The Necessity of Atheism

The savage made sacrifices to his idols, that is, he paid tribute,
chiefly out of fear, but partly in the hope of getting something better
in return. The modern does not offer human or animal sacrifice, it is
true; but it must be borne in mind that the wealth of the savage
consisted of his sheep, oxen, oils, and wines, not money. Today, the
devout offer a sacrifice of money to the Deity. We are all familiar with
the requests of religious institutions for gifts, which nearly always
finish with the phrase, "And the Lord will repay you many fold." In
other words, sacrifice part of your worldly goods to the idol, and he
will repay with high interest. He will give in return long life and much
riches. The savage was afraid to utter the real name of his god, it was
taboo. The modern says, "Take not the name of the Lord in vain." Even
today, the followers of Moses consider it taboo to utter the name of
Jehovah except in prayer.

The present-day methods of worship are no different from those of the
savage; the method of supplication has changed with the advance of the
years, but the fundamental ideas at the base of all worship are just as
crude today as they were 4000 years ago. Primitive man was no more a
fetishist than is the modern Catholic. The latter still wears medals and
images suspended from the neck and pinned to the inner clothing.

Moreover, a survey of the various religions extant indicates that the
religious factor is no less prevalent today than it was in primitive
societies.

In Greenland, one finds, that through nearly all of its vast area
religion has no place, but that is chiefly the result of its being
largely uninhabited. In Alaska, the population is for the most part
Catholic, although the natives are animists. In Canada, 33 per cent are
Catholic, the rest are mainly Protestant. In the United States, 20 per
cent are Catholic, 3.5 per cent are Jewish, and the remainder are
Protestants. Mexico, Central and South America, are almost entirely
Roman Catholic. In Europe, Russia was until recently dominantly Greek
Orthodox; the Scandinavian peninsula, the English Isles, and Central
Europe are dominantly Protestant, while France, Portugal, Spain, Italy,
and the rest of the countries bordering the Mediterranean Sea are
Catholic. The rest of the continent is divided between Jews and
Mohammedans. In Asia, the entire vast area of Siberia is only sparsely
settled and its religions include Animism, Taoism, and Christianity. In
China, we find the land of three truths, Confucianism, Taoism, and
Buddhism. India, Tibet, and Burma are dominated by Hinduism and
Buddhism; Arabia, Persia, and the rest of the continent are Mohammedan.
In Japan, there are the Shintoists. The East Indies, where the
population is native, are Animistic. In Australia, the dominant religion
is Protestantism. In North Africa, the west coast inhabitants are
Mohammedans, while the Abyssinians are Christians. There are some Coptic
Christians, in Egypt, while in the Congo and South African countries
down to the Cape Settlements, the natives are Animists. The Cape
Settlements themselves are Protestants.

More concretely, it is estimated that 10.7% of the inhabitants of the
globe are Protestants; 16.2% are Catholics; 7.1% are Greek Orthodox; 10%
are Animists; 1.4% are Shintoists; 18.2% are Confucians and Taoists;
12.8% are Hindus; 8.4% are Buddhists; 13.4% are Moslems; and 1.8% are
Hebrews and unclassified sects. Truly, a religious babel! and 10% of all
the inhabitants of the globe, about the same number of people who
profess to Protestantism, are Animists. This is the lowest stage of
primitive religion, and millions of humans are still quagmired in the
sloth of a primitive faith which once must have been the faith of all
human beings.

The Mohammedan, the Jew, the Christian, will readily agree that the
animism, the fetishism, and idolatry of the savage were man-made foolish
beliefs. They can readily perceive that there was nothing supernatural,
nothing revealed, in such beliefs; but they do not realize that to him,
in his infantile development, the fetish and the idol were just as
supernatural and superior as the modern conception of a Supreme Being.
In each age man creates his god, in his own image, and within the
confines of his own mental development. The mind of man has expanded so
that it has conquered more and more of his environment; it has grown and
wrested from nature those secrets which constitute his civilization.
Along with this has progressed the conception of a deity, but only to a
certain extent. The mind has embellished the outward appearance of its
gods, consolidated them, and built upon them intricate systems of
theology, upon which feed vast hordes of clergy; but the basic
conception, the fundamental principle, that there must be something
supernatural to explain something which we cannot explain at the present
moment, that conception still drugs the mind of man. Primitive man did
not understand the meaning of lightning, thunder, shadows, echoes, etc.,
and he placed these among the supernatural phenomena. The modern mind
explains these phenomena, understands the laws governing their
production. Yet, it is this same modern mind which persists in going
back to our savage ancestors and their mental sloth, by attributing the
myriads of phenomena which still elude its present stage of mental
development, to a particular idol, this time, a Supreme Being.
Brahmanism, Jainism, Buddhism, Hinduism, Confucianism, Taoism,
Zoroastrianism, Hebrewism, Mohammedanism, Christianity--which is the
true religion?

Let us suppose for a moment that an inhabitant of Mars, if there be
such, were by a "miracle" to be transported to this earth and endowed
with the mental capacity of the average inhabitant of the earth (a thing
which perhaps would not be so flattering to our guest), were to be
approached by a zealot of each one of these faiths, who hoped to convert
this stranger to its ranks. Since the factor of coercion by force of
environment to which each of these earthlings was subject would
naturally be absent, the Martian would be in a position to make a fair
choice. How much would the visitor be impressed by the statements of the