THE DOOM OF RELIGION; THE NECESSITY OF ATHEISM
_One should recall the charge of atheism directed against the
keenest thinkers of antiquity and the greatest of its moral
reformers. But what was personal and incidental in the past,
depending largely upon the genius and inspiration of seers and
leaders, has now become a social movement, as wide as science_.
JAMES T. SHOTWELL.
_The drift from God is a movement of events, a propulsion of vital
experience, not a parade of words to be diverted by other words_.
MAX CARL OTTO.
In the Babylonian and Assyrian mythologies we have the chief deities as
Ishtar, Tammuz, Baal, and Astarte. In the Phrygian religion we have the
Goddess Cybele and her husband Attis. Among the Greeks we have the
Goddess Aphrodite and the God Adonis. The Persians had their Mithra.
Adonis and Attis flourished in Syria. In the Egyptian religion was found
the Goddess Isis and the God Osiris. The Semites have their Jehovah, the
Mohammedans their Allah, and the Christians the Goddess Mary, the God
the Father, and a son Jesus.
Christianity has divided itself into Catholicism and Protestantism; and
when Protestantism gave the right of interpretation of the Bible to each
individual, there were evolved such forms of Protestantism as Christian
Science, Holy Rollerism, Seventh Day Adventism, Swedenborgianism, and
the cults of the Doukhobors, the Shakers, the Mennonites, the Dunkards
and the Salvation Army.
In the early days of the Church were seen the wrangling of sects, the
incomprehensible jargon of Arians, Nestorians, Eutychians, Monotheists,
Monophysites, Mariolatrists, etc. Today we behold the incomprehensible
jargon of the first-mentioned sects.
Christ, born of an immaculate virgin, died for mankind, arose from the
dead, and ascended into Heaven.
Buddha, who lived over 500 years before Jesus, was born of the Virgin
Maya, which is the same as Mary. Maya conceived by the Holy Ghost, and
thus Buddha was of the nature of God and man combined. Buddha was born
on December 25, his birth was announced in the heavens by a star, and
angels sang. He stood upon his feet and spoke at the moment of his
birth; at five months of age he sat unsupported in the air; and at the
moment of his conversion he was attacked by a legion of demons. He was
visited by wise men, he was baptized, transfigured, performed miracles,
rose from the dead, and on his ascension through the air to heaven, he
left his footprint on a mountain in Ceylon.
The Hindu Savior, Krishna, was born of a virgin 600 years before Christ.
A star shone at his birth which took place in a cave. He was adored by
cowherds who recognized his greatness, he performed miracles, was
crucified, and is to come to judge the earth.
Christ died for mankind,--so did Buddha and Krishna. Adonis, Osiris,
Horus, and Tammuz, all virgin-born gods, were saviors and suffered
death. Christ rose from the dead, so have Krishna and Buddha arisen from
the dead and ascended into Heaven. So did Lao Kium, Zoroaster, and
Mithra.
A star shone in the sky at the births of Krishna, Rama Yu, Lao Tsze,
Moses, Quetzalcoatl, Ormuzd, Rama, Buddha, and others. Christ was born
of a virgin, so was Krishna and Buddha. Lao Tsze was also born of a
virgin. Horus in Egypt was born of the Virgin Isis. Isis, with the child
Horus on her knee, was worshiped centuries before the Christian era, and
was appealed to under the names of "Our Lady," "Queen of Heaven," "Star
of Heaven," "Star of the Sea," "Mother of God," and so forth. Hercules,
Bacchus, and Perseus were gods born by mortal mothers. Zeus, father of
the gods, visited Semele in the form of a thunderstorm and she gave
birth, on the 25th of December, to the great savior and deliverer,
Dionysis.
Mithra was born of a virgin, in a cave, on the 25th of December. He was
buried in a tomb from which he rose again. He was called savior and
mediator and sometimes figured as a lamb. Osiris was also said to be
born about the 25th of December; he suffered, died, and was resurrected.
Hercules was miraculously conceived from a divine father and was
everywhere invoked as savior. Minerva had a more remarkable birth than
Eve; she sprang full-armed from the brow of Jupiter. He did this
remarkable feat without even losing a rib.
The Chinese Tien, the holy one, died to save the world. In Mexico,
Quetzalcoatl, the savior, was the son of Chimalman, the Virgin Queen of
Heaven. He was tempted, fasted forty days, was done to death, and his
second coming was eagerly looked for by the natives. The Teutonic
Goddess Hertha, was a virgin, and the sacred groves of Germany contained
her image with a child in her arms. The Scandinavian Goddess Frigga was
a virgin who bore a son, Balder, healer and savior of mankind.
When one considers the similarity of these ancient pagan legends and
beliefs with Christian traditions if one believes with Justin Martyr,
then indeed the Devil must have been a very busy person to have caused
these pagans to imitate for such long ages and in such widespread
localities the Christian mysteries. Indeed, Edward Carpenter comments,
"One has only, instead of the word 'Jesus' to read Dionysis or Krishna
or Hercules or Osiris or Attis, and instead of 'Mary' to insert Semele
or Devaki or Alcmene or Neith or Nona, and for Pontius Pilate to use the
name of any terrestrial tyrant who comes into the corresponding story,
and lo! the creed fits in all particulars into the rites and worship of
a pagan God."
A legend stated that Plato, born of Perictione, a pure virgin, suffered
an immaculate conception through the influences of Apollo (B.C. 426).
The God declared to Ariston, to whom she was about to be married, the
parentage of the child.
St. Dominic, born A.D. 1170, was said to be the offspring of an
immaculate conception. He was free from original sin and was regarded as
the adopted son of the Virgin Mary.
St. Francis, the compeer of St. Dominic, was born A.D. 1182. A
prophetess foretold his birth; he was born in a stable; angels sang
forth peace and good will into the air, and one, in the guise of Simeon,
bore him to baptism.
The Egyptian trinities are well known: thus, from Amun by Maut proceeds
Khonso; from Osiris by Isis proceeds Horus; from Neph by Sate proceeds
Anouke. The Egyptians had propounded the dogma that there had been
divine incarnations, the fall of man, and redemption.
In India, centuries before Christianity, we find the Hindu trinity;
Brahma, Vishnu, and Siva. In the Institutes of Manu, a code of civil law
as well as religious law, written about the ninth century before
Christ, is found a description of creation, the nature of God, and rules
for the duty of man in every station of life from the moment of birth to
death.
Professor James T. Shotwell when speaking of paganism reminds us, "Who
of us can appreciate antique paganism? The Gods of Greece or Rome are
for us hardly more than the mutilated statues of them in our own
museums; pitiable, helpless objects before the scrutiny and comments of
a passing crowd. Venus is an armless figure from the Louvre; Dionysos
does not mean to us divine possession, the gift of tongues, or
immortality; Attis brings no salvation. But to antiquity the 'pagan'
cults were no mockery. They were as real as Polynesian heathenism or
Christianity to-day." (_James T. Shotwell_: "_The Religious Revolution
of To-day._")
It is seen, therefore, that from time immemorial, man does not discover
his gods, _but invents them_. He invents them in the light of his
experience and endows them with capacities that indicate the stage of
man's mental development.
Religion is not the product of civilized man. Man inherits his god just
as he inherits his physical qualities. The idea of a supernatural being
creating and governing this earth is a phantom born in the mind of the
savage. If it had not been born in the early stages of man's mental
development, it surely would not come into existence now. History proves
that as the mind of man expands, it does not discover new gods, but that
it discards them. It is not strange, therefore, that there has not been
advanced a new major religious belief in the last 1300 years. All modern
religious conceptions, no matter how disguised, find their origin in the
fear-stricken ignorance of the primitive savage.
A Christian will admit that the gods of others are man-made, and that
their creed is similar to the worship of the savage. He looks at their
gods with the vision of a civilized being; but when he looks at his own
god, he forgets his civilization, he relapses centuries of time, and
_his_ mental viewpoint is that of the savage.
Christianity, with its primitive concepts, can make its adherents firm
in the belief of great monstrosities. When its adherents believed that
the Bible sanctioned the destruction of heretics and witches, they were
certainly doing things from a Christian standpoint. It was this
standpoint that justified an embittered denunciation of evolution at one
time and then recanting, adopted it as a part of the Bible teaching.
When the Spaniards blotted out an entire civilization in South America,
when Catholics butchered Protestants, or Protestants butchered
Catholics, they were all justified from the Christian standpoint.
Man has been living on this planet some 500,000 years. Jesus appeared
less than 2000 years ago to save mankind. What of those countless
millions of men that died before Christ came to save the world from
damnation? If the Christian creed, that except a man believes in the
Lord Jesus Christ he cannot be saved, is maintained, then it must be
that those millions of human beings who lived before Christ and had no
chance to believe, are in hell-fire.
It is probable that one of the factors that turned primitive man's
attention away from his cruel and short, earthly existence to the
thought of a more lengthy and less cruel existence in a hereafter, was
the extreme uncertainty and short duration of his own life. And this
primitive trend of thought that turns man's mind from the here and now
to a contemplation of a mythical hereafter persists to this day,
produces the same slavish resignation. This false release from the
actualities constitute a mental aberration which we see in the
hysterical and weak-minded. When such an individual is confronted by
problems that tax his mental strength, if that individual has not
strength of mind to reason and to persevere so that he overcomes his
environmental difficulties, he will seek an avenue of escape in a
fanciful existence which the physician recognizes in hysteria and
certain forms of mental disease. So, throughout the ages, man has sought
release from the realities of his existence into a fanciful and
pleasantly delusional flight into a hereafter. "There is no salvation in
that sickly obscurantism which attempts to evade realities by confusing
itself about them. Safety lies only in clarity and the struggle for the
light. No subliminal nor fringe of consciousness can rank in the
intellectual life beside the burning focal center where the rays of
knowledge converge. The hope must be in following reason, not in
thwarting it. To turn back from it is not mysticism, it is superstition.
No; we must be prepared to see the higher criticism destroy the
historicity of the most sacred texts of the Bible, psychology analyze
the phenomena of conversion on the basis of adolescent passion,
anthropology explain the genesis of the very idea of God. An where _we_
can understand, it is a moral crime to cherish the un-understood.
(_James T. Shotwell_: "_The Religious Revolution of Today._") Religious
beliefs are clearly mental aberrations from which it is high time that
the progress of knowledge should lead to a logical cure. Man is steadily
overcoming and conquering his environment; the uncertainty of life and
cruelty are much diminished as compared with the past ages, but man has
not as yet fully utilized the means of an emancipating measure from his
mental enslavement and fear of his environment."
Chapman Cohen, in his "Theism or Atheism," clearly states: "We know
that man does not discover God, he invents him, and an invention is
properly discarded when a better instrument is forthcoming. To-day, the
hypothesis of God stands in just the same relation to the better life of
to-day as the fire drill of the savage does to the modern method of
obtaining a light. The belief in God may continue awhile in virtue of
the lack of intelligence of some, of the carelessness of others, and of
the conservative character of the mass. But no amount of apologizing can
make up for the absence of genuine knowledge, nor can the flow of the
finest eloquence do aught but clothe in regal raiment the body of a
corpse."
Religion arose as a means of explanation of natural phenomena at a time
when no other explanation of the origin of natural phenomena had been
ascertained. God is always what Spinoza called it, "the asylum of
ignorance." When causes are unknown, God is brought forward; when causes
are known, God retires into the background. In an age of ignorance, God
is active; in an age of science, he is impotent. History attests this
fact.
"The single and outstanding characteristic of the conception of God at
all times, and under all conditions is that it is the equivalent of
ignorance. In primitive times it is ignorance of the character of the
natural forces that leads to the assumption of the existence of Gods,
and in this respect the God idea has remained true to itself throughout.
Even to-day, whenever the principle of God is invoked, a very slight
examination is enough to show that the only reason for this being done
is our ignorance of the subject before us." (_Chapman Cohen._)
The belief in God is least questioned where civilization is lowest; it
is called into the most serious question where civilization is most
advanced. It is clear that had primitive man known what we know today
about nature, the gods would never have been born.
"The suspicious feature must be pointed out that the belief in God owes
its existence, not to the trained and educated observation of civilized
times, but to the uncritical reflection of the primitive mind. It has
its origin there, and it would indeed be remarkable, if, while in almost
every other direction the primitive mind showed itself to be hopelessly
wrong, in its interpretation of the world in this particular respect, it
has proved itself to be altogether right." (_Chapman Cohen._)
All intelligent men admit that human welfare depends upon our knowledge
and our ability to harness the forces of nature. "I myself," writes
Llewelyn Powys, "do not doubt that the good fortune of the human race
depends more on science than on religion. In all directions the bigotry
of the churches obstructs amelioration ... as long as the majority of
men rely upon supernatural interference, supernatural guidance, from a
human point of view all is likely to be confusion.... Trusting in God
rather than in man it is in the nature of these blind worshippers to
oppose every advance of human knowledge. It was they who condemned
Galileo, who resisted Darwin and who to-day deride the doctrines of
Freud." Science has given us an account of the operation of the universe
_sans_ God, and investigation has also given us a clear conception of
the evolution of all religious beliefs from the crude conceptions of the
savage to the but little altered form of the modern conception.
"If we are to regard the God idea as an evolution which began in the
ignorance of primitive man, it would seem clear that no matter how
refined or developed the idea may become, it can rest on no other or
sounder basis than which is presented to us in the psychology of
primitive man. Each stage of theistic belief grows out of the proceeding
stage, and if it can be shown that the beginning of this evolution arose
in a huge blunder, I quite fail to see how any subsequent development
can convert this unmistakable blunder into a demonstrable truth."
(_Chapman Cohen._)
Men of today are trying to force themselves to believe that there must
be something true in that which had been believed by so many great and
pious men of old. But it is in vain; intellect has outgrown faith. They
are aware of the fallacy of their opinions, yet angry that another
should remind them of it. And these men who today are secretly sceptics,
are loudest in their public denunciation of others who publicly announce
their scepticism. In ancient Greece, when the philosophers came into
prominence, Zeus was superseded by the air, and Poseidon by the water;
in modern times, all hitherto supernatural events are being explained by
physical laws. Plato regarded it as a patriotic duty to accept the
public faith although he full well knew the absurdities of that faith.
Today, there are many Platos that hold to the same conviction. The
freethinkers hold to the view of Xenophanes who denounced the public
faith as an ancient blunder which had been converted by time into a
national imposture. All religion is a delusion which transfers the
motives and thoughts of men to those who are not men. No ecclesiastic
has as yet offered a satisfactory answer as to why there has been a
marvelous disappearance of the working of miracles, and why human
actions alone are now to be seen in this world of ours.
We are witnessing today what happened in the Roman empire during the
decline of polytheism. Draper states: "Between that period during which
a nation has been governed by its imagination, and that in which it
submits to reason, there is a melancholy interval. The constitution of
man is such that, for a long time after he has discovered the
incorrectness of the ideas prevailing around him, he shrinks from
openly emancipating himself from their dominion, and, constrained by the
force of circumstances, he becomes a hypocrite, publicly applauding what
his private judgment condemns. Where a nation is making this passage, so
universal do these practices become that it may be truly said hypocrisy
is organized. It is possible that whole communities might be found
living in this deplorable state."
And, indeed, in our own country we are witnessing an example of this
very thing. Religion has led to widespread hypocrisy. Our religious
influences have created a race of men mentally docile and obedient to
the dictates of tyrannical ecclesiasticism. It has created a fear of
truth, and our minds are still brutish and puerile in our methods of
reasoning. Credulity has led to stultification, and stultification of
the mind is the bitter fruit which we have been reaping for thousands of
years.
There are probably hundreds of thousands of men and women in these
United States that give lip-service to their creed, but deep in the
recesses of their minds a small voice cries to them and shames them, for
as soon as they reason, they become sceptics. How can we know the actual
number of earthlings that are sceptics? It is impossible in our present
state of development. Religious persecution today is just as active as
it was during the Middle Ages. Surely, a man is not burned at the stake
for his scepticism in this age; but is he not done to death? If the
grocer, the butcher, the doctor, the lawyer, the scholar, the business
man, were to boldly announce his scepticism, what would happen to him?
The answer is well known to all. Immediately, each of his religious
customers would take it upon himself to act as a personal inquisition.
The sceptic would be shunned socially, he would be ignored, his wares
would be sought after elsewhere, and he would suffer. His wife, his
family, his children, would suffer with him, for our economic scheme
makes the would-be sceptic dependent upon the whims of the majority
believers. He is forced to hold his tongue, or else is tortured. Are not
the wants of his family, the hunger, and ostracism torture? Thus
thousands are forced into hypocrisy. Many others, although they have
outgrown all fear of the god of orthodoxy, the fear of the god of social
pressure remains.
There are embodied in all creeds three human impulses: fear, conceit,
and hatred; and religion has given an air of respectability to these
passions. Religion is a malignant disease born of fear, a cancer which
has been eating into the vitals of everything that is worth while in our
civilization; and by its growth obstructing those advances which make
for a more healthful life.
Morally and intellectually, socially and historically, religion has been
shown to be a pernicious influence. Some of these influences falling
into these classifications have been considered in previous chapters.
The modern Christian, in his amusing ignorance, asserts that
Christianity is now mild and rationalistic, ignoring the fact that all
its so-called mildness and rationalism is due to the teaching of men who
in their own day were persecuted by all orthodox Christians.
"Historically, churches have stood on the side of the powers that be.
They have defended slavery or have held their tongues about it. They
have maintained serfdom and kept serfs. They have opposed every movement
undertaken for the liberation of the masses of men; the ideals of
liberty, equality and fraternity are the creations of the camps of their
enemies, of the rationalists of the eighteenth century, and the liberals
and socialists of the nineteenth century. They have defended and
condoned the industrial exploitation of children. They have fought
bitterly the enfranchisement of women. They have justified unjust war.
They have fought with book and bill and candle and fagot every new great
step in the advancement of science from gravitation to evolution.
Wardens, ever since Constantine gave the schools of antiquity into the
keeping of the Christian bishops, of the education of the people, they
have fought with all their power the establishment of free public
schools and the spread of literacy and knowledge among the people."
(_Horace M. Kallen: "Why Religion."_)
If Christianity has made any progress in the assimilation of doctrines
that are less barbarous than heretofore, they have been effected in
spite of the most vigorous resistance, and solely as a result of the
onslaught of freethinkers.
Throughout the ages, when a thinking man had questioned the how and why
of any secular problem, so long as that problem had no direct or
indirect bearing upon religion, or upon any branch of knowledge that was
assumed to be infallibly foretold in the Bible, that man was unmolested.
The problems falling into the above classification were extremely small
due to the strongly defended theological lunacy that asserted itself in
the declaration that all knowledge both spiritual and material was
contained in the Bible as interpreted by the Church.
Man, however, when he broached his religious doubts, was regarded as the
most sinful of beings, and it was forbidden him to question and yield to
the conclusions that his mind evolved.
Think of the irony and tragedy of this self-enslavement of the human
mind! There is one characteristic that man prides himself as having
apart from all lower animals, his ability to reason and to think. Is it
his superior musculature and brute strength that has placed man upon
his present pinnacle of advanced civilization, or is it his mental
development, his mind, that has taught him to harness the forces of
nature? Has not his mind so co-*ordinated his movements that he has
enslaved those forces of nature to be his aid? And yet, if mind is one
thing that has enabled man to pull himself out of the morass of brute
life, why has it been that man himself has been so persistently decrying
and degrading the efforts of that mind?
The answer is, that religion has provided the shackles and securely and
jealously enslaved the mind. With the aid of his religious beliefs man
has been ensnared into a mental prison in which he has been an all too
willing captive. Surely it is easier to believe than to think.
Napoleon, himself a sceptic, was cognizant of this slave philosophy.
"What is it," he is reported to have asked, "that makes the poor man
think it is quite natural that there are fires in my castle when he is
dying of cold? That I have ten coats in my wardrobe while he goes naked?
That at each of my meals enough is served to feed his family for a week?
It is simply religion, which tells him that in another life I shall be
only his equal, and that he actually has more chance of being happy than
I. Yes, we must see to it that the doors of the churches are open to
all, and that it does not cost the poor man much to have prayers said on
his tomb."
How well the ecclesiastical psychologists have grasped this fact, and
how well they have fashioned a strong chain for the mind out of this
weakness of human minds!
Church and government have been well aware of this psychology, and have
fought constantly the spread of Freethought literature to the masses.
Professor Bury, in his "History of Freedom of Thought," speaking of
England, tells us, "If we take the cases in which the civil authorities
have intervened to repress the publication of unorthodox opinions during
the last two centuries, we find that the object has always been to
prevent the spread of free thought among the masses."
Think but a moment how well the above is borne out by the attitude of
the Church in the stand that it took during the Middle Ages, when she
prohibited the reading of the Bible by any person except her clergy.
When she prohibited the printing of all books except those that she
approved of; books that minutely agreed in all details with the
phantastic fables of her Bible were the only ones allowed to be printed.
The Church also strenuously objected to the printing of Bibles in the
languages of the masses. That most efficient shackle to the mind, that
precept that there was no knowledge, whether material or spiritual, that
was not contained in the Bible, how strenuously the Church upheld that
doctrine!
And in our own day, the ridiculous assumption that "mysteries" (a
special form of ignorance) are the special province of the Church.
Considering these few examples as well as all ecclesiastical endeavor,
no rational mind can escape the fact that that primeval curse, religion,
has had for its object, down through the centuries, the sadistic desire
to enslave and trample on the mind of man. It has been a defensive
measure on the part of the Church, for she well recognizes that once the
mind is free, it will free itself of the shackles of religion also.
Nor is this all. I execrate the enslavement of the mind of our young
children by the ecclesiastics. Is anything so pitiful to behold as the
firm grasp that the Church places on the mind of the youngest of
children? Children at play, children of four and five years of age, will
be heard to mention with fearful tones various religious rites, such as
baptism and confirmation, and to perform in their manner these rites
with their dolls. Fear! Fear! instilled into the minds of the
impressionable children! Think of the degradation that the ecclesiastics
practice when they insist that from the time a child is out of its
infancy its instruction shall be placed in their hands. They take the
most precious possession of man, his mind, and mould it to their desire.
The mind of a child is plastic, it is like a moist piece of clay and
they mould it and form it to their desire. Warped and poured into the
ecclesiastic mould of fear, the mind of the child becomes set and fixed
with the years. Then it is too late for rational thinking, as far as
religious matters go, the mind of the adult is firmly set in the form
that the ecclesiastic has fashioned for him in his youth. It is
impossible for the adult so taught to reason clearly and rationally
concerning his religion; the mould is too strong, the clay has set,
reason cannot penetrate into that hardened form. That is why it is
almost impossible for the adult who has been exposed to this mental
moulding from his infancy to break away from the fears and superstitions
learned on his mother's knee.
If Christianity, Hebrewism, Mohammedanism, or any other creed is true,
its truth must be more apparent at the age of twenty-five than it is at
the age of five. Why does the ecclesiastic not leave off his advances
until the child reaches a mature age, an age when he can reason? Then,
if theism is true, he can accept it with a reasoning mind, not a blindly
faithful mind. The theist realizes, however, that belief is at one pole,
reason at the other. Belief, creed, religion, are ideations of the
primitive mind and the mind of the child; reason is the product of
mature thought. Schopenhauer remarked that, "The power of religious
dogma when inculcated early is such as to stifle conscience, compassion,
and finally every feeling of humanity."
It is an undeniable fact that if the clergy would but leave their
tainted hands off the minds of our children until they would have
reached a mature age, there would be no religious instinct. Religious
instinct is a myth. Give me but two generations of men who have not been
subjected to this religious influence in childhood, and there will be a
race of atheists.
The ecclesiastic has from earliest times taken the standpoint that the
masses of people are of crude susceptibility and clumsy intelligence,
"sordid in their pursuits and sunk in drudgery; and religion provides
the only means of proclaiming and making them feel the high import of
life." (_Schopenhauer._) Thus the theist is led to the conclusion that
the end justifies the means.
Theism is a hypothesis which, among other things, attempts an
explanation of the universe. The theist recognizes a creator who created
the universe and is responsible for its operation. The atheist clearly
perceives that the assumption of a creator does not advance him in the
slightest degree towards the solution of the mysterious problem of the
universe. The oft-repeated question still admits of no answer, "Who
created the creator"?
It is an absurd answer to reply that the creator created himself, yet,
even if this is granted, may not the universe have created itself? If
the theist puts forward the statement that God has always existed, the
atheist may well reply that if God has always existed, why can he not
say that the universe has always existed? The atheist is not concerned
with the creation of the universe; to him it presents a problem which is
beyond the comprehension of his present mental capacities. He
comprehends the fact of its being, and that is as far as he or any
rational mind can go. Atheism confines itself to a refutation of theism,
and avoids the theistic fallacy of assuming without any proofs or
reasonable arguments to substantiate the assumption of an intelligent,
omnipotent, omniscient, anthropomorphic, and anthropocentric creator.
The theistic assumption has but retarded the advance of practical
knowledge, and prepared the soil for superstition and the countless
terrors of religious beliefs.
Atheism, as far as a rational explanation of the universe is covered,
although it does not offer an explanation of the "ultimate," or "the
riddle of the universe," does insist that any view held be one that
shall be based on truth and conformity to reality. It further maintains
that if a view be propagated it should be held in the same position that
any scientific proposition is held. It must be open to verification; if
it be verified as any scientific theory is verified, it will be accepted
in part, or in toto, and be proven to be true or displaced by a closer
approximation to the truth. To certain types of men there may be a
negative attitude expressed in this credo, which leaves the mind
unsatisfied. This is but an emotional bias and has nothing to do
whatsoever with the attainment of truth. A delusion may be more
comforting than the truth, but that does not necessitate the conclusion
that a delusion may be of more ultimate benefit than a constant striving
for the truth. It has often been said that atheism, in that negative
aspect, places a question mark upon our problems. However, while a
question mark may indicate a negative value, it may also prove to be a
mental provocative. A period placed at the end of a problem denotes that
it has been definitely solved. In connection with the origin of the
universe, no period can be placed at the end of that problem, and since
we are awaiting the solution, it is much more to the interest of further
advances to place the question mark there, than to consider the matter
solved. Surely, sufficient instances have been enumerated in this
discussion to show the stultification and retardation that ensues when
an institution maintains an insistence that a problem be held to
conform in any of its explanatory aspects to a preconceived infallible
statement, or considers a problem not to exist, or closes its eyes to
the inconsistencies in an explanation which is being maintained by
mental persuasion and force. When the Bible was considered as containing
the answer to all our problems we have seen what the result was. If
atheism places a question mark upon the problem of the universe, it does
so in a constructive manner; for that mark points to the direction in
which a logical solution may be possible. Such is the mental attitude of
the scientist. He places an interrogation point upon his problems and
that mark is the impetus, the mental stimulus, that leads him on to take
infinite pains in his labors and, as time passes, each question mark is
replaced by knowledge; it is knowledge and knowledge alone, reason not
faith, that furnishes the period.
It was Haeckel who asserted that, "The most dangerous of the three great
enemies of reason and knowledge is not malice, but ignorance, or
perhaps, indolence." The question mark as applied to a problem that is
recognizably not solved is a signpost to the knowledge that time must
bring. The spurious period placed at the end of a problem is the death
warrant for that problem and there it must lie devitalized by ignorance
and indolence.
It has often been affirmed that what we see in this universe is
phenomena, and all explanations but interpret the manifestations of
these phenomena. What is in back of and beyond these phenomena may never
be known, and if it be known, would be of no further use to us. It is
equally as true that if we but see phenomena and our mental capacities
deny us a conception of the reality beyond phenomena, yet, we have a
growing knowledge of the laws that govern these phenomena. And it is a
comprehensive knowledge of these invariable laws that govern the
universe that are of universal value. These laws have been ascertained
by the questioning mental attitude, and not by a futile reliance on
faith.
Human knowledge has expanded immensely in the last fifty years, and this
by the purely scientific method, the materialistic method, and the
questioning attitude. The value of these findings when they can be
converted into practical applications in industry are well known to all.
We have added nothing to our store of knowledge except by the exercise
of our mentality and reason. The application of the scientific method to
the workings of the mind has made more progress in explaining the mind
in the brief period of fifty years than philosophical deductions had
made in the past two thousand years. Every new fact that has been
discovered has fitted into the mechanistic scheme of the universe, and
not one new fact has been disclosed that suggested anything beyond
nature. The theistic interpretation of the universe has been completely
discredited by the scientific investigations. Science has brought to the
confines of invariable laws multitudes of problems that had hitherto
been supposed to point to "spiritual" interference. Theology has been
driven out of the open spaces of reason and still persists in clinging
to the twilight zone of the present unknown, only to be driven from its
precarious position constantly by our increasing knowledge and with
increasing rapidity from shadow to shadow.
There has been an increasing tendency shown by physicists to consider
that matter and energy are interchangeable, and that the one ultimate
reality is energy. If this be so, we are still dealing with an ultimate
that is a material reality. The Nobel prize in medicine for the year
1932 was awarded to two British investigators, Sir Charles Scott
Sherrington, professor of physiology at Oxford University, and Dr. Edgar
Douglas Adrian, professor of physiology at Cambridge University. Their
researches seem to have settled definitely a problem that has long been
a bone for contention. Nerve energy has been shown conclusively to be of
an electric type of energy. The old question of whether mind was part of
the material world has been shown by these experiments to be answered in
the affirmative. There is no duality, mind and matter are one, and mind
is but a special property of highly specialized matter.
It is with a great deal of regret that the freethinker contemplates the
attitude of such scientists as Jeans, Eddington, Millikan, and the
philosopher Professor Whitehead. Their hesitation to divorce themselves
completely from all conceptions of a supernatural force leads to a great
deal of confusion. An acquaintance with the writings of Einstein brings
one the certainty that he is as much in accordance with the attitude of
freethought as is the most militant atheist. The "cosmic sense" and
"totality of existence" of Einstein is as far removed from the
conception of a Yahveh as is the mentality of an Australian black man
from that of Einstein's mental grasp. Similarly with the cosmic
consciousness expressed in the writings of Jeans, Eddington, and
Whitehead. With characteristic disregard for the truth certain modern
theologians have grasped this cringing attitude of the above-mentioned
men and have stressed their viewpoints by a dishonest interpretation
that these men actually give a scientific certitude to their own
theologic creeds and dogmas. Nothing can be further from the truth. The
freethinker would have each theologian who tells his adherents that
these men lend credence to their beliefs to consider the following: if
the above-named men would be asked if they believed in a deity who
actively interposed his will and influence in the lives of men, as is
commonly expressed in the term "Providence," if they ascribed to the
belief in personal immorality, if they themselves believed in the
existence of a "soul," if they ascribed to the statement that "prayer"
influenced the opinion of an all-powerful being to intercede for them in
their problems and grief, if they believed that the Bible was a book
dictated by God, or that a god caused to be written for him his
"revelations"; that heaven and hell exist in the meaning that
theologians assure their adherents that they do; that sin and morality
is what theologians still hold it to be; that there has been a "fall"
and therefore the necessity for a "redemption" of man; and that creed
and dogma are necessary factors in the worship of a deity,--what would
their answers be? Eddington, Jeans, Einstein, and Whitehead would answer
these questions exactly as would the most militant atheists.
The mental attitude of these men can best be explained when one
considers certain similarities between theological asceticism and
scientific asceticism. And it is the duty of the freethinker clearly to
point out why this confusion has arisen. During the ages of faith, the
world beheld a swarm of men and women who retired from the grim
realities of a world which at that time was made abhorrent to all
sensitive men by the most exacting insistence of theologians that
"faith" was the all necessary ingredient of life, and that closed its
eyes completely to the degrading actualities of life that this
insistence led to. Multitudes of men retired to the desert and to the
protective walls of monasteries. There, by constant privations,
fastings, continual prayer, flagellation, and introspection, they spent
their lives. These ascetic individuals by these means were enabled to
enter what may be called a "theologic trance" and their subsequent
hallucinations, illusions, and delusions gave to them what they deemed
to be a transcendental insight into the construction of the universe
and what was expected between "fallen" and debased man and his
omnipotent creator. These men keenly apprehended what some today, in a
gentler age, have called "cosmic consciousness."
I do not mean to imply that these before-mentioned scientists have
applied such a rigor to their lives. What is meant to be stated is that
these men by their research and comprehension of the vastness of the
universe stand in awe and fear before this brain-benumbing aspect.
Modern astrophysics, to one who attempts to comprehend its vastness,
imposes on the mind but a faint comprehension of the vastness of the
universe in space, time, and size; but imposes a deep conviction of the
infinitesimal meaning of our planet Earth, both as to size and its
relation to the millions of related heavenly bodies. The evolution of
man on our planet in this broad conception of space and time is most
infinitesimal. It has been just a few hours ago in this widened
conception of time that Halley's comet was excommunicated from the skies
by Pope Calixitus III, who looked upon this comet as one of unheard-of
magnitude and from the tail of which was flung down upon the earth,
disease, pestilence, and war.
Most certainly the minds of Jeans and Eddington carry in their recesses
a vast amount of knowledge that was not common to men living in 1456,
the year in which the above-mentioned comet caused such consternation.
Much as one admires the superiority of the minds of these present-day
physicists, yet one cannot help but think that if our present rate of
progress meets no serious obstacle, then in another five hundred years,
the attitude of awe of Jeans and Eddington towards the vastness of our
universe will be held in some similar position to which Jeans and
Eddington now hold the misguided conception of Halley's comet in the
year 1456. The mind of man is just beginning to emerge from its
swaddling clothes and we cannot assume to judge what its broadest
capabilities may be. Certain great modern minds, therefore, when they
contemplate this vastness of astrophysics are apt to dwell a bit too
literally on the "music of the heavenly spheres," and under the
influence of these celestial harmonies fall into the trance of
scientific asceticism. Men who can no longer seriously hold to a belief
in an anthropomorphic god, the soul and immortality are apt to allow
themselves when in this mood to emotionalize their knowledge; and these
same men are the ones who would in their scientific endeavors be the
first to eliminate all emotions from their reasoning efforts in their
laboratories. One seems justified, therefore, in stating that this
conception of "cosmic consciousness" is but another instance of the mere
illusions of a craving heart.
Discussing the question as to whether science and religion conflict, the
physicist Professor Bazzoni, of the University of Pennsylvania, in a
recent work "Energy and Matter," makes the following pointed comment:
"Some scientists resort to metaphysics and make contact with a kind of
mysticism which may be taken for a religious belief at precisely that
point where ignorance prevents further progress along sound scientific
lines. The primitive medicine man appealed to the gods to explain the
precipitation of rain and the phase changes of the moon, and some modern
scientists appeal to metaphysics and mysticism to explain the limits of
the infinite and the nature of electricity."
He further cautions theologians against placing undue emphasis on the
opinions of scientists when they express their minds on religious
topics, and he remarks: "They (the laity) should realize that in the
spiritual field the opinion of an eminent scientist has exactly the
same weight as the opinion of any other cultivated and thoughtful
individual."
When the scientist examines with the impartial mind of the laboratory
the science of the origin of religious beliefs and delves into the
complicated intricacies of religious history, he becomes as convinced as
any other thoughtful individual that the facts of science and history
are deadly to religion. Moreover, as man contemplates the construction
and forces at work in the universe he still must exclaim, "end,
beginning, or purpose, it knows not of."
The theologians are devoting a great deal of their time to the writings
of physicists who venture into the field of theology. It may be that in
this manner they can divert attention from the drastic findings
concerning all religious beliefs that the anthropologists and
psychologists are patiently accumulating. "Many physicists and
biologists like Pupin, Millikan, Oliver Lodge, J. Arthur Thomson, and
Henry Fairfield Osborn, have recently blossomed forth as liberal
theologians. They are still emotionally attached to the older religious
faith. They are aware that modern physics and biology have abandoned
doctrines that once were hostile to religious claims. They, therefore,
proclaim that there is no further conflict between religion and science.
In so doing, however, they show themselves abysmally ignorant of all
that anthropology and psychology have done to study religion and
religious man scientifically. They show their ignorance of the
philosophy that has built upon such data. They do not realize that the
present-day conflict between religious faith and science is no longer
with a scientific explanation of the world, but with a scientific
explanation of religion." (_J. H. Randall and J. H. Randall, Jr.:
"Religion and the Modern World."_)
The cultured Greeks and Romans had their omnipotent gods and these have
long ago died a death of ridicule. At a time when beauty and sculpture
were at their height the religion of these ancient artists was absurd.
Similarly, with some of our modern scientists, their religion has not
kept pace with their intellect. Their emotions have overbalanced their
reason in this field. Professor H. Levy, of the University of London,
tersely remarks: "The assertion of contemporary scientists, who state
that the universe is a fickle collection of indeterminate happenings,
and a great thought in the Mind of its Architect, a Pure Mathematician,
serves merely to divert the activity of the scientific brain from its
concentration on the contradictions and confusions of the all too real
outward world to a state of passive and unreal contemplation."
(_Professor H. Levy: "The Universe of Science."_)
Among the theologians, some at least have learned the futility of waxing
indignant at each new scientific hypothesis that encroached, as they
thought, within their domain. A great many liberal theologians have as
yet not learned the extreme danger to their theology in grasping at some
concept of science that for the present moment does not appear to be
detrimental to their theology, or, as they think, seems to bolster up
their particular creed. "The enthusiasm aroused in certain theological
circles by recent developments in mathematical physics," states Dr. M.
C. Otto, "seems to me to indicate just one thing, that these theologians
felt themselves to be in so desperate a state that a floating straw
assumed the appearance of a verdure-clad island. I am of the opinion
that all persons who would work for a more decent and happy existence
for themselves and for their fellows must turn their backs upon religion
just to the extent that religious leadership seeks spiritual renewal in
these hallucinations of despair." (_Drs. Wieman, Macintosh, and Otto:
"Is There a God?"_)
It is only proper to point out that what certain emancipated minds are
trying to reconstruct as a basis of religious belief is not what is held
by the masses as their conception of religion. In a recent clear and
frank statement of the religious revolution, John Herman Randall and
John Herman Randall, Jr., state: "Such beliefs, even so fundamental a
one as belief in God, must stand their chances with the philosophic
interpretation men give their experience.... The really revolutionary
effect of the scientific faith, so far as religion is concerned, has
been not its new view of the world, but its new view of religion.
Reinterpretations of religious belief have been unimportant compared
with reinterpretations of religion itself. For those who have come to
share the scientific world-view, even more for those who have absorbed
the spirit of scientific inquiry, it has been impossible to view
religion as a divine revelation entrusted to man. It has even been
impossible to see it as a relation between man and a cosmic deity.
Religion has rather appeared a human enterprise, an organization of
human life, an experience, a social bond, and an inspiration." (_J. H.
Randall and J. H. Randall, Jr.: "Religion and the Modern World."_) To
the man who literally entreats his deity, "Our Father, who art in
Heaven, grant us our daily bread," the above reinterpretation of what is
meant by religion can have no meaning. To the cultivated mind that
comprehends what is meant, the above interpretation is what he conceives
of as his social secular activities for the betterment of his fellowmen.
A living philosophy of life is a much better name for this attitude than
is the misnomer "religion," and avoids a great deal of confusion.
Some of our "scientists on a holiday," as they have been facetiously
called when they stepped into a field in which they had not become well
acquainted with the ground, have proceeded to lend assurance that God
_is_ by subtracting so drastically from what is generally attributed to
the conception of God, that there is nothing much left to what they
conceive as what God _means_. They have stripped the conception of what
has been heretofore regarded as fundamental, namely, the conception that
God is a superhuman personality or mind.
In Mr. Whitehead's philosophy, God is spoken of as, "God is not
concrete, but He is the ground for concrete actuality." I believe such
confusion of language may have been in the mind of Dr. M. C. Otto when
he remarked: "Some persons endeavor more than ever to make necessary
distinctions to keep meanings as clear as possible; and to have an eye
on the tendency of language to become its own object. Other persons
repudiate these obligations. They act as if it were a virtue to love
darkness rather than light if your intentions are good. Under their
manipulations conceptions are dimmed or replaced by vague intimations.
One boundary line after another is obliterated until the whole substance
of things swims in mists."
History has illustrated that the greatest source of evil on this planet
has arisen from the fact that physical phenomena for which our limited
mental capacities were not able to formulate a logical solution, were
ascribed to preternatural causes.
From this original stem arose religion and the Church, the two greatest
obstacles which have been a burden to mankind for 2000 years and a
barrier to all progress which has made life endurable and desirable.
The lower man is in the scale of civilization, the more does he call in
the supernatural to explain all the happenings and experiences of his
life. When he had been beset by an intellectual failure he had been
thrown back to religion. Lacking the courage and mental capacity to
proceed further against obstacles he succumbed to the drug of religious
explanations. The need was not for a narcotic, but for a stimulant.
The mental stimulant was provided for man in the form of science.
Science is but organized knowledge, and it is this knowledge that has
elevated man to the position where he is now, his own god. When
difficulties confront him in this age, he blames them upon his own
ignorance and incompetence. And, when he sets about to overcome these
difficulties, he does not rely on divine revelation or supernatural aid
or on miracles; he relies on his reason. He knows that when a problem
eludes his mental capacity, it is not the supernatural which eludes him
but some natural force, some law which he has not been able to grasp as
yet. There is no resignation in this attitude; only resolute, peaceful
patience. The problem that he cannot solve at present will yield to his
reason eventually. The ecclesiastic is well aware that science is his
natural and implacable enemy. He knows that every time the bounds of
exact knowledge are widened, the domain of religion is narrowed.
Man's knowledge of the universe is still incomplete, but it is certainly
more complete than it was fifty years ago; and when we consider what
that knowledge was a few thousand years ago, it is no breach of logic to
state that all natural processes, in the course of time, will be brought
into the confines of invariable laws.
Sir Arthur Keith clearly states: "The ancient seeker, to explain the
kingdom of life, with man as its Regent, had to call in the miracle of
creation. The modern seeker finds that although life has the appearance
of the miraculous, yet all its manifestations can be studied and
measured, and that there is a machinery at work in every living thing
which shapes, evolves, and creates. His inquiries have led him to
replace the miracle of creation by the laws of evolution.
"Whichever department of the realm of Nature the man of science has
chosen for investigation, the result has always been the same; the
supernatural has given place to the natural, superstition is succeeded
by reason. The world has never had such armies of truth seekers as it
now has. Those equipped with ladders of science have so often scaled the
walls which surround cities of ignorance that they march forward in the
sure faith that none of Nature's battlements are impregnable."
In the last analysis, if we reach a point in thinking where we cannot
proceed further, a fathomless landmark, must we revert to the
theological error of "thinking," and assume it must be of supernatural
character? Because the unknown in the past has been assigned to the
supernatural is no indication for us also, in the present age, to
relegate the unknown to divine cause. It is unseemly that minds that
have emancipated themselves should go just so far--as far as _their own
reason_ can explain the unknown--and when their limited reason can go no
further to revert back to the primitive stage where solution is
considered impossible to man save it be "revealed to him by God." If
man's mind is free, if no coercion of any kind is placed on its
exercise, it will expand and unravel what at present is still
fathomless. Give man endless centuries and ample opportunities and he
will unravel the miracles of development and growth just as he has done
other miracles which at first seemed impossible of rational solution.
For how much longer will man be a slave to his inferiority complex with
regard to his own rational capacities? If faith is vital to man, why not
relate it to that which at least holds a promise of solution? Man's mind
has not as yet arrived at the point which might give even the slightest
indication of its ultimate exhaustion. We cannot assume the knowledge of
what man's fullest capacities are. All things must unravel themselves
with the progress of his mind, those things that he cannot explain now,
he must not assign to a superhuman force; man must use his reasoning
faculties to investigate and search for the truth so that these unknown
may become part of the known.
Again to quote Sir Arthur Keith: "Only eighty years have come and gone
since the anatomist obtained his first glimpse of the structural
complexity of the human brain; it will take him eight thousand years and
more to find out the exact part played by every departmental unit of
this colossal system of government which carries on the mental life of a
human being. _We have no reason to think there is anything supernatural
in its manifestation._ As our knowledge of the brain accumulates, the
names and terms we now use will give place to others which have a more
precise meaning. In our present state of ignorance we have to use
familiar and loose terms to explain the workings of the brain--such
words as "soul," "spirit," "heart," "superstition," and "prejudice."
These manifestations of the mind will be dissected and made
understandable."
Science has as yet not fully explained the origin of life on earth, but
there is reason to believe that it will do so in the future. The laws
governing the production of life itself are under investigation in the
laboratories and it is highly probable that this law will be unraveled
at some future date. It will be interesting for our posterity to witness
the confusion of the ecclesiastics and their attempted confirmation of
this fact in the Bible; their finding of some obscure phrase that will
be interpreted by them as a prediction of the fact in the Bible.
The theists have maintained, as we have seen, many false beliefs that
have cost the lives of innumerable men and suffering incalculable;
beliefs which they themselves have subsequently recognized as false but
relinquished only by the onslaught of rising secular knowledge. It was
the ecclesiastic who pointed to the God-dictated phrase, "Thou shalt not
suffer a witch to live," and the various precepts that have been
enumerated in the preceding chapters. Surely sufficient evidence has
been noted to convince a thinking being that reason is a better guide
than theism. Belief is the antithesis of reason; reason is rationality;
religious belief is clearly mental abnormality.
If a religionist is asked what he thinks of a secular institution which
vigorously condemns and persecutes inquiry, experiment, and truth, he
will reply with the logical answer. When it is pointed out to him that
religion has done and still is doing this, he will hem and haw until he
manufactures some illogical answer. It has been stated that the more we
think, the less we believe; and that the less we think, the more we
believe. The Christian will analyze the creed of the Mohammedan and find
it ridiculous; the Mohammedan analyzes the creed of the Christian and in
turn finds it ridiculous. That is thinking. But does the Mohammedan or
the Christian analyze as critically each his own belief? Will he
endeavor to analyze it at all? That is believing. The ecclesiastic
concerns himself not with truth or knowledge; it is creed which is his
shrine. He definitely is at war with knowledge and he wants to learn
only such things as fit in with his preconceived notions and prejudices.
When the minds of men are from infancy perverted with these ideals, how
can mankind build a virile race?
It is often asserted that the alleged universality of the belief in God
is an argument for its truth. But what of the fact that men had
everywhere come to the conclusion that the earth was flat, and yet a
wider and truer knowledge proved that universal belief to be false! In
the discussion of witchcraft, it has been shown that a delusion may be
as widespread as a truth. During the tenth and eleventh centuries, the
Spanish Moors had recognized the sphericity of the earth and were
teaching geography from globes in their common schools. Rome, during the
same ages, was asserting in all its absurdity the flatness of the earth.
It was not until almost five hundred years later that Rome was forced to
see its absurdity and then only when the enlightened world mocked at its
error.
In this twentieth century, certain enlightened men are teaching the
absurdity and harmfulness of a belief in a deity. Must it take five
hundred years for all mankind to come to a similar conclusion? May it
not well be that in a few centuries our posterity will view belief in a
deity in the same light that we in this age view the Church's insistence
that the earth was flat?
The God idea has been one of the most divisive and anti-social notions
cherished by mankind. In fact it has been asserted that the idea of God
has been the enemy of man. It has driven multitudes of men and women
into the unnatural asceticisms and wasted lives of the convent and
abbey. It has taxed the economic resources of every nation. Every
church, no matter of what creed, is a pathetic monument of God-ridden
humanity which has been built by the pennies sweated by the poor, and
wrested from them by fraudulent promises of reward, appeals to fear, and
the pathetic human tendency to sacrifice.
The theologians have in their arguments resorted to philosophy. The
consequence of this transference of the idea of God to the sphere of
philosophy is the curious position that the god in which people believe
is not the god whose existence is made the product of an experimental
argument, and the god of the argument is not the god of belief.
"It is a nice question," remarks Walter Lippmann, "whether the use of
God's name is not misleading when it is applied by modernists to ideas
so remote from the God men have worshipped. Plainly the modernist
churchman does not believe in the God of Genesis who walked in the
garden in the cool of the evening and called for Adam and his wife who
had hidden themselves behind a tree; nor in the God of Exodus who
appeared to Moses and Aaron and seventy of the Elders of Israel,
standing with his feet upon a paved walk as if it were a sapphire stone;
nor even in the God of the fifty-third chapter of Isaiah who in his
compassion for the sheep who had gone astray, having turned everyone to
his own way, laid on the Man of Sorrows the iniquity of us all."
(_Walter Lippmann: "A Preface to Morals."_)
It is one kind of god that is being set up in argument, and it is really
another god that is being depended upon and believed. The philosophical
conception of a deity that may be in control of phenomena is an
impersonal physical law, and has nothing to do with the conception of a
personal deity to whom people pray for active intervention in their
troubles. Religious belief is a monstrous apparition; the philosophy of
atheism is a solid structure laboriously founded on solid rock.
The philosophy of atheism had temporarily failed in previous ages, since
the knowledge of those ages did not furnish facts enough upon which to
build. At the present, although our knowledge is far from complete and
the surface has only been scratched, yet sufficient facts have been
unearthed to reveal that there is no supernatural and the greatest hope
of advancement lies in the philosophy of atheism. A philosophy that
builds upon a foundation of purely secular thought, that leaves the
idea of God completely discarded as a useless and false relic of bygone
days, is the essence of atheism. "Atheism is more than the speculative
philosophy of a few, that it is in sober truth the logical outcome of
mental growth. So far as any phase of human life can be called
inevitable, atheism may lay claim to being inescapable. All mental
growth can be seen leading to it, just as we can see one stage of social
development giving a logical starting point for another stage, and which
could have been foretold had our knowledge of all the forces in
operation been precise enough. Atheism is, so to speak, implicit in the
growth of knowledge, its complete expression is the consummation of a
process that began with the first questionings of religion. And the
completion of the process means the death of supernaturalisms in all
forms. Circumstances may obstruct its universal acceptance as a reasoned
mental attitude, but that merely delays, it does not destroy the
certainty of its final triumph." (_C. Cohen._)
The philosophy of atheism leads man to a critical, analytical, and
logical examination of his environment, and it is this that has lead to
all of our advances. Religion creates a stunted standard of reasoning.
The pathetic cry of St. Augustine, "But if I was shapen in iniquity, and
in sin did my mother conceive me, where I pray thee, O my God, where,
Lord, or when was I, thy servant innocent?" typifies the major concern
of the narrow, egotistical mystic. From the time that the ideas of the
later Greek philosophers had been forgotten until the present time, man
has floundered in a sea of supernaturalism. It is high time that man
faced his realities with fortitude in his own mentality, and when he
does this, there will be produced a race of men who will seek for truth,
for truth's sake, a race of supermen who will lead the world
intellectually.
It is to Russia that all eyes will turn in the next few generations. At
the present, she is going through the throes of childbirth. She is
immature, and as a child she staggers. The abuse and ridicule heaped
upon her now is but the repetition of that given by all frightened
societies of past ages, when they contemplated new ideas which their
immature minds could not fathom. But Russia will emerge in the not too
distant future, and the infant will shortly reach maturity; and that
maturity may set a standard for those timid and frightened societies
that at present look with dilated eyes upon her daring.
The age is approaching when the god idea in its entirety will be classed
with the gods of the Egyptians and Babylonians, when surplices and
sacramental plate will be exhibited in museums; when nurses will relate
to children the legends of the Christian mythology, as they now tell
them fairy tales. The gods of monotheism will join the gods of
polytheism and Yahveh and his associates will occupy in the minds of men
the position now held by the gods of Olympus. To our ancestors Jupiter
and Yahveh will have the same significance. "In a little time the
cathedrals and churches will have taken upon themselves the proud,
poetical glamour of abandoned temples. Men and women will enter them
with reverent indulgence as they now in meditative mood visit the few
remaining pantheons of the pagan worship." (_Llewelyn Powys_: "_An Hour
On Christianity._")
The age is approaching when the current idea of the hereafter will be
accounted a strange and selfish idea, just as we smile at the savage
chief who believes that his station will be continued in the world
beneath the ground, and that he will there be attended by his concubines
and slaves. The age is fast approaching when love, not fear, will unite
the human race. In that age, the _ideal_, not the _idol_, will be truth,
and the one faith, not religion, but a sincere and lofty conception of
the dignity and resourcefulness of the human mind; and an overwhelming
desire to aid in the progress of all mankind, the extinction of disease,
the perfection of genius, the perfection of love, and, therefore, the
abolition of war, the exploration of the infinite, and the conquest of
creation.
Such an age can never come to be during the maljurisdiction of a
theistic philosophy. It can only come into being when the vast majority
of men are by the force of advancing knowledge made aware of the truth
of the atheistic philosophy.
An English observer, C. E. M. Joad, remarks: "The churches, no doubt,
will continue to function for a time, but they will be attended
increasingly, and in the end exclusively, by ignorant men, women, and
children. Already, a stranger attending an average church of England
service would almost be justified in assuming that the churches, like
theatre matinees, were kept up for the benefit of women and children. So
far as present indications go, it seems not unlikely that science will
deliver the coup de grace to organized Christianity within the next
hundred years."
We have caught a glimpse of what theism has done, and what the
philosophy of atheism might have done, and will yet achieve. Has man
profited by having remained in his mental infancy so long? Atheism is an
emancipating system of thought that frees the mind from myths, fables,
and childish fancies. There can be no inquisition, no witchcraft
delusion, no religious wars, no persecutions of one sect by another, no
impediment to science and progress, no stultification of the mind, as a
result of its teachings.
The philosophy of atheism teaches man to stand on his own feet, instills
confidence in his reasoning powers, and forces him to conquer his
environment. It teaches him not to subject himself and debase himself
before mythical superhuman powers, for his reason is his power. The
march from faith to reason is the march on which dwells the future hope
of a really civilized mankind.
Atheism teaches man to endeavor constantly to better his own condition
and that of all of his fellowmen, to make his children wiser and
happier; it supplies the powerful urge to add something new to the
knowledge of mankind. And all this, not in the vain hope of being
rewarded in another world, but from a pure sense of duty as a citizen of
nature, as a patriot of the planet on which he dwells. This is no cold
and cheerless philosophy; it is an elevating and ennobling ideal which
may console him in his afflictions and teach him how to live and how to
die. It is a self-reliant philosophy that makes a man intellectually
free, and this mental emancipation allows him to face the world without
fear of ghosts and gods. It relates solely to facts, while theism
resorts to opinions that are grounded only upon emotionalism. Joseph
Lewis has well noted that, "Atheism does not believe that man's mission
on earth is to love and glorify God, but it does believe in living this
life so that when you pass on, the world will be better for your having
lived."
The history of the past ages informs us what the world was like with
God. The progress of secular knowledge and science have given us
measures by which we could produce a better society than has ever
existed under the obstructionism of the Gods.
"The knowledge exists by which universal happiness can be secured, the
chief obstacle to its utilization for that purpose is the teaching of
religion. Religion prevents our children from having a rational
education; religion prevents us from removing the fundamental causes of
war; religion prevents us from teaching the ethics of scientific
cooperation in place of the old fierce doctrines of sin and punishment.
It is possible that mankind is on the threshold of a golden age, but if
so, it will be necessary to slay the dragon that guards the door, and
this dragon is religion." (_Bertrand Russell._)
It is interesting to contemplate the changes that may occur in our
civilization in the next few centuries. On the one hand we have that
long period of sterile time, 15,000 years, for the stage of neolithic
man, and on the other the vast material progress of the past three
hundred years. We may not be able to discern with clarity in what
direction changes will occur, but in one aspect we can discern a
well-marked tendency. That is the inevitable conquest of the philosophy
of atheism. And with this conquest can be clearly seen that it would
give to this earth a much sounder foundation upon which to build our
progress, and that long-delayed freedom, the emancipation of the mind
from all myths and fables. The inevitableness of atheism has been well
summed up by Chapman Cohen:
"Looking at the whole course of Human History, and noting how the vilest
and most ruinous practices have been ever associated with religion, and
have ever relied upon religion for support, the cause for speculation
is, not what will happen to the world when religion dies out, but how
human society has managed to flourish while the belief in the Gods
ruled....
"Substantially, we have by searching found out God. We know the origin
and history of one of the greatest delusions that ever possessed the
human mind. God has been found out; analytically and synthetically we
understand the God-idea as previous generations could not understand it.
It has been explained, and the logical consequence of the explanation is
Atheism."
Man is fast attaining a mastery of his environment, and his religious
creeds are becoming as irrational to him as the witchcraft delusion.
Religion with its burden of fear ties him to the dead ages. But
knowledge not only supplies him with power, but also furnishes him with
courage, and that courage will aid him in freeing himself from that
fear--religion. Religion is doomed to occupy the same place in history
as the institution of slavery. Lies and imposture, no matter how
powerfully sustained, can be dispelled by knowledge. The Church will
destroy itself with its own poison. Knowledge and courage spell the doom
of religion.