The Necessity of Atheism

witchcraft became continually stronger, till any anecdote which involved
the intervention of the Devil was on that account generally ridiculed.
This spirit was exhibited especially among those whose habits of thought
were most secular, and whose minds were least governed by authority."

But the belief did not become extinguished immediately. In France, in
1850, the Civil Tribunal of Chartres tried a man and woman named
Soubervie for having caused the death of a woman called Bedouret. They
believed she was a witch, and declared that the _priest_ had told them
she was the cause of an illness under which the woman Soubervie was
suffering. They accordingly drew Bedouret into a private room, held her
down upon some burning straw, and placed a red-hot iron across her
mouth. The unhappy woman soon died in extreme agony. The Soubervies
confessed, and indeed, exulted in their act. At their trials they
obtained the highest possible characters. It was shown that they had
been actuated solely by superstition, and it was urged that they only
followed the highest ecclesiastical precedent. The jury recommended them
to mercy, and they were only sentenced to pay twenty-five francs a year
to the husband of the victim, and to be imprisoned for four months. In
1850!!

A great many may remember the "Hex" murder case near Lancaster,
Pennsylvania, in 1930! This is scarcely different from an incident which
had occurred in 1892 in Wemding, Germany: An hysterical woman was
"exorcised" by the Capuchin Father Aurelian, who accused a peasant woman
of bewitching him.

       *       *       *       *       *

The foregoing has shown that witchcraft is not an isolated incident in
the history of Christianity, as the ecclesiastics would have us believe,
but is a vital part of their religion. Witchcraft bears the same
relation to Christianity that an arm bears to the body; neither can be
removed without destroying the symmetrical aspect of the whole.

Witchcraft is an integral part of the Christian religion, but its
falsity has become so obvious that even the most devout have had to
abandon it. Yet the other precepts are still maintained; and in the
Bible which is claimed to be infallible, something is forgotten and
discarded, something is declared to be ridiculous. And yet they call the
Bible infallible. Again, if witchcraft is given up, why not the chief
witch of the Bible, the Devil? Yet if this be yielded, then the idea of
Atonement, the central doctrine of the Christian Church, must also go.

"Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live." If this be God's word, did God
err when He said it? If He erred, He probably did so in many other
things; if He did not Christians must either still maintain the
Witchcraft Delusion or deny the Bible Delusion.

The Witchcraft Delusion is denied and forgotten, and no one thinks of
quoting, "Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live." But the Bible Delusion
despite all manner of ecclesiastical sophistry still maintains that man
was created miraculously some 6000 years ago from the dust of the earth,
that woman was made from a bone taken from the side of man, that
language came into existence in the course of a single night, that God
instituted a horrible massacre of the people by drowning because they
did not come up to his expectations. It maintains miracles, virgin
births, resurrections from the dead, and a literal heaven and hell.

Again, in the New Testament, Matthew tells how the chief magician of the
New Testament, Jesus, exorcised the devils from men and drove them into
swine. What could be more explicit? If men were possessed of devils in
Jesus' time, what has happened to these devils now? Surely, Jesus could
not misinterpret his own words or deeds, if the religionists contend
that we are now misinterpreting the Bible? If they state that his
recorders were in error, then they admit the error of the entire Bible,
for it is illogical for one part to be true and another to be false,
when both are components of an infallible statement.

"But they who abandon belief in maleficent demons and in witches as
also, for this follows, in beneficent agents, such as angels, find
themselves in a serious dilemma. For to this are such committed: If
Jesus who came that he might destroy the Devil, and who is reported,
among other proofs of his divine ministry, to have cast out demons from
the 'possessed human beings,' and in one case, to have permitted a
crowd of infernal agents to enter into a herd of swine; if he verily
believed that he did these things, and if it be true that the belief is
a superstition limited to the ignorant or barbaric mind, then what value
can be attached to any statement that Jesus is reported to have made
about the spiritual world?" (_Edward Clodd: "Pioneers of Evolution."_)

The old adage that a chain is just as strong as its weakest link is very
apt in this case. A belief in witches is part of the Bible; and if the
civilized world rejects that concept, it must reject the Bible, for it
is no longer infallible, since it is in error.

Disregarding the internal evidence which declares the Bible to be
spurious, and the scientific advances which have proven the Bible to be
a myth and a fable, if man still insists on "revealed religion" he must
admit that sorcery and witchcraft are an integral part of the Bible
teaching. He must still either believe in witchcraft or disbelieve all
of the Bible. For again, one part cannot be true and another false of an
infallible statement.

I thoroughly and emphatically agree with John Wesley who, in 1769,
wrote, "The English in general, and indeed most of the men of learning
in Europe, have given up all accounts of witches and apparitions as mere
old wives' fables. I am sorry for it, and I willingly take this
opportunity of entering my solemn protest against this violent
compliment which so many that believe in the Bible pay to those who do