, gained him the mis-translated-over-time quote: “I know nothing”, the exact form of which is NOT found in his writings. Evidence that Socrates does NOT actually claim to "know nothing" can be found in Plato’s Apology 29b-c, where he claims twice to know something, and in Apology 29d, where he indicates that he is so confident in his claim to knowledge that he is willing to die for it. [5]

Atoms
British science historian William Dampier argues that this aversion to atomic theory by Socrates, an aversion adopted by his students Plato and indirectly Aristotle, ultimately led to the eventual two-millennium long interment of atomic theory. [2] In short, the Platonic view, as has been summarized, rejected “mechanical manifestations of material atoms”. [3]

Quotes | By
The following are quotes by Socrates:

“The beginning of wisdom is the definition of terms”
— Socrates (c.410BC)

“When the debate is lost, slander becomes the tool of the loser.”
— Socrates (c.410BC) (Ѻ)

“No man has the right to be an amateur in the matter of physical training. It is a shame for a man to grow old without seeing the beauty and strength of which his body is capable.”
— Socrates (c.410BC), Publication (see: genius and exercise)

References
1. Compton, Arthur H. (1935). The Freedom of Man (pgs. 11-12). Yale University Press.
2. Dampier, William C. (1948). A History of Science and its Relations with Philosophy and Religion (pg. 27). CUP Archive.
3. Staff. (2008). 1000 Events that Shaped the World (#99: Atomic Theory Postulated, pg. 52). National Geographic.
4. (a) Stephen. (2014). “Socrates: the Smartest Person in Athens” (Ѻ), HistoricalPerceptions.com, Mar 31.
(b) Sakai, Koji. (2000). Two Stories in Time (pg. 216). Publisher.
(c) Alican, Necip F. (2012). Rethinking Plato: a Cartesian Quest for the Real Plato (pg. 272). Rodopi.
5. I know that I know nothing – Wikipedia.

External links
● Socrates – Wikipedia.

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