The Necessity of Atheism

not believe it. I owe them no such service. I take knowledge that these
are at the bottom of the outcry which has been raised, and with such
insolence spread through the land, in direct opposition, not only to the
Bible, but to the suffrage of the wisest and best of men in all ages and
nations. They well know (whether Christians know it or not) _that the
giving up of witchcraft is in effect giving up the Bible_."

Lecky, in that masterful work, "The Rise and Influence of Rationalism in
Europe," from which I have so freely quoted, states, "A disbelief in
ghosts and witches was one of the most prominent characteristics of
Scepticism in the seventeenth century. Yet, for more than fifteen
hundred years it was universally believed that the Bible established in
the clearest manner, the validity of the crime, and that an amount of
evidence, so varied and so ample as to preclude the very possibility of
doubt, attested its continuance and its prevalence.... In our own day,
it may be said with confidence, that it would be altogether impossible
for such an amount of evidence to accumulate around a conception which
has no substantial basis in fact."

And yet today, in the twentieth century, we do have an amount of
"evidence" accumulated around a conception which had no substantial
basis of fact. What a perfect analogy presents itself between one
precept of revealed religion and religion in its entirety. In the
seventeenth century, scepticism confined itself to a disbelief in
witchcraft, one particular of revealed religion; in the twentieth
century, scepticism expands and reveals the absurdity of all revealed
religion. Just as when we read the annals of witchcraft today we sicken
with the horror of this insane conception, so will posterity in the none
too distant future, perhaps three more centuries, do for _all religion_
what three centuries did for witchcraft. Just so will they regard
revealed religion in its entirety as we look upon the one factor, the
_Witchcraft Delusion_.

Men came gradually to disbelieve in witchcraft because they learned
gradually to look upon it as absurd. This new tone of thought appeared
first of all in those who were least subject to theological influences,
and soon spread through the educated laity, and last of all, took
possession of the clergy. So shall it be with all religions.

A belief that was held for 1500 years, in the comparatively
insignificant period of 100 years, sinks into oblivion; for the last
judicial execution occurred in Switzerland in 1782; and the last law on
the subject, the Irish Statute, was repealed in 1821. It is not,
therefore, too much of a stretch of the imagination to conceive what the
inhabitants of this planet will think of all religion 300 years from
now. We have the sterling example of the Witchcraft Delusion before us.
Yes, despite the otherwise brilliant men of today who still maintain the
Bible Delusion, and the "Hedgers," that group of religious apologists
who form those various sects, such as the Unitarians, the Humanists,
etc. They are but the middle ground; they are but the intermediate
between the delusionists and those that maintain the philosophy that
eventually must triumph, the philosophy of atheism. When we think back
to that group of capable men headed by Bodin, Gerson, and Joseph
Glanvil, who turned their ability and learning to the defense of the
Witchcraft Delusion, we find the answer to that ever-present response
which the confused of this age give when confronted with the
incompatabilities in their religion, namely, "Oh, well, more brilliant
men than I believe in this delusion."

Bodin, Gerson, and Glanvil could not bolster up a dying belief; and the
Bodins, Gersons, and Glanvils of today cannot long bolster up the dying
belief in all religions ... no matter what their ability or capacities
may be. The handwriting is on the wall; the past teaches us what the
future may be, but there is still much work to be done.




CHAPTER XIII

RELIGION AND MORALITY

    _The current religion is indirectly adverse to morals, because it is
    adverse to the freedom of the intellect. But it is also directly
    adverse to morals by inventing spurious and bastard virtues._

    WINWOOD READE, "Martyrdom of Man."


It had been formerly asserted by theologians that our moral laws were
given to man by a supernatural intuitive process. However, Professor E.
A. Westermarck's "Origin and Development of the Moral Ideas," and
similar researches, give a comprehensive survey of the moral ideas and
practices of all the backward fragments of the human race and
conclusively prove the social nature of moral law. The moral laws have
evolved much the same as physical man has evolved. There is no
indication whatsoever that the moral laws came from any revelation since
the sense of moral law was just as strong amongst civilized peoples
beyond the range of Christianity, or before the Christian era. Joseph
McCabe, commenting on Professor Westermarck's work states, "All the fine
theories of the philosophers break down before this vast collection of
facts. There is no intuition whatever of an august and eternal law, and
the less God is brought into connection with these pitiful blunders and
often monstrous perversions of the moral sense, the better. What we see
is just man's mind in possession of the idea that his conduct must be
regulated by law, and clumsily working out the correct application of
that idea as his intelligence grows and his social life becomes more
complex. It is not a question of the mind of the savage imperfectly
seeing the law. It is a plain case of the ideas of the savage reflecting
and changing with his environment and the interest of his priests."