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2212 lines
116 KiB
Plaintext
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34 page printout
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Reproducible Electronic Publishing can defeat censorship.
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This file, its printout, or copies of either
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are to be copied and given away, but NOT sold.
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Bank of Wisdom, Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201
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**** ****
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IS THE POSITION OF ATHEISM GROWING STRONGER?
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by Joseph McCabe
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HALDEMAN-JULIUS PUBLICATIONS
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GIRARD, KANSAS
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1936
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By E. Haldeman-Julius
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CHAPTER I
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THE ODDS AGAINST THE ATHEIST
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In my 'Rise and Fall of the Gods' (1931) I traced the weird
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and ever-changing belief in Gods from the days of man's infancy to
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our own time. I showed that at every period during the 5,000 years
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of history when men developed a higher culture Atheism appeared. We
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find it in ancient Egypt in spite of the scantiness of the literary
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remains and the despotic power of the priests. We see it so
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widespread in civilization 2,500 years ago that it takes a
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prominent place in history in the form of the Ionian philosophy of
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Greece and the ethic of Buddha and Confucius in Asia. Then there is
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the high cultural development of the Greek-Roman civilization, and
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from 300 B.C. to 300 A.D. we find the thinly veiled Atheism of the
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Stoics. Epicureans, and Skeptics accepted by the great majority of
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the better-educated. Atheism perishes again with the crass
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ignorance and clerical tyranny of the Iron Age, but it spreads
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widely in the light of the Arab-Persian civilization, wherever the
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fanatics are checked, and at the Renaissance it reappears in
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Christendom. The hardening of the religious attitude after the
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Reformation again cheeks it, but in the 18th Century it enters upon
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a development which has, in spite of murderous clerical tyranny in
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some countries, proceeded steadily ever since.
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On the strict ground of these historical facts, without taking
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account of personal valuations or hopes, I formulated the law that
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Atheism grows in proportion to the growth of knowledge and freedom.
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No law of history is more consistently revealed in the records. It
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follows that the 20th century ought to witness a development of
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Atheism immeasurably greater than has ever been known before. Our
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knowledge of realities is incomparably greater than the knowledge
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of any previous civilization: that knowledge is imparted to the
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mass of the people by a machinery of education which is as superior
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to that of the Greek-Roman as a giant Cunarder is to an ancient
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trireme: and it was understood that the heroic struggle of the last
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century had won for the world at large freedom of thought and
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expression. We shall now survey the world in an attempt to
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determine to what extent Atheism has grown. The task is difficult.
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Atheist organizations are so few and poor that there is no approach
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to a census of the number of Atheists throughout the world, while
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the name itself has been so changed in meaning by religious writers
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that a large proportion of the folk who are Atheists do not know it
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or are reluctant to admit it. The word is here taken in its
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Bank of Wisdom
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Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201
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1
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IS THE POSITION OF ATHEISM GROWING STRONGER?
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legitimate sense, which is supported by most of our leading
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dictionaries and invariably accepted by Atheist writers -- the men,
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one would say, who ought to know best -- as the proper designation
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of any man or woman who has no belief in any being or entity whom
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he or she calls God. In dictionary language it means "one who
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denies or disbelieves the existence of God."
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There is no census of such folk. Even in the few countries
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where a religious clause is inserted in the census-papers the
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results are, we shall see, apt to be grossly misleading, Except
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where Atheism is accepted as the creed of a definite political
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organization such as the Communists and, in some countries, the
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Socialists, it is so difficult to ascertain its strength in a
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community that for the compilation of this essay I have had
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practically no assistance from any other writer. Our post graduate
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research-students and professors seem at times to be running short
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of themes for those valuable monographs an contemporary life that
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they give us, but none cares to take up the exact study of one of
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the most startling phenomena of our age -- the rapid growth of
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Atheism. one knows why. In the circumstances, instead of imitating
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the round liberality of a religious organization when it publishes
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a statement of its membership, I will use here only such figures,
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besides those which are accepted statistics, as are plainly within
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the truth. Yet with this cautiousness of procedure I will now prove
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the truth of statements I have occasionally made on the matter
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which seem to startle many folk and to others seem incredible:
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That Atheism has grown in the last 10 years a hundred times
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more rapidly than any religion ever grew.
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That it is moderate to claim that there are considerably more
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than 200,000,000 Atheists today.
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That the growth has been checked only by fraudulent
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misrepresentations and savage persecution.
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That the growth is such that if freedom is again generally
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secured in the next 10 years we may justly expect Atheists to be
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more numerous than genuine Christians in 20 years.
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1. Our Meretricious Churches
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But if we would appreciate the full force and implication of
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these statements we must consider the difficulties that are put in
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the way of the spread of Atheism in all but one or two countries.
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In America and England, for instance, one imagines a quite honest
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religions person scoffing at my thesis and pointing out that
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religion looms larger in public life today than it did in the first
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two decades of the present century; that the appeal of its
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ministers was never louder and more penetrating. Undoubtedly: but
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only because the majority of the community are cynically
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indifferent about religion and permit the clergy to usurp a power
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out of all proportion to the number of their followers, and because
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the discrediting of what are called "religious evidences" and the
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rapid disintegration of the Churches themselves have driven the
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clergy to adopt new and noisier methods. Not even in the Middle
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Ages were Churches so elaborately organized as they are today; and,
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since accessions to the Churches from one great churchless body are
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Bank of Wisdom
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Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201
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2
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IS THE POSITION OF ATHEISM GROWING STRONGER?
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negligible in number in our time, a desperate effort is made to
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cheek the streams of secession and to camouflage the social and
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Intellectual failure. Religion was a reality when a church just
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opened its doors with silent dignity to admit men and women who
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felt an urge to worship. The noisier it becomes, with its braying
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out upon the ether, its publicity bureaus and camera men, and its
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boosting of its social attractions and entertainments, its pushing
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to the front at every civic ceremonial or public event, the more
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plainly it confesses its failure to appeal to either the intellect
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or the emotions of our time. It reveals itself as just a clerical
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corporation for the protection of an income of so many hundred
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million dollars a year.
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The amiable professor or "psychological" essayist who calls
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this a superficial view of the religious situation, who asks us to
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distinguish between religion and theology or to perceive, as he
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more wisely does, the difference between natural and institutional
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religion, may be invited to reflect upon one fact. 'The more nearly
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any religion or sect of our time approaches his standard of
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intellectual resectability, the less successful it is.' It is not
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Unitarianism, Modernism, or Theism that attracts the millions who
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quit the old Churches, but Bible Religion, Four-Square Gospel,
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Spiritualism, Christian Science, etc. The biggest Churches are
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still those that are richest in medieval stupidities. The most
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successful of them all in restricting its leakage, accumulating
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wealth, and usurping the power to bully people who do not belong to
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it, is the most medieval of them all. Of the, let. us say,
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40,000,000 Christians of America three-fourths are Fundamentalist.
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And the Churches hold such millions as they do by purveying to
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them a mixed diet of sacred and profane which their Jesus Christ
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would have drenched with the dregs of the Aramaic dictionary; by
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guarding their untruth with such dupery as I exposed in the last
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number; and by allying themselves, in every country where the
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alliance is offered, with Political adventurers who purchase their
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support by promising to crucify their critics for them. The first
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method is too familiar to need much comment. A church is now a
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social and recreational center with business methods of advertising
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its attractions. There is a foolish sort of person who asks us
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whether we suppose there are no longer genuine believers in Jesus
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who eagerly go to church to worship and to feel a sense of
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communion. Of course we grant the existence of very large bodies of
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such people. Whether even these, or how many of them, would retain
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their fervor if it were not for the untruth that is given them
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instead of science and genuine history is a question. But if the
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Churches had only, or mainly, such men and women to deal with, they
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would be content with the occasional chicken-supper or concert or
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picnic which is a time-honored concomitant of religious fellowship.
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They go leagues beyond these things today. They are no longer even
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content to have bright, brief, and brotherly services, with suave
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and natty floorwalkers at the door to pounce upon strangers.
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Typical of the modern procedure is an experience I had in New
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York when, after years of nervous misgiving, the late Billy Sunday
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made his fatal descent upon the metropolis. Next to me at the end
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of the row (on my other side was an Atheist lady-friend) was a very
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prosy New Yorker who had just been attracted by the heavily-
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Bank of Wisdom
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Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201
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3
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IS THE POSITION OF ATHEISM GROWING STRONGER?
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purchased publicity in the press and the report that Sunday's
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"personal magnetism" (which turned out to be as synthetic as the
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beauty of a manicurist) was worth seeing. But, when it came to
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taking the sawdust-trail, one of the ushers pressed my totally
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apathetic neighbor so warmly to "go up and shake hands with Dr.
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Sunday" that he went. Naturally he -- though he had been plainly
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disgusted at Sunday's exhibition of temper at the smallness of the
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collections -- was one of the hundreds of converts in the
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statistics issued.
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But everybody knows the tricks and desperate devices of a
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modern city-church: the catchy titles of sermons published in the
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press, the professional and often profane soloist, the occasional
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invitations to a base-ball player or ocean flier, the cinema, the
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wide fringe of social attractions from matrimonial (or other)
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possibilities to cheap meals, better trade, political jobbery, or
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social connections. The Catholic Church may reject some of these
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aids to devotion but it is all the more assiduous in showing in
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other ways the social and economic advantages of being a Catholic.
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Why, the churchgoers ask, should yon growl about it? We might
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almost reply that, on the contrary, we are glad to see it. At the
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very least it confesses the failure of the religious appeal.
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However, it is enough to note that, clearly, church-going is no
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longer evidence of Christian belief, and that it is not simply a
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set of doctrinal formularies that we now attack.
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2. The Intrigue for Wealth and Power
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Much more serious is the use of the new business-organization
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of the Churches to prevent free trade in truth. I have said that it
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is a law of history that Atheism grows with the growth of
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knowledge, and that we have now a marvelous machinery for
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transmitting our knowledge to all. But every part of this machinery
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-- the school, the public library, the press, the bookstore, the
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lecture-room, the radio -- can be used just as effectively for the
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dissemination of untruth as of truth, and the Churches, with their
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enormous wealth and power, have gained a very pernicious degree of
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control over the machinery. They complain of the hostility of
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Communists and Socialists, yet they know that today it is essential
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to their security that a social-political order in which they can
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intrigue for power shall be maintained. With the passing of
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Capitalism and large private fortunes they lose not only the
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greater part of their wealth and its immunity from taxation, but
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the power they now enjoy of controlling education (to a great
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extent), securing the service of the press, bullying publishers and
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booksellers, censoring public libraries, and -- in comparison with
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the Atheist -- monopolizing radio-instruction.
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The detailed evidence of this very extensive control of our
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educational facilities would fill a volume, but since it is
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unquestioned we need not linger. School-education, from the primary
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to the university, is jealously watched for anything that it
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considered "contrary to the interests of religion": which means
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that scientific and historical teaching is eviscerated or
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falsified. It is largely owing to the clergy, or the alliance of
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the Churches with capitalist governments, that education remains
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everywhere outside Russia and Turkey an unstimulating and very
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Bank of Wisdom
|
|||
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Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201
|
|||
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4
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IS THE POSITION OF ATHEISM GROWING STRONGER?
|
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|
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largely useless communication of facts that are irrelevant to the
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purposes of life. There are large cities like Boston where the
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Catholic Church notoriously influences education even in the
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schools to which it forbids its parents to send their children, but
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all the Churches keep an eye on school-manuals and teachers. I have
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letters from non-Catholic mothers, and far away from Massachusetts,
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telling me how in public high school their daughters have to listen
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to the most blatant Catholic propaganda. And this is only the first
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stage of their control of education. They have organizations, with
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local representatives everywhere, for watching the daily and weekly
|
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papers and threatening to injure the circulation if truths that are
|
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unpalatable to them are published or if good space is not given to
|
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their own utterances and activities. They get the work of reviewing
|
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books and even reading for publishers into the hands of the clergy
|
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or reliable laity. They threaten publishers -- I have seen letters
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-- and bully booksellers and librarians. They try to stifle all
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criticism, they insist on favors for their subsidized articles and
|
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pamphlets; and they make the ether throb with their ancient and
|
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modern untruths. Even employers are enlisted in the good work.
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Looking at life from the angle of social psychology, one finds
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it remarkable that so large a majority of the community contrive to
|
|||
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keep clear of the contagion. For, that the constant aim of all this
|
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work is to prevent the dissemination of truth and purvey what is
|
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regarded by the great majority of properly educated persons as
|
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untruth I have proved in scores of works. The grossest historical
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untruths, to the advantage of Christianity, are repeated until even
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the non-Christian majority imagine them to be unquestioned. The
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social services and possibilities of service of the Churches are
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|||
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flagrantly misrepresented. The truths of science that are essential
|
|||
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to a correct appreciation of life and man are concealed or denied.
|
|||
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The activity of the Churches in America is glowingly announced; the
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beneficent action of Atheism in Russia is misrepresented; the
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crimes of the Churches in Europe which cooperate with truculent
|
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|
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dictators are never mentioned; and, in particular, the growth of
|
|||
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Atheism is so carefully concealed behind assurances of Church-
|
|||
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progress that people regard a plain statement of it as fantastic
|
|||
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and reckless. History and contemporary life alike are falsely
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|||
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described, because the truth would be resented by one or other
|
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Church.
|
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|
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For reasons which will be discussed in later essays even this
|
|||
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comprehensive and unceasing miseducation does not make people
|
|||
|
|
return to the Churches, but it has one of the effects that are
|
|||
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sought: it convinces most people that Atheists are a scanty and
|
|||
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rather eccentric body who have no title to be treated in the press
|
|||
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or on the radio with the same respect as Christians, The clergy
|
|||
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attach more importance to that than many people imagine. The critic
|
|||
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they dread above all others is the man with a clean-cut profession
|
|||
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of Atheism, the man who neither in his thoughts nor his speech
|
|||
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|
admits the slightest shade of mysticism. They care very little
|
|||
|
|
about the professor or the literary man who openly rejects their
|
|||
|
|
doctrines but still talks respectfully about religion and Spiritual
|
|||
|
|
realities and the sacredness of doubt and the open mind. He has,
|
|||
|
|
perhaps, a few hundred high-brow readers, and they, in any case,
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
Bank of Wisdom
|
|||
|
|
Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201
|
|||
|
|
5
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
IS THE POSITION OF ATHEISM GROWING STRONGER?
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
agree with him before they open his book. The clergy will even
|
|||
|
|
permit him to speak on the radio. He generally agrees with them
|
|||
|
|
that Atheists are dogmatic, lacking in good taste, superficial and
|
|||
|
|
anyway a nuisance. So the fiction is sustained and the people are
|
|||
|
|
duped.
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
3. The Gentle Art of Murder
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
The third chief method is the modern form of the medieval
|
|||
|
|
habit of invoking the secular arm. It is today cynical. The
|
|||
|
|
Churches were still assuring us that they are today in favor, on
|
|||
|
|
principle, of complete toleration and freedom when they eagerly
|
|||
|
|
grasped every opportunity that was offered them to cooperate in a
|
|||
|
|
policy of intolerance and tyranny. I have just completed a thorough
|
|||
|
|
study of the world-situation in this respect in the Appeal to
|
|||
|
|
Reason and must refer any who have not read it to that series of
|
|||
|
|
books. Here I would point out that, though it happens that these
|
|||
|
|
murderous dictatorships have nearly all been set up in Catholic
|
|||
|
|
countries with the connivance of the Catholic Church, all Churches
|
|||
|
|
in all countries will accept the same alliance if ever it is
|
|||
|
|
offered to them. The Lutheran Church in Germany was, 10 years ago,
|
|||
|
|
teaching the same gentle principles of tolerance, freedom, and
|
|||
|
|
humanity as the Churches are teaching in America. Today the great
|
|||
|
|
body of the Lutheran pastors support the blood-stained tyranny of
|
|||
|
|
the Nazi regime, and the dissentient minority of them quarrel, not
|
|||
|
|
with the truculent tyranny as such, but with its interference in
|
|||
|
|
their affairs. Catholics and Protestants alike are willing to see
|
|||
|
|
Hitler and his brutal lieutenants torture Jews, Communists,
|
|||
|
|
Socialists, Pacifists, and humanitarians generally as long as they
|
|||
|
|
do not attempt to interfere with the doctrinal teaching of the
|
|||
|
|
Churches themselves; just as American Protestants were generally
|
|||
|
|
silent about the criminal aggression of Japan in China because the
|
|||
|
|
Japanese promised to favor the Christian missions and Russian
|
|||
|
|
influence in China was destroying them.
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
The most positive and the largest figures of bodies of
|
|||
|
|
Atheists that I shall give in the course of this essay are those of
|
|||
|
|
Communist and, in most countries, Socialist bodies. These are
|
|||
|
|
professedly, if not aggressively, atheistic. That is the new
|
|||
|
|
situation which confronts the Churches. It explains the remarkable
|
|||
|
|
adjustment of the Sermon on the Mount to a support of tyranny and
|
|||
|
|
cruelty in Germany, Austria Hungary, Poland, Italy, Spain,
|
|||
|
|
Yugoslavia, Bulgaria, Rumania, and Greece. And there is not the
|
|||
|
|
least reason to suppose that if the occasion arose, there would not
|
|||
|
|
be a similar adjustment in every country. Some 200,000,000 people
|
|||
|
|
in Europe today live or suffer under a Fascist tyranny which scorns
|
|||
|
|
every principle of the American social ethic, even as taught by the
|
|||
|
|
Churches, yet all the Churches, with the reserve I gave in the case
|
|||
|
|
of Germany, support the tyranny. The chief pretext for establishing
|
|||
|
|
the tyranny was the growth of Communism and Socialism, and part of
|
|||
|
|
the reward of the Churches in nearly every case was the suppression
|
|||
|
|
of their critics, whether Communist or not. In other words, the
|
|||
|
|
Churches have gone back to medieval methods just as the dictators
|
|||
|
|
they support have. In six of the countries I have named atheistic
|
|||
|
|
Communism and Socialism had in about 20 years won at least
|
|||
|
|
50,000,000 adherents, detaching most of them from the Churches. We
|
|||
|
|
shall see proof of that. Are we asked to believe that the Churches
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
Bank of Wisdom
|
|||
|
|
Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201
|
|||
|
|
6
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
IS THE POSITION OF ATHEISM GROWING STRONGER?
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
were austerely inattentive to that fact when they supported the
|
|||
|
|
dictators? And are we expected to be quite polite when we are
|
|||
|
|
assured that, if atheistic Communism and Socialism came to capture
|
|||
|
|
one-third of the people in America and England also, the Churches
|
|||
|
|
would serenely refuse to have anything to do with a successful
|
|||
|
|
Fascist usurpation?
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
CHAPTER II
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
THE ATHEISM OF SCIENTISTS
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
These preliminary considerations are offered to those who from
|
|||
|
|
a long tradition of rationalist literature are apt to regard the
|
|||
|
|
struggle as one of truth against untruth. If that were the case, it
|
|||
|
|
would be over in a few decades. What has really happened in Russia,
|
|||
|
|
we shall see, proves that. If we could put to the American people
|
|||
|
|
the relevant facts of history and truths of science as freely and
|
|||
|
|
unceasingly as the Churches put their untruths, no one can doubt
|
|||
|
|
the issue. Unfortunately, but very naturally, most people who quit
|
|||
|
|
church-going do not want to hear religion mentioned again. They
|
|||
|
|
switch off the sermon or religious address on the radio and skip
|
|||
|
|
the sermon-page in the paper. Let them get on with it, is the
|
|||
|
|
general sentiment. So atheistic organizations remain small and
|
|||
|
|
poor, opposing ridiculously slender resources and activities to a
|
|||
|
|
clerical organization with 250,000 servants of one kind or other
|
|||
|
|
and an income of a billion dollars a year. One of those literary
|
|||
|
|
men who feel that we aggressive Atheists are "on the wrong line"
|
|||
|
|
asked me how it was that we had such poor results. Like most of his
|
|||
|
|
class, he had not the least idea how enormously Atheism has spread,
|
|||
|
|
but the direct answer is that a few thousand people with almost no
|
|||
|
|
resources do not usually make a spectacular success against a
|
|||
|
|
billion-dollar corporation that controls the general education of
|
|||
|
|
the country.
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
Let us not fool ourselves with phrases like, Great is Truth
|
|||
|
|
and it will prevail. They knew quite a lot of truth in ancient
|
|||
|
|
Greece, and it was buried for 15 centuries, Yet it is an
|
|||
|
|
inestimable advantage to have the truth on your side, and it is the
|
|||
|
|
first point in the strengthening of the position of the Atheist in
|
|||
|
|
recent years that we have got weighty corroboration of our claim to
|
|||
|
|
possess the truth. Materialistic Atheism -- and any other kind is
|
|||
|
|
so rare, comparatively, that it need not be considered here -- is
|
|||
|
|
the kind of negative position which is, nevertheless, based upon a
|
|||
|
|
massive knowledge of realities. For most Theists nature proves, in
|
|||
|
|
one way or other, the existence of God. And this at once makes
|
|||
|
|
science a rival interpretation of nature and the natural enemy of
|
|||
|
|
religion. It is a mere quibble to insist that science has no
|
|||
|
|
concern whatever with God or spiritual realities, For more than a
|
|||
|
|
century science has been busy giving a natural explanation of
|
|||
|
|
phenomena which religious writers claimed to be inexplicable except
|
|||
|
|
by assuming that there was an infinite spirit in the heavens and a
|
|||
|
|
finite spirit in man. Attempts to shift the basis of Theism we will
|
|||
|
|
consider in later essays, but for at least four-fifths of the
|
|||
|
|
religious folk of America the basis of their belief in God is some
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
Bank of Wisdom
|
|||
|
|
Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201
|
|||
|
|
7
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
IS THE POSITION OF ATHEISM GROWING STRONGER?
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
aspect of nature (beauty, order, the mind, the moral sense, etc.)
|
|||
|
|
which, they say, science will never explain without God and the
|
|||
|
|
soul. Hence the question of the religious beliefs of scientific men
|
|||
|
|
has always had considerable fascination, and I will take this
|
|||
|
|
first.
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
1. American Men of Science
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
In the last essay I remarked that to a religions person it
|
|||
|
|
must seem singular that, while he was assured on all sides that
|
|||
|
|
science had ceased to be materialistic and had "created an
|
|||
|
|
atmosphere more favorable to religion," he heard nothing about
|
|||
|
|
conversions of scientific men. Possibly he gathered from the
|
|||
|
|
incessant droning about the beautiful harmony of science and
|
|||
|
|
religion that there was no need for conversions. One of the most
|
|||
|
|
liberal and cultivated preachers of New York said, when certain
|
|||
|
|
skeptical remarks of a scientist of secondary rank were reported to
|
|||
|
|
him: "Yes, the little men of science say these things: the big men
|
|||
|
|
are religious." Less liberal preachers will hardly grant us the
|
|||
|
|
little men. Yet there is no other country in which the opinions of
|
|||
|
|
scientific men about the fundamental propositions of religion --
|
|||
|
|
God and immortality -- are so easily ascertained as they are in
|
|||
|
|
America. Apart from other evidence, Professor Leuba gave very
|
|||
|
|
definite and reliable statistics 20 years ago. That was in the bad
|
|||
|
|
old materialistic days, before the heavenly twins of British
|
|||
|
|
astronomy burst upon the scientific world. Fortunately, Professor
|
|||
|
|
Leuba has covered the ground once more, and we have the most
|
|||
|
|
positive evidence of what has really happened in the American
|
|||
|
|
scientific world while the press and pulpits were rejoicing in the
|
|||
|
|
change of heart of science.
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
The new analysis is, like all the new facts I here get
|
|||
|
|
together, a triumph for Atheism. Men of science are considerably
|
|||
|
|
more atheistic today than they were 20 years ago. Naturally
|
|||
|
|
Professor Leuba does not call himself an Atheist, and probably very
|
|||
|
|
few of the men whose opinions he gives would admit that title. But
|
|||
|
|
I have explained in what sense I use the word; and, if it be
|
|||
|
|
thought important, I could quote very respectable dictionary
|
|||
|
|
authority for that use. Contrary to a widespread belief, it is the
|
|||
|
|
word "Agnostic" that is loosely used in our generation. It was
|
|||
|
|
coined by Huxley to designate a man who holds that from its own
|
|||
|
|
nature the mind is incapable of answering such questions as whether
|
|||
|
|
there is a God or not. They do not lie merely beyond the range of
|
|||
|
|
science but beyond the range of thought. Why Huxley coined the new
|
|||
|
|
word we need not consider here. He was himself in the accepted
|
|||
|
|
meaning of the word an Atheist. The leading British religious
|
|||
|
|
apologist in his time was Gladstone, and Murray's famous
|
|||
|
|
Dictionary, in defining an Atheist as "one who denies or
|
|||
|
|
disbelieves the existence of a God" -- Funk and Wagnalls Standard
|
|||
|
|
Dictionary and Webster's New International Dictionary give the same
|
|||
|
|
definition -- quote Gladstone using the word in that sense. The
|
|||
|
|
leading Atheist of the time, Bradlaugh, defined his position in the
|
|||
|
|
same sense. And since the word "disbelieve" is in the definition
|
|||
|
|
plainly set in contrast to "deny," it means simply one who has no
|
|||
|
|
belief in God. Huxley certainly had not, and not one of the
|
|||
|
|
thousands of Agnostics I have known (including such well-known
|
|||
|
|
leaders as Sir Leslie Stephen, Professor Sully, Sir E. Ray
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
Bank of Wisdom
|
|||
|
|
Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201
|
|||
|
|
8
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
IS THE POSITION OF ATHEISM GROWING STRONGER?
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
Lankester, E. Clodd, G.J. Holyoake, J.M. Robertson, etc.) or know
|
|||
|
|
had the least doubt whether there was a God or not or considered
|
|||
|
|
themselves precluded by the nature of the mind from valuating the
|
|||
|
|
evidences for Theism.
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
Therefore, while Professor Leuba distinguishes between
|
|||
|
|
believers, disbelievers, and doubters, I take both the latter
|
|||
|
|
groups as men who are without belief in God and therefore Atheists.
|
|||
|
|
For those, however, who regard the distinction as of any importance
|
|||
|
|
I may say that of the nearly 2,000 men of science who replied to
|
|||
|
|
the question whether they believed in a personal God only 30
|
|||
|
|
percent said Yes; 56 percent said No (disbelievers, and only 14
|
|||
|
|
percent were classed as Doubters (which seems to mean Agnostics).
|
|||
|
|
Religious writers were severely hit by the book, Belief in God and
|
|||
|
|
Immortality, in which Professor Leuba published his results in
|
|||
|
|
1916, and they tried frantically to discredit his procedure. It was
|
|||
|
|
ideally fair, and he repeated it in 1933. Of the 23,000 names in
|
|||
|
|
Cattell's American Men of Science for 1933 he took one-tenth and
|
|||
|
|
sent his questions to them. About 75 percent replied, and there
|
|||
|
|
could not possibly be a fairer test. The only weakness I see is one
|
|||
|
|
that favors the Godly. Cattell's list includes teachers of science
|
|||
|
|
in religious colleges and universities, and we are not prepared to
|
|||
|
|
take these as quite impartial witnesses of the same value as the
|
|||
|
|
others.
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
But Professor Leuba knows well that the gross results are not
|
|||
|
|
enough, and he classifies his men into Greater and Lesser and into
|
|||
|
|
the four categories of Physicists, Biologist, Sociologists, and
|
|||
|
|
Psychologists. The distinction between Greater and Lesser is taken
|
|||
|
|
from Cattell, and the names that are starred as of special
|
|||
|
|
distinction in his book were selected by leading authorities in
|
|||
|
|
each branch of science. Again, therefore, the procedure is ideally
|
|||
|
|
impartial, and the result adds to the triumph of Atheism and the
|
|||
|
|
rout of preachers who say that it is "only the small men" who are
|
|||
|
|
Atheists. Of the Lesser scientists 35 percent believe in God; of
|
|||
|
|
the Greater only 13 percent. The Atheists are 65 percent of the
|
|||
|
|
Lesser and 87 percent of the Greater. Do not forget that the
|
|||
|
|
believers include an unknown proportion of teachers in religious
|
|||
|
|
institutions.
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
The further analysis gives just as encouraging results. In the
|
|||
|
|
last number I explained that since evidence for God is not found in
|
|||
|
|
the world of "dead matter" but begins in the world of life and is
|
|||
|
|
supposed to be strongest in the world of mind, the opinion of
|
|||
|
|
physicists is of less value than that of biologists, and much less
|
|||
|
|
value than that of sociologists and psychologists. It fully
|
|||
|
|
confirms what I said when we find that of the physicists 38 percent
|
|||
|
|
(43 percent Lesser and 17 Greater) believe in God: of the
|
|||
|
|
biologists only 27 percent (12 percent Greater): of the
|
|||
|
|
sociologists 24 percent (20 percent Greater and 5 percent Greatest,
|
|||
|
|
according to a further refinement he makes in this case); of the
|
|||
|
|
psychologists only 10 percent, and of the Greater Psychologists
|
|||
|
|
only 2 percent. It does not concern me here and will be reported in
|
|||
|
|
a later number, but it may be useful to say, briefly that while 41
|
|||
|
|
percent of the physicists believe in an immortal soul, only 9
|
|||
|
|
percent of the psychologists (mostly Lesser) believed.
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
Bank of Wisdom
|
|||
|
|
Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201
|
|||
|
|
9
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
IS THE POSITION OF ATHEISM GROWING STRONGER?
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
And the final point is the most encouraging of all. Since
|
|||
|
|
1916, when the earlier results were published, frantic attempts
|
|||
|
|
have been made to secure the names of scientific men for religions
|
|||
|
|
lists. The late Dr. Osborn and Dr. Millikan made one attempt, in
|
|||
|
|
the hope that it would check the Fundamentalist menace to the
|
|||
|
|
teaching of science. It was a dismal failure, only about a dozen
|
|||
|
|
men of science answering the call. The Churches used their
|
|||
|
|
insidious pressure and intrigue, and they got a few university men,
|
|||
|
|
who in some cases were seriously threatened by pressure, to begin
|
|||
|
|
to attend chapel (which means nothing in such institutions) and go
|
|||
|
|
on the lists. Now we get an impartial and scientific test of such
|
|||
|
|
change as there has been in the attitude of science to the God-idea
|
|||
|
|
in the last 20 years. I trust Professor Leuba will not mind if, as
|
|||
|
|
is necessary, I borrow his cold statistical summary of the change
|
|||
|
|
in regard to belief in God.
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
Scientific Believers (percent)
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
Lesser Men Greater Men
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
1914 1933 1914 1933
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
Physicists 50 43 34 17
|
|||
|
|
Biologists 39 31 17 12
|
|||
|
|
Sociologists 29 30 19 13
|
|||
|
|
Psychologists 32 13 13 12
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
Henceforward any preacher or writer who claims that the big
|
|||
|
|
men are believers, who quotes "A little learning is a dangerous
|
|||
|
|
thing" or "The fool said in his heart," who tells his people that
|
|||
|
|
it is "the camp-followers of science" who represent its teaching as
|
|||
|
|
materialistic, is guilty of frigid and calculated inaccuracy or has
|
|||
|
|
not read the outstanding piece of documentary evidence.
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
2. Tests in Great Britain
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
I have been severely rebuked both by religious writers and
|
|||
|
|
certain scientific men for saying, as they represent, that men of
|
|||
|
|
science are generally Atheists. I have, of course, never said that.
|
|||
|
|
I have always said that the opinion of a scientific man on the
|
|||
|
|
subject might be worth less than that of a truck driver who has
|
|||
|
|
read critical literature about it -- look at the drivel written on
|
|||
|
|
the subject by Millikan, Pupin and Osborn -- but that the success
|
|||
|
|
of their various branches of science in giving us a materialistic
|
|||
|
|
interpretation of reality so impresses them, that four-fifths of
|
|||
|
|
them do not believe in God and not one in 10 is a Christian
|
|||
|
|
believer. It will be understood that I was using the word "men of
|
|||
|
|
science" in the British fashion. We mean men who are prominent in
|
|||
|
|
the service of science, not any college-teacher of physics or
|
|||
|
|
biology. And it seems that, according to this exact British test,
|
|||
|
|
I kept my words, as I usually do, well within the truth. Not 20
|
|||
|
|
percent, but only about 10 percent, of the more distinguished men
|
|||
|
|
of science believe in a personal God.
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
Bank of Wisdom
|
|||
|
|
Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201
|
|||
|
|
10
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
IS THE POSITION OF ATHEISM GROWING STRONGER?
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
The situation is the same in England. Here no straight
|
|||
|
|
questionnaire has been issued, and we have no exact statistics. But
|
|||
|
|
there has in the last 20 years been the same frantic attempt as in
|
|||
|
|
America to induce them to stand out on the side of the angels,
|
|||
|
|
especially since Bishop Barnes was, on the strength of a knowledge
|
|||
|
|
of mathematics, admitted to the higher scientific world. In the
|
|||
|
|
weightiest of scientific periodicals, Nature, there actually
|
|||
|
|
appeared a few years ago an editorial imploring men of science to
|
|||
|
|
see that Atheism led to the "horrors" of the French and the Russian
|
|||
|
|
Revolutions. It was a sordid appeal and from the angle of
|
|||
|
|
historical fact on the level of a parochial magazine. But the
|
|||
|
|
response has been no better than to the Osborn-Millikan appeal in
|
|||
|
|
America. As I showed in the last volume of my 'Rise and Fall of the
|
|||
|
|
Gods,' only a small proportion of British men of science have
|
|||
|
|
gratified the Churches by publishing professions of belief. The
|
|||
|
|
Congresses of the Church of England can no more attract them than
|
|||
|
|
do the Conferences of the Protestant Episcopal Church of America.
|
|||
|
|
No scientific man of any distinction belongs to the Catholic, the
|
|||
|
|
Baptist, or the Methodist Church, and few but certain aged and very
|
|||
|
|
heterodox scientists with a mystic vein associate even with the
|
|||
|
|
Modernists of the Church of England.
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
That the situation is the same as in America is curiously
|
|||
|
|
shown by a document recently published to prove the opposite. I
|
|||
|
|
referred to one aspect of it in the last number. The British
|
|||
|
|
Christian Evidence Society issued in 1932 a small work, The
|
|||
|
|
Religion of Scientists, which purported to give the answers of
|
|||
|
|
Fellows of the Royal Society to six questions about religion. The
|
|||
|
|
book is, as I said, marked by the customary trickery of the man of
|
|||
|
|
God. It boasts throughout of having received 200 expressions of
|
|||
|
|
opinion and nowhere tells the readers that there are 503 Fellows of
|
|||
|
|
the Royal Society, so that no less than 300 disdained to reply to
|
|||
|
|
it. I am quite certain that Barnes secured a reply from every
|
|||
|
|
religious Fellow. Further, the book grossly deceives the public by
|
|||
|
|
giving them the impression that all the Fellows of the Royal
|
|||
|
|
Society are men of science, if not the cream of British scientists.
|
|||
|
|
The rules of the Society expressly state that candidates are not
|
|||
|
|
necessarily of distinction in science but may be "such that their
|
|||
|
|
election would be of signal benefit to the Society." Hence it
|
|||
|
|
includes five royal princes, who could not tell a seismograph from
|
|||
|
|
a saccharometer, five rich peers, a few ecclesiastics, lawyers,
|
|||
|
|
admirals, statesmen (like Baldwin), and other odds and ends. What
|
|||
|
|
is more important, it includes 47 foreigners, a large number of
|
|||
|
|
colonial professors who are admitted often on imperialist grounds,
|
|||
|
|
and a singularly large number of men with no academic position and,
|
|||
|
|
as far as I can see -- I have read through the entire list -- of no
|
|||
|
|
name whatever in science. Finally, distinction in science for the
|
|||
|
|
purpose of the Society means distinction in applied science
|
|||
|
|
(engineering, agriculture, etc.) as well as pure science.
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
It is thus easy to see that the Society might yield 100
|
|||
|
|
favorable replies that did not include a single man of science of
|
|||
|
|
any distinction or whose opinion is of the least value. Yet on the
|
|||
|
|
two questions that afford something like a definite test only 47
|
|||
|
|
and 74 respectively replied favorably. The first question of the
|
|||
|
|
six was: Do you credit the existence of a spiritual domain? As I
|
|||
|
|
have already pointed out, the word "spiritual" is now so ambiguous
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
Bank of Wisdom
|
|||
|
|
Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201
|
|||
|
|
11
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
IS THE POSITION OF ATHEISM GROWING STRONGER?
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
that the fact that 121 (out of 503) replied in the affirmative
|
|||
|
|
means nothing. It is interesting to note that only 24 out of the
|
|||
|
|
121 permitted the publication of their names, and that 80 of them
|
|||
|
|
were engaged in the physical sciences! The second question was even
|
|||
|
|
more ambiguous; Is man in some degree responsible for his acts of
|
|||
|
|
choice? They might as well ask if free will accounted for acts of
|
|||
|
|
free will. It is meaningless that 173 replied Yes, but worthy of
|
|||
|
|
noting that 80 of them were in the physical sciences, and only four
|
|||
|
|
were psychologists or physiologists -- the only men fitted to
|
|||
|
|
judge. The third question was: Is it your opinion that belief in
|
|||
|
|
evolution is compatible with belief in a Creator? The ambiguity of
|
|||
|
|
this will be seen when I say that Bertrand Russell is amongst those
|
|||
|
|
who said yes: also Professor E.B. Bailey, who has taken the chair
|
|||
|
|
for atheistic lectures of mine and made it clear in his letter to
|
|||
|
|
the Society that he did not believe in a Creator. The fourth
|
|||
|
|
question is worse: Do you believe that science negatives the idea
|
|||
|
|
of a personal God as taught by Jesus Christ? It was open to any
|
|||
|
|
atheistic scientist to reply No, since science never discusses God,
|
|||
|
|
yet, significantly, the favorable replies now fell to 103 (mostly
|
|||
|
|
chemists, physicists, and mathematicians), and 26 said yes. It
|
|||
|
|
illustrates the relative morale of Atheists and believers that 25
|
|||
|
|
of the 26 Atheists allowed the publication of their names, and only
|
|||
|
|
67 of the pious 103 gave such permission.
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
The fifth question was honest enough: Do you believe that the
|
|||
|
|
personalities of men and women exist after the death of their
|
|||
|
|
bodies? The affirmers now fell with a bang to 47 (including, one
|
|||
|
|
psychologist and no physiologist), while 41 said No. So 47 out of
|
|||
|
|
503 -- by no means all scientists -- believe in immortality. It
|
|||
|
|
would have been interesting if the next question had been: Do you
|
|||
|
|
believe in a personal God? But such honesty would have been fatal.
|
|||
|
|
It was: Do you think that the recent remarkable developments in
|
|||
|
|
scientific thought are favorable to religious beliefs? Yet even to
|
|||
|
|
this non-committal question the favorable replies were only 74, and
|
|||
|
|
most of them explained that they meant that the new physics had
|
|||
|
|
discredited Materialism. My book on the subject appeared in England
|
|||
|
|
soon afterwards, and I am told that they would not get even 74
|
|||
|
|
affirmatives today. In short, of 503 Fellows of the Royal Society
|
|||
|
|
only 47 made a definite profession of belief in a fundamental
|
|||
|
|
religious doctrine, and of these eight were physicists, eight
|
|||
|
|
chemists, four botanists, three mathematicians (one a bishop), and
|
|||
|
|
three geologists, but not a single one of England's great
|
|||
|
|
physiologists. The document proves nothing, but suggests that, as
|
|||
|
|
in America, only about one in 10 of the greater men of science
|
|||
|
|
believe in God.
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
3. Other Countries
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
For other countries we have no statistics. Professors of
|
|||
|
|
science generally resent such inquisitions, and in many places the
|
|||
|
|
Atheist professor has only too good ground to do so. But we can
|
|||
|
|
easily show that the proportion of atheistic scientists in the more
|
|||
|
|
advanced countries of the world is about the same as in America and
|
|||
|
|
Great Britain. In the first place, nearly all the distinguished
|
|||
|
|
professors of science in France, Russia, and Japan are Atheists,
|
|||
|
|
and this would balance any less proportion of them in other
|
|||
|
|
countries. It would, however, he useless to inquire how many
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
Bank of Wisdom
|
|||
|
|
Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201
|
|||
|
|
12
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
IS THE POSITION OF ATHEISM GROWING STRONGER?
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
scientists are Atheists under the present regime in Germany,
|
|||
|
|
Austria, Italy, and Spain. A large number of atheistic professors
|
|||
|
|
have been dismissed and are in exile. In Italy the university
|
|||
|
|
professors were so far atheistic 22 years ago (1913) that the
|
|||
|
|
Minister of Education sent in their name a public telegram of
|
|||
|
|
congratulation to Ernest Haeckel on his 80th birthday. From Spain
|
|||
|
|
and even Austria the Catholic could get no more scientific support
|
|||
|
|
than from France. The lists of "loyal sons of the Church" who were
|
|||
|
|
also "great scientists" which are given in Catholic literature are
|
|||
|
|
amusing. They suggest that the species became extinct about half a
|
|||
|
|
century age. Just a few living men like Marconi are quoted; and
|
|||
|
|
what Marconi thinks today about religion and what his thoughts are
|
|||
|
|
worth we know not.
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
In 1931 Mr. Edward H. Cotton published a symposium to which he
|
|||
|
|
gave the meretricious title 'Has Science Discovered God?' He soon
|
|||
|
|
found that the number of American scientists who would help in the
|
|||
|
|
holy work could be counted on one's fingers, so he made the quest
|
|||
|
|
international. Jeans and Eddington spread their familiar plumes in
|
|||
|
|
his columns, and even Julian Huxley, who does not believe in God,
|
|||
|
|
contributed. Dr. Malcolm Bird and even Langdon-Davies were dragged
|
|||
|
|
in to support the angelic doctors, and still the body of men
|
|||
|
|
representing "science" was paltry. So the summons sped to Germany,
|
|||
|
|
and Einstein, who was still there, was invited to respond. But all
|
|||
|
|
that Einstein, who is very emotional and pacific, has said (in a
|
|||
|
|
speech at Berlin in 1933) about his religion is that "the sense of
|
|||
|
|
the mysterious" is "at the root of religion and beauty." On other
|
|||
|
|
occasions he has seemed willing to apply the word God in a
|
|||
|
|
Spinozistic sense to "the power of the universe" -- meaning, of
|
|||
|
|
course, the universe itself -- but he is totally uninterested in
|
|||
|
|
religion except in a humanitarian sense of the word and it does not
|
|||
|
|
matter much what he says.
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
Dr. Luther Fry has tried another method. In the 'Scientific
|
|||
|
|
Monthly' in 1933 he professed to analyze, the creed of the
|
|||
|
|
distinguished Americans in Who's Who for 1910 and 1930 and find a
|
|||
|
|
positive growth of religion in the 20 years. We know those
|
|||
|
|
"distinguished Americans"; bankers, rich businessmen, clerics,
|
|||
|
|
artists, judges, politicians, etc. Moreover, for some reason best
|
|||
|
|
known to himself Dr. Fry examines only two-thirds of the names for
|
|||
|
|
1910 and all of them for 1930, and he vaguely admits that in the
|
|||
|
|
meantime there was some change in the method of getting the
|
|||
|
|
religious affiliation of the victims. The only religious
|
|||
|
|
significance of the creed-descriptions in 'Who's Who' is that which
|
|||
|
|
Professors Huntingdon and Whitney pointed out. It is the stark
|
|||
|
|
poverty of the Roman Catholic Church in men of distinction. They
|
|||
|
|
have only seven per 100,000 of their members in Who's Who, to the
|
|||
|
|
Unitarians 1,185 per 100,000; and how many of these Catholic
|
|||
|
|
supermen are simply prelates, politicians, businessmen, etc., we
|
|||
|
|
are not told. But the very fact that the intellectually
|
|||
|
|
distinguished amongst the 30,000 men and women in 'Who's Who' so
|
|||
|
|
remarkably prefer to say that their affiliation is Unitarian is
|
|||
|
|
significant enough. Large numbers of Unitarian congregations do not
|
|||
|
|
demand belief in God in their members.
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
Bank of Wisdom
|
|||
|
|
Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201
|
|||
|
|
13
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
IS THE POSITION OF ATHEISM GROWING STRONGER?
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
CHAPTER III
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
THE SIGNIFICANCE OF SOVIET RUSSIA
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
The chief basis of Atheism is the teaching of science, and we
|
|||
|
|
now see that that foundation is firmer than ever. Tens of thousands
|
|||
|
|
of times in the last 10 years people have been assured that there
|
|||
|
|
was a change of heart in the scientific world and that what
|
|||
|
|
Atheists and Materialists had claimed to be their strongest basis
|
|||
|
|
was ruined. We have found this a statement that can escape the
|
|||
|
|
charge of unveracity only on the supposition that the religious
|
|||
|
|
writers who made it never study facts. In spite of all the frantic
|
|||
|
|
appeals and subtle cajolery of prelates and their rich supporters,
|
|||
|
|
who have often serious influence on universities, the proportion of
|
|||
|
|
men of science who believe in God has fallen. We speak on the
|
|||
|
|
ground of the most positive evidence when we say that only about
|
|||
|
|
one in 10 of the more distinguished men of science now believe in
|
|||
|
|
a personal God and that the majority of these believers belong to
|
|||
|
|
those branches of science which least of all equip a man to pass a
|
|||
|
|
critical judgment on the subject; and I may add, both from the
|
|||
|
|
published names and published confessions of belief, that most of
|
|||
|
|
these scientific Theists are men of the departing generation. The
|
|||
|
|
younger men, especially in anthropology, psychology, physiology,
|
|||
|
|
ethics, sociology, paleontology, and biology, have seen the
|
|||
|
|
progress of research in the last 20 years afford a massive and
|
|||
|
|
entirely consistent confirmation of the position of the Atheist and
|
|||
|
|
Materialist. Our basis is sound. Science may almost be called
|
|||
|
|
atheistic; and there is no higher authority in the modern world
|
|||
|
|
upon which the people may rest their faith.
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
Hence God's apostles and publicity-agents strike a new note.
|
|||
|
|
We will later notice the miserable sophistry that tries to persuade
|
|||
|
|
people that if they have a "sense of God" or a religious intuition
|
|||
|
|
or instinct that assures them of his existence, they need no proof.
|
|||
|
|
This is, we shall see, whether it is said by Sir Arthur Eddington
|
|||
|
|
(a dreamy Quaker in the non-scientific half of his brain) or by
|
|||
|
|
some vapid Modernist preacher, as crude, in the light of modern
|
|||
|
|
psychology, as is the belief in a flat earth. The new note which I
|
|||
|
|
have here in mind is a sort of perversion or prostitution of
|
|||
|
|
pragmatism or humanism: a theory which, with all respect to its
|
|||
|
|
authors, is apt to lead to such consequences. Distrust rational
|
|||
|
|
arguments, is the new appeal, for man is no mere logical machine.
|
|||
|
|
His interests and emotions are the things that matter in shaping
|
|||
|
|
his opinions. If these demand God, pay no attention to the
|
|||
|
|
syllogisms of the Atheist. Smile at the philosophers who tell you
|
|||
|
|
that they are agreed that all the old arguments for the existence
|
|||
|
|
of God from the order and beauty and power of nature are as
|
|||
|
|
illogical as the arguments of the old alchemists. We are all
|
|||
|
|
sociologists, all practical men, today. Mix up a lot of discredited
|
|||
|
|
history, some warm rhetoric about the world's troubles, and a
|
|||
|
|
little pulpit-verbiage, and you can prove that if God did not exist
|
|||
|
|
we should have to invent him. A Father Coughlin (with his economic
|
|||
|
|
guides behind the curtain) becomes the savior of the race. A
|
|||
|
|
Canadian bible-teacher, Aberhardt, switches in a year from lessons
|
|||
|
|
on Moses and Jezebel to the economic control of a province. And so
|
|||
|
|
on. God is found to be vital to our civilization.
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
Bank of Wisdom
|
|||
|
|
Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201
|
|||
|
|
14
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
IS THE POSITION OF ATHEISM GROWING STRONGER?
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
1. The Religious Instinct Exploded
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
These pleas of the rights of the religious instincts and the
|
|||
|
|
sociological value of the God-idea we will consider in themselves
|
|||
|
|
in later numbers. Here, in taking Russia as the first country in
|
|||
|
|
which there has been a phenomenal growth of Atheism, I would point
|
|||
|
|
out that its experience completely discredits all these new
|
|||
|
|
arguments for the God-idea. That is the next point in that triumph
|
|||
|
|
of Atheism which the reactionaries have to use blackjacks,
|
|||
|
|
automatics, and concentration-camps or jails to check. Those of us
|
|||
|
|
who study these things candidly always knew that this theological
|
|||
|
|
sociology was nonsense. The history it appeals to is a clotted mass
|
|||
|
|
of untruth, our world has moved at least in the direction of real
|
|||
|
|
civilization in exact proportion as it has rejected the theocratic
|
|||
|
|
idea, and no statesman in the world today has any more idea of
|
|||
|
|
getting inspiration from religion than has that one respectable
|
|||
|
|
dictator of our time, the skeptical President of the Turkish
|
|||
|
|
Republic. Yet in most countries the press and preachers talk so
|
|||
|
|
unctuously about religion and reconstruction that the millions are
|
|||
|
|
fooled. No wonder they hated and libeled Russia! For the news is
|
|||
|
|
spreading, and is triumphing even over reactionary opposition that
|
|||
|
|
Russia is doing the finest and soundest reconstructive work of our
|
|||
|
|
time, and it is doing this, not only without God, but on a basis of
|
|||
|
|
militant Atheism. It smothers the plea that we must "cooperate with
|
|||
|
|
God," the pretense that there is any social wisdom in popes or
|
|||
|
|
parsons. It furnishes a massive and magnificent proof of what
|
|||
|
|
Shelley more than a hundred years ago called "The Necessity of
|
|||
|
|
Atheism."
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
Further, the success of Soviet Russia as deeply discredits the
|
|||
|
|
psychological as it does the sociological argument for the God-
|
|||
|
|
idea. Here were 160,000,000 people who had been for ages, apart
|
|||
|
|
from a small educated minority, as deeply rooted in religion,
|
|||
|
|
according to the religious view, as the peasants of Ireland or
|
|||
|
|
Mexico; and in less than 20 years half of them toss aside religion
|
|||
|
|
as cheerfully as one discards one's overcoat on the first day of
|
|||
|
|
spring. The same thing was seen in France in the third year of the
|
|||
|
|
Revolution, and the facility with which half of the French people
|
|||
|
|
gave up their creed in a year, not under pressure of but in spite
|
|||
|
|
of the wishes of Danton and Robespierre, discredited the instinct-
|
|||
|
|
argument long ago. In every country today, in fact, as I showed in
|
|||
|
|
another book, the Churches are not ministering to a craving on the
|
|||
|
|
part of the people, as this theory of an ineradicable religious
|
|||
|
|
instinct requires, but are confessing the absence of such craving
|
|||
|
|
by appealing to quite other instincts. To tell New York, Paris or
|
|||
|
|
London, that the general character of its people, five-sixths of
|
|||
|
|
whom do not want to hear anything about religion, is lacking in
|
|||
|
|
fine elements which flourish in the character of folk in Georgia or
|
|||
|
|
Oklahoma is too silly to be an insult. Yet that is what preachers
|
|||
|
|
imply.
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
We will consider the psychology of the theory later, but an
|
|||
|
|
ounce of fact is worth a ton of reasoning. And what has happened in
|
|||
|
|
Russia is a very massive and instructive fact. Not only in towns
|
|||
|
|
but in village after village, once the truth about Christianity and
|
|||
|
|
the people was impressed upon, the villagers, they as a body,
|
|||
|
|
except a few of the older folk, cashiered their priest and turned
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
Bank of Wisdom
|
|||
|
|
Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201
|
|||
|
|
15
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
IS THE POSITION OF ATHEISM GROWING STRONGER?
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
the church into a library or a nursery. It was proved at once that
|
|||
|
|
their "devotion to religion," as it had been called, was simply a
|
|||
|
|
traditional practice protected by ignorance of the truth. But we
|
|||
|
|
will first determine the real character of the movement and then
|
|||
|
|
ascertain its size.
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
2. The Myth of Persecution
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
As soon as this disturbing fact of the rejection of all
|
|||
|
|
religion by tens of millions of Russians broke through the clerical
|
|||
|
|
embargo on truth, the cry was raised that it was not a voluntary
|
|||
|
|
change of allegiance. Let me point out at once that, even if this
|
|||
|
|
were true, it would not in the least lessen the force of the
|
|||
|
|
argument against the sociological plea for God. For it is just
|
|||
|
|
these leading men who are supposed to have persecuted religion that
|
|||
|
|
have made the Russian civilization what it is today. They would
|
|||
|
|
themselves be the fast to recognize the cooperative work of the
|
|||
|
|
mass of the people, but, plainly, it is the planning and directive
|
|||
|
|
work of men like Stalin and Litvinov that has had the chief share.
|
|||
|
|
They are Atheists to a man -- or woman. The thousands of officers
|
|||
|
|
who link them with the labor of the people are all aggressive
|
|||
|
|
Atheists. The millions of members of the Communist party, who are
|
|||
|
|
the backbone of the workers in the task of reconstruction, are all
|
|||
|
|
Atheists. Until the 18th Century the leaders of every civilization
|
|||
|
|
in Europe, apart from Spain and Sicily in the Middle Ages, were
|
|||
|
|
Christians. We know what sort of civilization they created and
|
|||
|
|
maintained. From the 18th Century onward there was an increasing
|
|||
|
|
leaven of skepticism in the brain of the state; and there was an
|
|||
|
|
increasing, improvement of its features. But in Russia we now have
|
|||
|
|
a homogeneously atheistic body of men and women doing all the
|
|||
|
|
directive work of the state, and the result is beginning to extort
|
|||
|
|
admiration from the most reluctant writers. Even the ass has
|
|||
|
|
spoken, and the prophet ceases to curse. With an irony that shows
|
|||
|
|
only that nothing is too wild to say in the religious world,
|
|||
|
|
preachers who a few years ago represented the Russian leaders and
|
|||
|
|
officials as sadistic gorillas, from the taint of whose ideas other
|
|||
|
|
nations must be preserved even at the cost of war, now tell their
|
|||
|
|
followers that the Russians have invented a new religion!
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
What their idealism is and how far it has already been
|
|||
|
|
realized we shall fully consider in the eighth and tenth numbers of
|
|||
|
|
this series. And the cry of persecution has already so far declined
|
|||
|
|
that we need not say much about it. As early as January 23, 1918,
|
|||
|
|
the attitude of the new state toward religion was defined in
|
|||
|
|
constitutional decrees, and one clause was:
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
"Every citizen is at liberty to practice any religion or none
|
|||
|
|
at all. All penalties attaching to the practice of any creed
|
|||
|
|
whatever, or to the non-practicing of any creed, are abolished."
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
That law was never altered, but in the year of the invasion of
|
|||
|
|
Russia by White and foreign armies large numbers of the priests
|
|||
|
|
(especially Catholic priests, who are for the most part Poles)
|
|||
|
|
intrigued with the invaders and in many ways made the task of the
|
|||
|
|
Soviet government more difficult. Any man who has any doubt about
|
|||
|
|
this should read their own confessions as quoted in Dr. Sherwood
|
|||
|
|
Eddy's pamphlet, 'The Soviet War on Religion,' In 1923 the
|
|||
|
|
Patriarch of the Russian Church said in an address to his
|
|||
|
|
followers:
|
|||
|
|
Bank of Wisdom
|
|||
|
|
Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201
|
|||
|
|
16
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
IS THE POSITION OF ATHEISM GROWING STRONGER?
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
"We recognize our offense before the Soviet government,
|
|||
|
|
namely, our many passive and active anti-Soviet activities
|
|||
|
|
recounted in the charge laid against us in the Supreme Court."
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
The All-Russian Church Assembly in 1923 said:
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
"From the summer of 1917 onward the responsible leaders
|
|||
|
|
of the Church took up a definite counter-revolutionary
|
|||
|
|
attitude."
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
On November 5, 1927, a group of Catholic priests in the
|
|||
|
|
Ukraine published a letter in which they said:
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
"We have been guilty more than once of yielding to the
|
|||
|
|
temptation of political activity, frequently establishing
|
|||
|
|
relations with the agents of the Polish bourgeoisie and the
|
|||
|
|
Polish capitalist state."
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
A Catholic priest and protopresbyter, Nicholas Tolstoy, wrote
|
|||
|
|
a letter in a Kharkov paper in February, 1929, to say that, while
|
|||
|
|
he remained a Catholic, he renounced the priesthood on this ground:
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
"The Roman Catholic priesthood embodies all the hatred of
|
|||
|
|
the capitalist West to the Workers' government."
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
He said that priests in the Ukraine had for 10 years "acted as
|
|||
|
|
propagandists of Polish imperialism ... in full touch with Poland
|
|||
|
|
and with the blessing of the Vatican." In fine, the Anglo-Russian
|
|||
|
|
Catholic lady, Miss Almedingen, whose 'Catholic Church in Russia'
|
|||
|
|
gives a tearful story of persecution of priests in 1922 -- though
|
|||
|
|
the facts she honestly tells are mild as milk in comparison with
|
|||
|
|
the fiery mendacity written by priests in America -- admits that
|
|||
|
|
the charges against these priests "were of course true from a
|
|||
|
|
Soviet standpoint" (p. 96). The lady could hardly expect the Soviet
|
|||
|
|
courts to judge delinquent priests from the Vatican standpoint!
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
Let me recall to the mind of the reader that at the very time
|
|||
|
|
when a few priests were being shot -- Miss Almedingen gives only
|
|||
|
|
one such case -- or imprisoned in Russia hundreds of Socialists and
|
|||
|
|
Communists were being murdered in Italy, and the Pope was preparing
|
|||
|
|
to accept the red hand of Mussolini and was blessing the regime of
|
|||
|
|
tyranny and cruelty in Poland. You will have read all this in the
|
|||
|
|
'Appeal to Reason,' The Catholic attitude was cynical in the
|
|||
|
|
extreme, and the Pope richly deserves the world-opprobrium he has
|
|||
|
|
now drawn upon himself by his trimming over Ethiopia. As to the
|
|||
|
|
charge that the Soviet authorities brought about the mass-movement
|
|||
|
|
to Atheism by any sort of compulsion, the heads of the religious
|
|||
|
|
bodies in Russia repeatedly repudiated it. In 1928, while rabbis in
|
|||
|
|
New York were praying Jehovah and his Wall Street servants to
|
|||
|
|
punish the Russian Communists, 31 Russian-Jewish rabbis published
|
|||
|
|
a letter in which they said:
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
"The Jews living in the U.S.S.R. have received complete
|
|||
|
|
and absolute equality. There is not a single government in the
|
|||
|
|
world which has done as much for the Jewish people, persecuted
|
|||
|
|
for ages, as the Soviet government."
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
Bank of Wisdom
|
|||
|
|
Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201
|
|||
|
|
17
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
IS THE POSITION OF ATHEISM GROWING STRONGER?
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
On February 14, 1930, the Acting Patriarch, the Metropolitan
|
|||
|
|
of Saratov, the Archbishop of Khutinsk, and the bishop of Orekhovo
|
|||
|
|
Zueva signed a statement repudating all the stories of atrocities
|
|||
|
|
published in England and America in that year and declaring:
|
|||
|
|
"There has never been, nor is there, any persecution of
|
|||
|
|
religion in the U.S.S.R."
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
We need not go further. The cry has died away -- because there
|
|||
|
|
is no longer the least hope of intervention in Russia.
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
3. The Extent of Russian Atheism
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
Similar lies were told about the League of Militant Atheists
|
|||
|
|
which was represented as an instrument of the government for the
|
|||
|
|
destruction of Churches and the degrading of the minds of the
|
|||
|
|
people with cartoons and caricatures. The League is, and has always
|
|||
|
|
been, a voluntary association with a few million members for the
|
|||
|
|
education of the people in Atheism. It has no power to close or
|
|||
|
|
destroy churches, and none have been alienated or destroyed except
|
|||
|
|
at the demand of the great majority of the worshipers or, in a very
|
|||
|
|
few cases, to meet specific civic requirements. As to the
|
|||
|
|
caricatures, they were at least true and in better taste than some
|
|||
|
|
of the novels and even positive statements made about Russia. The
|
|||
|
|
Pope still mumbles as if the wild rumor that the Communists
|
|||
|
|
advocated Common ownership of women had not been exploded years
|
|||
|
|
ago.
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
I am not here to describe life in Russia -- we shall see it
|
|||
|
|
later -- but I would recommend any religious lady who shudders at
|
|||
|
|
the description given her of Russian character to reflect on this
|
|||
|
|
fact, which I take from the current issue of the highly respectable
|
|||
|
|
and conservative British Observer. It says that "Tolstoy's
|
|||
|
|
following in Russia has kept steady pace with the phenomenal growth
|
|||
|
|
of the number of Soviet readers." In 1917 only 26,000 copies of his
|
|||
|
|
works were published: in 1933 more than half a million. In 1935
|
|||
|
|
"nearly a million" volumes of his works will be published, and that
|
|||
|
|
will bring the total published since the Revolution to nearly
|
|||
|
|
12,000,000. And Tolstoy would be described even by parsons as one
|
|||
|
|
of the most spiritual and anti-sensual writers. Probably we shall
|
|||
|
|
next hear that Russia menaces the world with a mania for
|
|||
|
|
asceticism.
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
How many Atheists are there amongst the 160,000,000 people of
|
|||
|
|
the U.S.S.R.? The head of the League, Yaroslavsky, whom Dr.
|
|||
|
|
Sherwood Eddy calls a man of "transparent honesty and earnestness
|
|||
|
|
of character," said in August, 1932, that the most that could be
|
|||
|
|
claimed by the Church was that 100,000,000 Russians were still
|
|||
|
|
religious. There were then 5,500,000 members of the League of
|
|||
|
|
Militant Atheists: 40 percent of the Trade Unionists were Atheists:
|
|||
|
|
and not less than 10,000,000 workers on the collective farms were
|
|||
|
|
Atheists. That -- a total of at least 60,000,000 Atheists -- was
|
|||
|
|
the careful estimate of the chief expert in 1932. But the movement
|
|||
|
|
has spread very rapidly since that time. The collective farms, with
|
|||
|
|
their educational and atheistic atmosphere, have enormously
|
|||
|
|
increased, and the work in the towns has so far progressed that the
|
|||
|
|
League of Militant Atheists has recently decided to relax its
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
Bank of Wisdom
|
|||
|
|
Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201
|
|||
|
|
18
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
IS THE POSITION OF ATHEISM GROWING STRONGER?
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
efforts and leave it mainly to the schools and literature to
|
|||
|
|
complete' the work. Even in 1932, Yaroslavsky said, more than half
|
|||
|
|
the children of Russia were Atheists, and of the 5,500,000 members
|
|||
|
|
of the League nearly one-third were women. In carrying out its Five
|
|||
|
|
Year Plan the League had risen from 400,000 to 5,500,000 members,
|
|||
|
|
and the young Atheists' Association had risen from 10,000 to about
|
|||
|
|
2,000,000. Moreover, nearly 25,000,000 children were being educated
|
|||
|
|
in the entirely atheistic government schools.
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
It is temperate to conclude that with three further years of
|
|||
|
|
this zealous propaganda the Atheists must now be in a majority or
|
|||
|
|
must number something like 100,000,000, but for the purpose of this
|
|||
|
|
work I count only 80,000,000. The towns are over-whelmingly
|
|||
|
|
atheistic. Walter Duranty observed in 1931 that of the former 1,600
|
|||
|
|
churches of Moscow "only a scanty few" were left open, and these
|
|||
|
|
sufficed even at Easter for "the small but faithful remnant:"
|
|||
|
|
"Religion is dying in Moscow," he said. In villages that still had
|
|||
|
|
churches, he reported to the New York Times, 70 percent of the
|
|||
|
|
people were content with civic marriage and registering of births
|
|||
|
|
and deaths. Describing the destruction of one of the most venerated
|
|||
|
|
churches in Moscow, on which there had been tearful and shuddering
|
|||
|
|
comments in religious and many other papers, Duranty reported that
|
|||
|
|
there was no excitement in Moscow. "New Russia does not care," he
|
|||
|
|
said; "its past is dead, and it is glad." Next year a more
|
|||
|
|
intensive campaign of aggressive Atheism was inaugurated and the
|
|||
|
|
work proceeded with great success. Another correspondent who will
|
|||
|
|
certainly not be accused of bias in favor of either Atheism or
|
|||
|
|
Communism, Cummings of the London News-Chronicle, visited Russia in
|
|||
|
|
1935. He paid a remarkable tribute to the work that was being done,
|
|||
|
|
and he gave the gist of conversations he had with the people about
|
|||
|
|
religion. The younger, he said, have finished with religion: only
|
|||
|
|
some of the old folk cling to it.
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
Since exact figures are not obtainable, it is unnecessary to
|
|||
|
|
multiply these quotations. Correspondents like Duranty and
|
|||
|
|
Cummings, who know Russia and are recognized as impartial witnesses
|
|||
|
|
on such a matter as religion, all tell the same story. In the towns
|
|||
|
|
religion is "dead": that is to say, all but a small minority,
|
|||
|
|
estimated in Moscow at less than 10 percent, are Atheists. Tourists
|
|||
|
|
who go there with the belief that the government has forcibly
|
|||
|
|
suppressed religion write home ecstatically about the "crowds of
|
|||
|
|
worshippers" they saw in a church here and there, and professional
|
|||
|
|
religious correspondents beat up reports of an apostle in one place
|
|||
|
|
or another who promises a religious revival. But Atheism steadily
|
|||
|
|
and rapidly grows. The dense mass of the illiterate peasantry who
|
|||
|
|
were the most refractory to Atheism are being educated so rapidly
|
|||
|
|
that in provinces where 98 percent were illiterate 15 years ago,
|
|||
|
|
now 98 percent can read; and they do read. The agricultural trouble
|
|||
|
|
is practically over, and the collective farms have triumphed. All
|
|||
|
|
the children of the nation are being educated in schools in which
|
|||
|
|
the entire curriculum and all the teachers are atheistic and
|
|||
|
|
materialistic; while Russia already surpasses Germany, France, and
|
|||
|
|
Great Britain in the proportion of youths and girls who receive
|
|||
|
|
higher (and always atheistic) education. In 20 years the number of
|
|||
|
|
those who have ceased to be Christians and become Atheists in
|
|||
|
|
russia alone is well over 50,000,000 and nearer 100,000,000; and
|
|||
|
|
the majority of the remainder are old folk who will die out or the
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
Bank of Wisdom
|
|||
|
|
Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201
|
|||
|
|
19
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
IS THE POSITION OF ATHEISM GROWING STRONGER?
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
very backward peoples of Asiatic Russia who are already being
|
|||
|
|
educated out of their superstitions. But, as I said at the start,
|
|||
|
|
I am not going to put even the full legitimate weight on my
|
|||
|
|
evidence. Let us say that beyond question. 80,000,000 Russians, or
|
|||
|
|
one half, and the younger half of the population, are now Atheists.
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
CHAPTER IV
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
ATHEISM IN AMERICA AND ENGLAND
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
One of the desperate pleas of those who do not like to see the
|
|||
|
|
world passing away from Christianity is that there is "a
|
|||
|
|
considerable and increasing interest in religion." That is to say,
|
|||
|
|
they bully the press into giving a large space to the activities of
|
|||
|
|
the Churches and use their wealth to put religion on the ether
|
|||
|
|
(radio) and in the topical pictures, and then they ask us to be
|
|||
|
|
impressed. When some scientific man writes a book which seems to be
|
|||
|
|
favorable to religion, they boost its circulation and then flaunt
|
|||
|
|
the figures in our faces. Curiously, they never mention as an
|
|||
|
|
indication of interest in religion the immense circulation of
|
|||
|
|
280,000,000 Little Blue Books. But the best test of the sincerity
|
|||
|
|
of these people is that, as I said, not the least attempt is made
|
|||
|
|
to ascertain even approximately how many in the last 20 years have
|
|||
|
|
passed from Christianity to Atheism, though the figure obviously
|
|||
|
|
runs to tens of millions.
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
In the very conspicuous case of Russia the religious writer
|
|||
|
|
first says that the change has been brought about by compulsion,
|
|||
|
|
which you easily disprove, and then he objects that the fascination
|
|||
|
|
of some millions of peasants who have just learned to read for new
|
|||
|
|
ideas is unimportant and transitory. Again he completely ignores or
|
|||
|
|
misrepresents Russian experience. We might make a broad distinction
|
|||
|
|
of three intellectual levels in Russia. The highest is that of the
|
|||
|
|
higher officials, technical experts, professors, writers, artists,
|
|||
|
|
and all who have received higher education. No one questions that
|
|||
|
|
the man and women of this category are solidly atheistic. The
|
|||
|
|
second intellectual level is that of the skilled workers, town-
|
|||
|
|
workers generally, officials of third and fourth grade, and youths
|
|||
|
|
and young women who have had secondary or technical education.
|
|||
|
|
These are overwhelmingly, though not so completely, atheistic. The
|
|||
|
|
third level is that of the mass of the peasants, the great majority
|
|||
|
|
of whom were illiterate until a few years ago. And it is in that
|
|||
|
|
category that you find the remaining tens of millions of believers,
|
|||
|
|
and particularly in the remoter provinces where education is most
|
|||
|
|
difficult. To point out a few exceptions to this classification is
|
|||
|
|
polemical trickery. It is the broad truth that matters.
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
But the chief blunder of these people is to imagine that when
|
|||
|
|
we speak of Atheism in our time we are thinking only, or almost
|
|||
|
|
entirely, of Russia. There are today more Atheists outside Russia
|
|||
|
|
than there are under the Soviet rule, That is what I have now to
|
|||
|
|
show, and we will begin with a consideration of the number of
|
|||
|
|
Atheists in the United States and Great Britain.
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
Bank of Wisdom
|
|||
|
|
Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201
|
|||
|
|
20
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
IS THE POSITION OF ATHEISM GROWING STRONGER?
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
1. Statistics Made by Holy Men
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
The government of the United States was persuaded many years
|
|||
|
|
ago to omit from the census-papers the clause that asked a man's
|
|||
|
|
religious "affiliation." The clause itself was deliberately
|
|||
|
|
ambiguous and was intended to enable men and women to say that they
|
|||
|
|
had some sort of connection with a Church, or disliked it less than
|
|||
|
|
others, though they never attended its services. But skepticism
|
|||
|
|
continued to grow, and the clergy persuaded officials that the best
|
|||
|
|
way to ascertain how many Catholics and Protestants there are in
|
|||
|
|
the country is to ask the Churches. It must have tickled the genial
|
|||
|
|
cynicism of our civil servants, but they agreed. How nice and easy
|
|||
|
|
their work would be in the Treasury if they just had to ask a man
|
|||
|
|
what his income is and need not trouble to put any check on his
|
|||
|
|
statement.
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
As a result, naturally, we get fantastic figures of church-
|
|||
|
|
membership at which the clergy often smile. Dr. McConnell says in
|
|||
|
|
his Christianity, an Interpretation, (p. 229):
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
"Church statistics are worth less than nothing. It is
|
|||
|
|
probably speaking within bounds to say that not one parish in
|
|||
|
|
10 could find and locate one half the number of members it
|
|||
|
|
reports."
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
In the circumstances the preciseness of these religious
|
|||
|
|
statistics is an exquisite piece of humor. At the last census we
|
|||
|
|
learned that there were just 54,576,346 Christians in America. It
|
|||
|
|
conveyed an impression -- to some people -- of swarms of priests
|
|||
|
|
and parsons perspiring over their books and meticulously counting
|
|||
|
|
their sheep to the last unit.
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
I once, in my clerical days, was staying with a priest when,
|
|||
|
|
in my presence and talking to me about it all the time, he made up
|
|||
|
|
his figures for his own clerical authorities. These were not for
|
|||
|
|
publication, and his authorities demanded to know not only how many
|
|||
|
|
Catholics actually attended services but also how many there were
|
|||
|
|
in his parish who were baptized Catholics. He did not know the
|
|||
|
|
first figure within hundreds and the second within thousands but he
|
|||
|
|
reported that there were about 5,000 nominal Catholics in his
|
|||
|
|
parish and about 1,000 real Catholics. This was an exceptionally
|
|||
|
|
bad case for the people were wretchedly poor and the Church was not
|
|||
|
|
so keen as it would be in a comfortable suburb of Boston, but it
|
|||
|
|
illustrates how such statistics are made. At the best they mean
|
|||
|
|
only that a clergyman who keeps a register counts the names of all
|
|||
|
|
who were inscribed in it and not known to him to be dead. What
|
|||
|
|
proportion of them have given up their creed and never came near
|
|||
|
|
his church he has, as a rule, not the least idea.
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
The inconsistency and other peculiar features of the
|
|||
|
|
statistics give them away to any person who examines them closely.
|
|||
|
|
The Roman Catholics, for instance, counted their numbers in their
|
|||
|
|
Directory as 2,000,000 more than they figured in the Census of
|
|||
|
|
Religions, and their learned representative who was invited to
|
|||
|
|
write on them in the new edition of the Encyclopedia Britannica
|
|||
|
|
gave them a further 5,000,000 or so. They claimed even in the
|
|||
|
|
Census of 1926 that during the preceding 10 years they had, as
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
Bank of Wisdom
|
|||
|
|
Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201
|
|||
|
|
21
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
IS THE POSITION OF ATHEISM GROWING STRONGER?
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
usual, grown even more rapidly than the growth of population, yet
|
|||
|
|
on another page it appeared that, whereas in 1916 they had reported
|
|||
|
|
1,860,000 Sunday School pupils, and the admirable fertility of
|
|||
|
|
Catholic mothers ought to have raised this in 10 years to well over
|
|||
|
|
the 2,000,000 mark, they in 1926 reported only 1,201,000. They
|
|||
|
|
clearly lost nearly a million children of Sunday-School age in 10
|
|||
|
|
years yet boasted of an almost miraculous growth.
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
In No. 1 of the Appeal to Reason Library I carefully analyzed
|
|||
|
|
the Roman Catholic total for 1928. Different versions of that total
|
|||
|
|
in Catholic publications airily differed from each other by one to
|
|||
|
|
two millions, though each of them was precise to the final unit,
|
|||
|
|
and the 'Christian Century' made a careful estimate, on information
|
|||
|
|
supplied by the Catholic clergy themselves, which was more than
|
|||
|
|
3,000,000 less than the lowest Catholic estimate. I referred my
|
|||
|
|
readers for remarkable disclosures by Catholics to John F. Moores's
|
|||
|
|
work, Will 'America Become Catholic?' He shows that Catholic
|
|||
|
|
writers in some cases nearly doubled figures supplied by the
|
|||
|
|
priests for the purpose of the Census, and that even these latter
|
|||
|
|
figures were shown by Catholic local inquiry to be 30, 40, and in
|
|||
|
|
some cases nearly 50 percent exaggerated. He quotes a Catholic
|
|||
|
|
writer in a Catholic periodical complaining bitterly that the
|
|||
|
|
statistics supplied by the priests are "shockingly suggestive of
|
|||
|
|
either prevarication or down-right stupidity." They are, he says,
|
|||
|
|
"padded" and for the purpose of "deceiving ourselves and others."
|
|||
|
|
In short, I gave ample proof that Catholics in America number at
|
|||
|
|
the most 15,000,000 instead of 22,000,000 people. Any reader who
|
|||
|
|
cares to go back to my article in the Appeal will recognize that
|
|||
|
|
even the figure of 15,000,000 is optimistic.
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
2. The Sad Reality
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
I have already quoted Protestant divines making even larger
|
|||
|
|
deductions from their statistics, so we are fully assured that the
|
|||
|
|
figures are very high above the truth. Is it possible to have some
|
|||
|
|
sort of approximate idea how many do belong to the various
|
|||
|
|
Christian bodies? Church going is still the safest test, for the
|
|||
|
|
small number of genuine Christians who never attend any church is
|
|||
|
|
more than offset by the number of those who do attend but do not
|
|||
|
|
accept the creed in any fashion, even in the Modernist
|
|||
|
|
interpretation of it. And the assurances of religious writers and
|
|||
|
|
impartial observers which I have repeatedly quoted make it quite
|
|||
|
|
plain that the number falls enormously short of the figure of
|
|||
|
|
50,000,000 to 60,000,000 which is usually given. In the Catholic
|
|||
|
|
Fortnightly Review for January 1, 1927, it was pointed out that for
|
|||
|
|
one Catholic diocese the Census figure was 21,268 and the Catholic
|
|||
|
|
Directory figure, 39,450, for the same year. But I have made it
|
|||
|
|
quite clear that the Catholic one-third of the supposed total
|
|||
|
|
number of Christians must be reduced by 30 percent, and we may
|
|||
|
|
safely make the same deduction from all the figures.
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
This would give the real number of church-going folk as about
|
|||
|
|
40,000,000. Seeing that, as I will tell in a moment, the clerical
|
|||
|
|
authorities in Great Britain admit that they hold only one-fifth of
|
|||
|
|
the population, to allow that the Churches in America control one-
|
|||
|
|
third seems too generous. Probably the very much larger proportion
|
|||
|
|
of rural population and the colored folk of the southern states do
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
Bank of Wisdom
|
|||
|
|
Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201
|
|||
|
|
22
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
IS THE POSITION OF ATHEISM GROWING STRONGER?
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
give the American churches a higher percentage than the British:
|
|||
|
|
though in the circumstances it is not a matter to boast about. But
|
|||
|
|
let us not be finicky. Let us give them a round 40,000,000 for all
|
|||
|
|
Churches. When I was running the 'Militant Atheist,' I quoted from
|
|||
|
|
the ordinary press one witness after another declaring from
|
|||
|
|
personal observation and inquiry that nothing like one-third of the
|
|||
|
|
people go to church. But, as I said, let us have a little Christian
|
|||
|
|
charity or generosity.
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
This leaves at least 80,000,000 Americans who do not attend
|
|||
|
|
church, chapel, or synagogue. Now, how many of these are Atheists?
|
|||
|
|
Well, your guess is almost as good is mine, but let me give you a
|
|||
|
|
few pointers. First, if only 30 percent of the ordinary professors
|
|||
|
|
of science in the universities and higher colleges believe in a
|
|||
|
|
personal God, we suspect that the proportion is not likely to be
|
|||
|
|
higher among their pupils. Professor Leuba made an exact inquiry of
|
|||
|
|
some interest more than 20 years ago. He had a questionnaire
|
|||
|
|
distributed in nine colleges and received 927 replies from students
|
|||
|
|
of 18, 19 and 20 years. It turned out that 56 percent of the young
|
|||
|
|
men believed in a personal God (82 percent of the girls), but we
|
|||
|
|
are not told if any of the colleges were religious or under
|
|||
|
|
religious influence. More instructive was the result of an inquiry
|
|||
|
|
into the belief in immortality in a college of such religious
|
|||
|
|
respectability that even Roman Catholics were found in it. Here
|
|||
|
|
80.3 percent of the freshmen, 76.2 of the sophomores, 60 percent of
|
|||
|
|
the juniors, and 70.1 percent of the seniors believed in
|
|||
|
|
immortality; and the greater amount of belief amongst seniors than
|
|||
|
|
juniors was explained by the fact, which all attested, of the
|
|||
|
|
"intellectual superiority of the junior class." In both
|
|||
|
|
investigations many refused to reply. We see that a very high
|
|||
|
|
proportion lose their beliefs in transit through college. Nearly
|
|||
|
|
half (or 40 percent) of the male students of senior rank became or
|
|||
|
|
were Atheists.
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
But this was a few years before 1916, or more than 20 years
|
|||
|
|
ago, and it will hardly be questioned that there is much more
|
|||
|
|
skepticism among the men, and especially the young women, today.
|
|||
|
|
Unfortunately we have had no further exact inquiries and can only
|
|||
|
|
conclude that the Christian young men who write to the papers to
|
|||
|
|
say that there was not a single Atheist in their colleges were
|
|||
|
|
either brought up in cotton wool or mean by Atheist what no Atheist
|
|||
|
|
does mean. Taking middle class and working class together it is
|
|||
|
|
impossible to say statistically what proportion of the 80,000,000
|
|||
|
|
non-Christian Americans are Atheists. It would be of considerable
|
|||
|
|
service if Atheists would make careful reports, based upon entirely
|
|||
|
|
impartial personal knowledge and inquiry, what proportion of the
|
|||
|
|
non-church-going people whom they can reach are Atheists. I have
|
|||
|
|
made extensive inquiries of this kind in England, and both in
|
|||
|
|
England and America it is my favorite practice, not to inspect
|
|||
|
|
civic halls and other buildings, but to eat in every variety of
|
|||
|
|
eating-shop and listen to the conversation of the people
|
|||
|
|
everywhere. We must further take into account the tone of the
|
|||
|
|
literature the people read, the plays and talkies and vaudeville
|
|||
|
|
they prefer. In a later number of this series of essays I will
|
|||
|
|
carefully analyze the change that has, in spite of censors, come
|
|||
|
|
over this kind of literature and entertainment, but everybody knows
|
|||
|
|
that the situation today reveals that tens of millions not only
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
Bank of Wisdom
|
|||
|
|
Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201
|
|||
|
|
23
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
IS THE POSITION OF ATHEISM GROWING STRONGER?
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
want "godless" novels and shows but keenly enjoy any jest about
|
|||
|
|
religion that the censors permit. Certainly one-fourth, probably a
|
|||
|
|
third, of the non-church goers do not believe in God. But I have
|
|||
|
|
better material for judgment in the case of England, where the
|
|||
|
|
situation must be much the same as in America.
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
3. England Passing to Atheism
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
First let us get the number of church-going folk in England
|
|||
|
|
and Wales (which have joint statistics). I have repeatedly pointed
|
|||
|
|
out during the last 10 years that the combined Churches, which
|
|||
|
|
every year supply their figures of membership, to such annuals as
|
|||
|
|
the 'Statesman's Year Book' and 'Whitaker's Almanack,' do not claim
|
|||
|
|
even one-fourth of the population of England and Wales; and it is
|
|||
|
|
the same in Scotland, yet, such is the general educational
|
|||
|
|
atmosphere in which we live that I still find a skeptical London
|
|||
|
|
audience surprised when I mention the fact. There is now little
|
|||
|
|
excuse for surprise. In 1934 the heads of the Church of England
|
|||
|
|
appointed a committee to make as severe an inquiry as possible into
|
|||
|
|
these figures, and the published result was that of the 40,000,000
|
|||
|
|
people of England and Wales between 80 and 90 percent do not go to
|
|||
|
|
church. The clergy now put it that they control only one-fifth of
|
|||
|
|
the population;. and this has recently been repeated by Father
|
|||
|
|
Knox, one of the leading Roman Catholic propagandists. It is
|
|||
|
|
therefore an admitted figure that 32,000,000 people in Great
|
|||
|
|
Britain do not belong to any Church or attend any services. The
|
|||
|
|
true figure is probably higher. There are churches within a mile of
|
|||
|
|
my home of which the ministers refuse to marry any who will not
|
|||
|
|
submit and induce their families to submit to baptism first; and so
|
|||
|
|
urgent is the craving of girls for the picturesque church-wedding
|
|||
|
|
that I know of whole families of Atheists who, with sonorous
|
|||
|
|
cursing behind the parson's back, submitted. They, of course, never
|
|||
|
|
entered the church again, but they are on the list of members of
|
|||
|
|
the Church of England. I see all round me people, of the one-tenth
|
|||
|
|
or one-twentieth of church-goers in London, who "affiliate"
|
|||
|
|
avowedly for social reasons.
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
These people, as I said, offset the number of folk who
|
|||
|
|
genuinely and deliberately believe in God or Christianity yet never
|
|||
|
|
go to church. But what proportion of the 32,000,000 are Atheists?
|
|||
|
|
Inquiries which I have had made into the frame of mind -- that is
|
|||
|
|
what it really comes to -- of dozens of middle-class and working-
|
|||
|
|
class families which do not go to church yet have no connection
|
|||
|
|
with atheistic associations and have never read atheistic
|
|||
|
|
literature report that about half are scornfully atheistic and in
|
|||
|
|
the other half one gets a value frame of mind shading from "I don't
|
|||
|
|
know -- I think there must be something in it" to a definite belief
|
|||
|
|
that there must be a God who "made the world." The real difficulty
|
|||
|
|
in counting Atheists is that between the men and women who
|
|||
|
|
emphatically say they do not believe there is a God -- they
|
|||
|
|
generally refer to the cruelty of life and the hypocrisy of the
|
|||
|
|
clergy and religious people -- and the men and women who promptly
|
|||
|
|
and definitely say they do believe, there are millions who never
|
|||
|
|
think about the subject until they are asked, and they are then apt
|
|||
|
|
to say that "there must be something in it." Without hesitation we
|
|||
|
|
may say that at least a fourth of them, probably a third, have no
|
|||
|
|
belief in God.
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
Bank of Wisdom
|
|||
|
|
Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201
|
|||
|
|
24
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
IS THE POSITION OF ATHEISM GROWING STRONGER?
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
And this is strongly confirmed by the few attempts that have
|
|||
|
|
been made to elicit their opinions. About a dozen years ago -- I
|
|||
|
|
have lost the cutting and this remarkable experience is never
|
|||
|
|
mentioned in books on religion -- the 'Daily News' urged its
|
|||
|
|
readers to reply to 14 questions about religion. Of the 500,000
|
|||
|
|
readers of the paper, which was the favored daily paper of
|
|||
|
|
Methodists and Baptists, Only 15,168 filled out the questionnaire,
|
|||
|
|
though for two months they were implored to do so, and many
|
|||
|
|
clergymen joined in the request. I do not see how any man, in such
|
|||
|
|
circumstances and in view of the semi-religious character of the
|
|||
|
|
paper, can suggest a reason why a disproportionate number of
|
|||
|
|
Atheists should reply; yet of the 15,000, only 9,991 said that they
|
|||
|
|
believed in a personal God and 2,686 said they did not. By
|
|||
|
|
arrangement the questions were published simultaneously in the
|
|||
|
|
London Nation, a middle-class weekly. Of those who replied in this
|
|||
|
|
case 537 professed belief and 736 rejected the belief. The figures
|
|||
|
|
are so small that we can do no more than draw the broad conclusion
|
|||
|
|
that the proportion of Atheists amongst non-church goers is very,
|
|||
|
|
high, It confirms my moderate estimate that at least a third of
|
|||
|
|
them do not believe in God.
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
The cultural level is so much the same in England and America
|
|||
|
|
that the admission of the British heads of Churches, that they have
|
|||
|
|
lost four-fifths of the people, suggests a parallel situation in
|
|||
|
|
America. If one accepts that suggestion, the number of non-church
|
|||
|
|
goers in America rises to more than 90,000,000, and at least a
|
|||
|
|
fourth of these have no religious beliefs. The time has gone by for
|
|||
|
|
admitting the frivolous claim that people who never go to church
|
|||
|
|
are really Christians without the church-going habit. In September,
|
|||
|
|
1935, the Dean of St. Paul's Cathedral (London), one of the abler
|
|||
|
|
officials of the Church of England, said at a Church conference:
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
"I do not believe that more than 20 percent of the people
|
|||
|
|
of this country are in any possible sense of the word
|
|||
|
|
Christians."
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
We have no reason whatever to speak different of the 80,000,000 or
|
|||
|
|
more Americans who never go to church, and one is surely very
|
|||
|
|
generous in entertaining the idea that even one half of them
|
|||
|
|
cherish a pure theistic belief though they never hear a sermon and
|
|||
|
|
few read religious books.
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
CHAPTER V
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
THE SPREAD OF ATHEISM IN EUROPE
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
The similarity of cultural and clerical conditions in America
|
|||
|
|
and Great Britain and the absence of any large atheistic political
|
|||
|
|
party justify me in considering both apart from the condition of
|
|||
|
|
continental Europe. There we have an extraordinary situation. In
|
|||
|
|
nearly half of Europe, apart from European Russia, Atheism is
|
|||
|
|
proscribed and persecuted. It is regarded as a symptom if not a
|
|||
|
|
cause of political views. Hence not even the most resolute sophist
|
|||
|
|
will ask us to measure Atheism in Fascist countries today by
|
|||
|
|
expressions of it. We must measure its growth in the last period in
|
|||
|
|
which Atheists had freedom of expression, and this will provide us
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
Bank of Wisdom
|
|||
|
|
Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201
|
|||
|
|
25
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
IS THE POSITION OF ATHEISM GROWING STRONGER?
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
with some formidable statistics. In other countries we must proceed
|
|||
|
|
much as we have done in regard to America, though in some of them,
|
|||
|
|
even in small countries, we have official registers of professions
|
|||
|
|
of Atheism which must surprise those who are not on the alert for
|
|||
|
|
such matters.
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
1. The Triumph in Germany
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
German statistics of religion show only the complete
|
|||
|
|
worthlessness of the kind of "religious statistics" that are still
|
|||
|
|
published annually in works of reference and included in
|
|||
|
|
encyclopedias which pride themselves on their accuracy. They take
|
|||
|
|
from the official annual, the 'Statisches Jahrbuch,' the statement,
|
|||
|
|
represented as based upon the declarations of the people
|
|||
|
|
themselves, that as late as 1933 the Germans were 62.7 percent
|
|||
|
|
Protestant (40,000,000) and 32.5 percent Catholic (21,000,000).
|
|||
|
|
None are put in the category of "no religion." Yet in the preceding
|
|||
|
|
year the Catholics, who have their own political (Center) party and
|
|||
|
|
are rigorously bound to vote for its candidates, cast only 12
|
|||
|
|
percent instead of 32 percent of the total votes! I have elsewhere
|
|||
|
|
explained that these neglected figures really provide the key to
|
|||
|
|
the situation in Germany today. Roman Catholicism is in ruins. It
|
|||
|
|
has in about 10 years lost more than 10,000,000 of its working-
|
|||
|
|
class adherents and can therefore be treated by Hitler as an almost
|
|||
|
|
negligible factor in the political situation. We are expected to be
|
|||
|
|
patient and polite while Catholic publications in America boast of
|
|||
|
|
a few tens of thousands of converts snatched from other Churches
|
|||
|
|
and deny this enormous loss of millions in Germany by giving that
|
|||
|
|
country the conventional figure of 20,000,000 followers of the
|
|||
|
|
Vatican.
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
Until about 20 years ago Germany was in much the same
|
|||
|
|
condition as regards religion as America and Great Britain. In the
|
|||
|
|
cities at least four-fifths of the people never attend church-
|
|||
|
|
services of any sort, and the "best sellers" amongst the thoughtful
|
|||
|
|
reading public were Atheists like Nietzsche and Haeckel. It was
|
|||
|
|
said during the war that half the soldiers had Nietzsche in their
|
|||
|
|
bags and half the Bible. The one very important difference was that
|
|||
|
|
Socialism counted millions of followers amongst the workers, and it
|
|||
|
|
was preponderantly or quite generally atheistic. Its great leaders
|
|||
|
|
had all been, and in fact were 20 years ago, outspoken Atheists.
|
|||
|
|
The Russian Revolution gave an impetus to Communism, and between
|
|||
|
|
1923 and 1933 it spread so widely that the fear of its capturing
|
|||
|
|
Germany was made the pretext for the propagation of Fascism (as
|
|||
|
|
Nazism really is) and the burning, of the Reichstag by the Nazis to
|
|||
|
|
secure their triumph.
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
This strength of the Communists and Socialists at the last
|
|||
|
|
free elections in 1932 gives us an exact indication of the minimum
|
|||
|
|
number of Atheists in Germany. I say minimum because just the same
|
|||
|
|
proportion of Atheists were found in the middle class as in other
|
|||
|
|
advanced countries. The Communists were solidly and aggressively
|
|||
|
|
atheistic, and, though there had been attempts to get rid of the
|
|||
|
|
old aggressive Atheism of the Socialists, no Catholic could belong
|
|||
|
|
to the party, and, if any Protestants or other Theists did, their
|
|||
|
|
number was far more than counterbalanced by the millions of
|
|||
|
|
Atheists in the middle class and the non-Socialist working class.
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
Bank of Wisdom
|
|||
|
|
Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201
|
|||
|
|
26
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
IS THE POSITION OF ATHEISM GROWING STRONGER?
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
The Nazis themselves are, as their treatment of both Churches
|
|||
|
|
plainly shows, very largely Atheists. We may therefore take the
|
|||
|
|
number of Communists and Socialists as at least a minimum
|
|||
|
|
indication of the growth of Atheism.
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
We find that, while the Catholics polled 4,230,644 votes at
|
|||
|
|
the last free election (November, 1932), the Communists cast
|
|||
|
|
5,980,540 votes and the Socialists 7,251,752. Had it not been for
|
|||
|
|
their unhappy mutual hostility they would now, or in a few years,
|
|||
|
|
be the majority in Germany. Together they obtained 13,232,292 out
|
|||
|
|
of a national total of 35,148,470 votes, or nearly 40 percent of
|
|||
|
|
the whole. Here we have plain indication that by 1932 at least 40
|
|||
|
|
percent of the people of Germany, or about 24,000,000 men, women,
|
|||
|
|
and children, had become Atheists. I have already said that for
|
|||
|
|
some years the Socialist body has not been homogeneously atheistic,
|
|||
|
|
but the bitter denunciation of the body by Catholic and other
|
|||
|
|
Church authorities has prevented it from attracting any large
|
|||
|
|
number of religious voters. These are negligible in comparison with
|
|||
|
|
the vast number of Atheists in the middle class and the ranks of
|
|||
|
|
the Nazi movement itself. At least 30,000,000 of the 65,000,000
|
|||
|
|
people of Germany are now Atheists in the proper sense of the word.
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
2. France, Spain, and Italy
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
France is the classic land of Atheism in Europe. In spite of
|
|||
|
|
long periods of political reaction at various times in the 19th
|
|||
|
|
Century the French nation never returned with deep and genuine
|
|||
|
|
attachment to the Roman religion which it spontaneously deserted
|
|||
|
|
from about 1792 to 1800 (when Napoleon reimposed it). The year 1880
|
|||
|
|
fairly marks the final defeat of Roman Catholicism and the complete
|
|||
|
|
secularization of the life of the country. The annexation of
|
|||
|
|
hundreds of thousands of Catholic Alsatians and Lorrainers added to
|
|||
|
|
the strength of the Church in 1919, and the dread of the Pope's
|
|||
|
|
influence in those disaffected provinces has in the last 16 years
|
|||
|
|
moderated the anti-clerical note. But, as I have elsewhere shown,
|
|||
|
|
even French Catholic writers do not claim that there are more than
|
|||
|
|
6,000,000 "practicing Catholics" in the country; and I need only
|
|||
|
|
remark that I am myself, in theology, the kind of person they call
|
|||
|
|
a non-practicing Catholic, to show how absurd the distinction is.
|
|||
|
|
I have proved that there are only about 5,000,000 Catholics and
|
|||
|
|
less than a million Protestants in the population of 40,000,000.
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
The religious belief or unbelief of the 34,000,000 who, though
|
|||
|
|
they may often get the priest to bury their dead and baptize their
|
|||
|
|
children -- a matter of custom -- are cynically opposed to all
|
|||
|
|
Churches and all attempts to found a theistic or spiritualist
|
|||
|
|
religion, can hardly be in serious doubt. To the enormous majority
|
|||
|
|
of them religion means only one thing, Catholicism, and they have
|
|||
|
|
rejected it. No people so thoroughly appreciate jokes at the
|
|||
|
|
expense of religion and its petit bon Dieu (good little God) as the
|
|||
|
|
French do. The atheistic note is predominant in every town, and the
|
|||
|
|
10,000,000 Radical-Socialist, Socialist, and Communist organized
|
|||
|
|
workers are solidly atheistic. Add a large proportion of the non-
|
|||
|
|
Socialist but republican workers and nearly the whole of the middle
|
|||
|
|
class, and you see that considerably more than half the population
|
|||
|
|
is atheistic. We can safely say that there is a minimum of
|
|||
|
|
20,000,000 Atheists in France.
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
Bank of Wisdom
|
|||
|
|
Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201
|
|||
|
|
27
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
IS THE POSITION OF ATHEISM GROWING STRONGER?
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
In Italy there are at present no aggressive Atheists and there
|
|||
|
|
is little open expression of Atheism. It was part of the bargain
|
|||
|
|
with the Pope that critics of religion should be imprisoned. The
|
|||
|
|
law, it is true, cannot be strictly applied, for Atheists formed a
|
|||
|
|
large part of the Fascist movement which bore Mussolini, who seems
|
|||
|
|
still to be an Atheist, to power. We must, however, take the
|
|||
|
|
situation as it was before Mussolini passed his infamous laws for
|
|||
|
|
the restriction of liberty. In 1908 I proved in my 'Decay of the
|
|||
|
|
Church of Rome' that already at least 6,000,000 Italians had
|
|||
|
|
quitted the Church. Higher teaching was mainly in the hands of
|
|||
|
|
Atheists, and popular and rather caustic atheistic weeklies had a
|
|||
|
|
circulation of more than a million amongst the workers. From that
|
|||
|
|
date the Socialist movement, which in Italy is atheistic and
|
|||
|
|
bitterly condemned by the Church, rapidly advanced. At the election
|
|||
|
|
of 1919, the last entirely free election, it secured 1,840,593 out
|
|||
|
|
of a national total of 3,500,000 votes. Atheistic Socialism and
|
|||
|
|
Communism had won the immense majority of the town-workers and a
|
|||
|
|
very large part of the peasants. But I have thoroughly examined the
|
|||
|
|
situation in the 'Appeal to Reason' (No. 1) and will merely quote
|
|||
|
|
my conclusion that there were at least 10,000,000 Atheists in
|
|||
|
|
Italy. Thousands are dead or in jail but persecution has changed no
|
|||
|
|
opinions.
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
In the same quarterly I have examined the religious situation
|
|||
|
|
in Spain and shown that it corresponds closely to that of Italy.
|
|||
|
|
Until the Catholic intriguer Gil Robles and the treacherous Lerroux
|
|||
|
|
took advantage of the quarrels of Socialists and Communists to
|
|||
|
|
destroy the power of both, they had been for some years the
|
|||
|
|
dominant party in the government. What splendid work their
|
|||
|
|
atheistic leaders did we shall see later. Even today so powerful is
|
|||
|
|
the anti-Roman sentiment in the towns that the masterful Robles has
|
|||
|
|
been checked for more than a year in his attempts to restore the
|
|||
|
|
full power of Church and monarchy. At all events, the results of
|
|||
|
|
both municipal and general elections showed to the end of 1933 that
|
|||
|
|
the Socialists, Communists, and other atheistic bodies controlled
|
|||
|
|
half the voters. Anti-clericals generally had 255 out of the 463
|
|||
|
|
deputies to the Cortes. In Latin countries anti-clerical generally
|
|||
|
|
means Atheist. God is to them the God of the Catholic Church.
|
|||
|
|
Except in cultivated circles there is virtually no literature
|
|||
|
|
urging people to believe in any other sort of God, and the popular
|
|||
|
|
press does not, as in America, keep up the pretense that ours is a
|
|||
|
|
Christian civilization under the presidency of a deity.
|
|||
|
|
Protestantism they disdain, and by "religion" they almost
|
|||
|
|
invariably mean the Roman creed. In such circumstances it is
|
|||
|
|
temperate to conclude that of the 55,000,000 anti-clericals of
|
|||
|
|
France, Italy, Spain, and Portugal at least 40,000,000 have no
|
|||
|
|
belief in God.
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
3. In the Smaller Countries
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
It is enough for my purpose in this essay to indicate the
|
|||
|
|
existence of the larger bodies of Atheists, which run to millions
|
|||
|
|
or tens of millions, so I need not examine every country in Europe.
|
|||
|
|
In fact, there are few cases in which it is possible to use exact
|
|||
|
|
statistics as a base, but there are several such cases, and they
|
|||
|
|
are very significant. Census reports are apt to be, as I have shown
|
|||
|
|
in the case of Germany, quite ridiculous, but wherever in a Census
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
Bank of Wisdom
|
|||
|
|
Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201
|
|||
|
|
28
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
IS THE POSITION OF ATHEISM GROWING STRONGER?
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
a body of men and women write down that they have "no religion" we
|
|||
|
|
may certainly take these as the more definite or aggressive
|
|||
|
|
Atheists of that country. On the other hand, the smallness in some
|
|||
|
|
cases of the number of those who so describe themselves is not in
|
|||
|
|
the least a proof of the scantiness of Atheists. In Sweden and
|
|||
|
|
Norway, for instance, the number is negligible, yet one has only to
|
|||
|
|
reflect that in those countries the Socialists are so powerful that
|
|||
|
|
they are sometimes described as Socialist states; and any person
|
|||
|
|
who imagines that the immense body of Swedish Socialists and
|
|||
|
|
Communists, who together number more than a million adults in a
|
|||
|
|
population of 6,000,000 are religious is very far astray.
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
Whatever be the routine of demanding one's religious
|
|||
|
|
description in Norway and Sweden, there is complete liberty in
|
|||
|
|
Czechoslovakia and Holland, and the result is interesting. In
|
|||
|
|
Czechoslovakia, the 14,000,000 people of which are so predominantly
|
|||
|
|
agricultural that there are only six cities with more than 50,000
|
|||
|
|
people, no less than 854,638 adults reported themselves at the
|
|||
|
|
Census of 1931 as of "no religion." It would be a desperate
|
|||
|
|
apologist who would try to persuade us that "no religion" means
|
|||
|
|
simply no Church. The Freethought movement is stronger in
|
|||
|
|
Czechoslovakia, where the atheistic President Masaryk has for
|
|||
|
|
decades been the chief popular idol, than in any other country in
|
|||
|
|
Europe. In July of last year (1935) there was a demonstration in
|
|||
|
|
the great square at Prague by 40,000 Atheists. This body grew up
|
|||
|
|
independently of the anti-clericalism of Socialists and Communists,
|
|||
|
|
who now number 1,700,000 adult voters. Doubtless many of these
|
|||
|
|
figure also in the statistics of Freethinkers, but it is clear that
|
|||
|
|
there must be, counting their families (generally) with the adults,
|
|||
|
|
2,000,000 to 3,000,000 Atheists in the small country.
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
Holland, with a population of only 8,000,000, returned no less
|
|||
|
|
than 1,144,393 men and women as of "no religion" at the Census of
|
|||
|
|
1930. We are thus fortunate in having precise statistics in a few
|
|||
|
|
cases, and these give us some clue to the situation in other
|
|||
|
|
countries. Denmark, for instance, is certainly not behind Holland
|
|||
|
|
in the growth of advanced opinions. Belgium has a million
|
|||
|
|
Socialists and Communists, Poland half a million, even Bulgaria
|
|||
|
|
about 200,000. Austria had, until Dollfuss and the religious
|
|||
|
|
criminal Starhemberg brought out their artillery, a formidable body
|
|||
|
|
of 1,578,000 Socialists and Communists, and the massacre of some
|
|||
|
|
hundreds has not induced the remainder to become convinced that
|
|||
|
|
there is a God in the heavens. The only prayer they say is probably
|
|||
|
|
that which Catholic neighbors in Bavaria mutter under their Nazi
|
|||
|
|
authorities:
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
Lieber Herrgott, mach mich stumm,
|
|||
|
|
Dass Ich nicht in Dochau Kumm.
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
Which may be translated: "Dear God, make me dumb so that I won't
|
|||
|
|
give myself away." Thus even if we suppose that little more than a
|
|||
|
|
tenth of the population of these smaller countries of Europe are
|
|||
|
|
Atheists, it adds some 10,000,000 to our total; and I have given
|
|||
|
|
precise evidence that in many of them the number of Atheists is
|
|||
|
|
nearer one-fifth than one-tenth.
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
Bank of Wisdom
|
|||
|
|
Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201
|
|||
|
|
29
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
IS THE POSITION OF ATHEISM GROWING STRONGER?
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
CHAPTER VI
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
SWEEPING THE WORLD
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
Let me repeat that the chief basis of my estimate consists of
|
|||
|
|
statistics that cannot be controverted. All Communists in Europe
|
|||
|
|
are Atheists, and from Great Britain, where the old anti-clerical
|
|||
|
|
tradition of Labor has been abandoned for the sake of enlarging the
|
|||
|
|
party, Socialists are with few exceptions Atheists. In Austria,
|
|||
|
|
Portugal, Spain, Italy, France, and Belgium, Socialism is under the
|
|||
|
|
ban of the ruling Church, and religious workers do not adopt it. I
|
|||
|
|
have, however, made allowance for whatever proportion of theistic
|
|||
|
|
workers there may be in the Socialist bodies of Sweden, Norway, and
|
|||
|
|
Switzerland by almost ignoring the very large amount of non-
|
|||
|
|
Socialistic Atheism. These figures we have further checked and
|
|||
|
|
confirmed wherever possible by the explicit professions of unbelief
|
|||
|
|
registered in the Census publications. We have thus found the
|
|||
|
|
historic law of the growth of Atheism fully verified in our own
|
|||
|
|
age. Where there is freedom of expression and a sound system of
|
|||
|
|
education Atheism spreads rapidly. Outside the countries which I
|
|||
|
|
have so far covered we find the people generally in a lamentable
|
|||
|
|
condition of illiteracy, but we have now to see how even amongst
|
|||
|
|
these, in proportion to the dissemination of knowledge, there is a
|
|||
|
|
rapid growth of Atheism.
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
1. The Spread in Asia
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
For many years there has been in Moscow a center for the
|
|||
|
|
training of missionaries of Atheism as well as Communism, and
|
|||
|
|
these, spreading over the world as far as South Africa and Latin
|
|||
|
|
America, have met with a far more abundant response than the
|
|||
|
|
missionaries of the Christian faith ever did. Even where the
|
|||
|
|
Communism has not been very widely accepted, the anti-religious
|
|||
|
|
gospel, coinciding with influences that had been at work for many
|
|||
|
|
years, has had remarkable results. One of the most surprising is
|
|||
|
|
the rapid spread of Atheism amongst the African people. It
|
|||
|
|
illustrates the dishonesty with which the interests of the Churches
|
|||
|
|
are promoted that neither press nor writers on religion ever refer
|
|||
|
|
to a fact which seems to people, when you draw their attention to
|
|||
|
|
it, one of the most singular developments of our time from the
|
|||
|
|
religious viewpoint: the fact that in the official publication of
|
|||
|
|
the last Census taken in the Union of South Africa of a total black
|
|||
|
|
population of about 5,000,000 more than half, or 3,062,669, are
|
|||
|
|
described as of no religion. I collected evidence years ago that
|
|||
|
|
skepticism was spreading rapidly amongst the natives through their
|
|||
|
|
contact with Europeans and their cynical experience of the
|
|||
|
|
Christian religion. Here -- the figure will be found in the
|
|||
|
|
'Statesman's Year Book' -- we have a definite proof for one part of
|
|||
|
|
Africa. The movement spreads up the east as far as Egypt and there
|
|||
|
|
is a parallel movement in west Africa. A colored friend with mining
|
|||
|
|
interests far in the interior of west-central Africa, which he knew
|
|||
|
|
well, assured me that if I would accompany him, the chief would
|
|||
|
|
gladly have me give scientific and atheistic talks to his people,
|
|||
|
|
and students in colleges in the coast-provinces have written me in
|
|||
|
|
appreciation of my Little Blue Books. I will not even attempt to
|
|||
|
|
suggest a figure in the case of Africa. It is enough that here is
|
|||
|
|
a development of Atheism, running to millions, which a quarter of
|
|||
|
|
a century ago would have seemed impossible.
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
Bank of Wisdom
|
|||
|
|
Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201
|
|||
|
|
30
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
IS THE POSITION OF ATHEISM GROWING STRONGER?
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
Nor can we suggest even an approximate figure for the millions
|
|||
|
|
of Atheists in Asia. Every reader will remember the alarm of
|
|||
|
|
American missionaries a few years ago when Communists inspired by
|
|||
|
|
Russia took over a whole immense province of China, and the people
|
|||
|
|
burned down Christian chapels and Buddhist or Taoist temples with
|
|||
|
|
equal satisfaction. The No-God Movement spread through the cities
|
|||
|
|
of other parts of China, but I find it impossible to learn what the
|
|||
|
|
situation is in the chaotic China of today. A family of adventurers
|
|||
|
|
in Peking won the support of white nations and the missionaries by
|
|||
|
|
being "converted" to Christianity, and they and the missionaries
|
|||
|
|
are now smoothing the way for the Japanese. We can say only that
|
|||
|
|
the Atheism which has for centuries been the general attitude of
|
|||
|
|
the educated men both in China and Japan is being adopted by
|
|||
|
|
millions of the people as education reaches them and literature in
|
|||
|
|
the modernized Chinese characters is provided.
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
From China, India (where already a large proportion of the
|
|||
|
|
educated were Atheists), and Asiatic Russia the stream flows in all
|
|||
|
|
directions. French writers find the new thought threatening their
|
|||
|
|
position in the sphere they control and admit; as the English do in
|
|||
|
|
India, that their occupation is only a matter of time, and their
|
|||
|
|
Christian missions will then go up in smoke. An article in the
|
|||
|
|
'Revue des Deux Mondes' (practically a Catholic magazine) in June,
|
|||
|
|
1934, on the situation in Annam admitted that the province was full
|
|||
|
|
of Communism and hatred of the priests. The Viet Nam Con San Dang
|
|||
|
|
(the Communist party of Annam) is so successful that the governor,
|
|||
|
|
Varenne (himself a skeptic), said: "I feel easy only about two
|
|||
|
|
elements -- the missionaries and the soldiers." To describe this
|
|||
|
|
and other Asiatic movements as a seething of the more ignorant
|
|||
|
|
natives, as is often done, is dishonest. The writer of this article
|
|||
|
|
admits that the schools and colleges are the centers of the
|
|||
|
|
ferment, and the teachers are the chief leaders. The movement is,
|
|||
|
|
of course, atheistic. I trust I tell enough to stimulate some
|
|||
|
|
leisured Atheist to make a more thorough and detailed survey of the
|
|||
|
|
world from our viewpoint, but here I have space only for a word
|
|||
|
|
about Turkey. In the 'Militant Atheist' I gave month by month some
|
|||
|
|
account of progress in Turkey under the skeptical President who now
|
|||
|
|
calls himself Kemal Attaturk. Without persecuting or depriving
|
|||
|
|
Mohammedans of their mosques he struck such blows at religion that
|
|||
|
|
travelers in the cities reported a remarkable decrease of mosque-
|
|||
|
|
going. The rapid spread of secular education is extending this
|
|||
|
|
work. It is necessarily slow in the provinces, for as late as 1927
|
|||
|
|
only 9 percent of the people (14,000,000) could read and write. Now
|
|||
|
|
the Soviet authorities are cooperating amicably with Turkey and
|
|||
|
|
progress is faster. Anti-clerical laws continue to appear. Last
|
|||
|
|
summer (June 13, 1935) a new law forbade a minister of any religion
|
|||
|
|
or a nun to wear a religious costume out of doors. Numbers of
|
|||
|
|
religious schools have closed down, and the monks and nuns have
|
|||
|
|
departed. By another law all children of Turkish parents must
|
|||
|
|
receive their primary education in the secular schools of the
|
|||
|
|
Republic. Atheism spreads apace,.
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
2. The Revolt in Latin America
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
Most Americans probably plead that domestic affairs have been
|
|||
|
|
sufficiently exacting for the last six years to excuse them from
|
|||
|
|
taking an interest in these movements in remote parts of the globe.
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
Bank of Wisdom
|
|||
|
|
Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201
|
|||
|
|
31
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
IS THE POSITION OF ATHEISM GROWING STRONGER?
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
The excuse hardly applies to Mexico, but here one can imagine a man
|
|||
|
|
pleading that it is as difficult to discover the truth as it was to
|
|||
|
|
learn the truth about Russia a few years ago. I have before me
|
|||
|
|
three articles on Mexico -- probably only three out of dozens --
|
|||
|
|
published in America in the last few months. One appeared (August
|
|||
|
|
24) in the magazine which rather ironically calls itself Liberty:
|
|||
|
|
the magazine which lately allowed E. Price Bell to explain how
|
|||
|
|
pained the Pope is by misrepresentation of his attitude on the
|
|||
|
|
Italo-Ethiopian trouble (and he does not condemn Italy even in
|
|||
|
|
this). The article, 'Untold Secrets of Catholics in Mexico,' which
|
|||
|
|
is all splashed with red ink and full of atrocity-stories, is by
|
|||
|
|
F.V. Williams, who was Al Smith's publicity-manager. The second
|
|||
|
|
article, an interview with a New York businessman, had already
|
|||
|
|
appeared in the New York 'World-Telegram' (June 8) and discredited
|
|||
|
|
all the atrocity stories in advance, "I saw no persecution except
|
|||
|
|
of law-violators," Mr. J. Austin Smith said, after two years in
|
|||
|
|
Mexico, and he "heard more about trouble with the Church in New
|
|||
|
|
York than in Mexico." "The Mexican government is in the saddle to
|
|||
|
|
stay," he said: and, apart from its playful way of preventing
|
|||
|
|
foreigners from exploiting the people, he had nothing but
|
|||
|
|
admiration for it. And the third article, 'The Holy War in Mexico'
|
|||
|
|
(in The Forum), is by a Catholic who throws the entire blame upon
|
|||
|
|
the Catholics of Mexico, with whom he was thoroughly disgusted.
|
|||
|
|
Under his eyes the Catholic rebels, having taken the train in which
|
|||
|
|
he was, committed atrocities on the peons, not caring whether they
|
|||
|
|
were Catholics or not, which smells of savagery. So they have acted
|
|||
|
|
since 1926 and "more often than not the victims of their attacks
|
|||
|
|
were innocent Roman Catholics." This wholly agrees with what I saw
|
|||
|
|
in Mexico in 1926.
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
But there is no space here to deal with atrocity-stories. We
|
|||
|
|
are concerned with the growth of Atheism and will take up the
|
|||
|
|
behavior of Atheists in a later number. Williams says that the
|
|||
|
|
situation is that 1,500,000 Atheists dominate 14,500,000 Catholics.
|
|||
|
|
We smile when he adds that if the atheistic one-tenth are "allowed"
|
|||
|
|
to continue in power, Mexico will become a Communist country.
|
|||
|
|
Allowed by whom? By Wall Street and Washington, of course.
|
|||
|
|
Notoriously the clergy have for years organized the armed revolt of
|
|||
|
|
the Cristeros -- Williams' own article is full of the fact -- yet
|
|||
|
|
these "nine-tenths" of the nation can do no more than commit
|
|||
|
|
outrages and raids. The Catholic writer in the Forum, Moreno, is
|
|||
|
|
more illuminating. He says that the opening of the campaign against
|
|||
|
|
the Church in 1926 was "accepted by the people with extraordinary
|
|||
|
|
calm" -- I was there and can confirm this -- for the simple reason
|
|||
|
|
that a very large part of the Indians had never been Catholics.
|
|||
|
|
They had remained under the surface pagans, and many Were glad that
|
|||
|
|
they no longer had to pay priests. The truth is that, as I found,
|
|||
|
|
three-fourths of the urban workers were Atheists in 1926 and forced
|
|||
|
|
the middle-class Atheists of the government to take action against
|
|||
|
|
the Church. The rapid extension of schooling to the peons and the
|
|||
|
|
relief from clerical exactions of masses who were never deeply
|
|||
|
|
Christian has given anti-clericalism a solid basis in popular
|
|||
|
|
sentiment. Educated Mexicans are in the large majority Atheists:
|
|||
|
|
the Church may boast that it still has the large majority of the
|
|||
|
|
illiterate.
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
Bank of Wisdom
|
|||
|
|
Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201
|
|||
|
|
32
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
IS THE POSITION OF ATHEISM GROWING STRONGER?
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
With less yet very considerable success the movement has
|
|||
|
|
spread from Mexico to every part of Latin America. There the middle
|
|||
|
|
class has for decades been largely skeptical, and the new
|
|||
|
|
development is the rise of a very self-conscious body of workers
|
|||
|
|
who eagerly adopt Communism and Atheism and often have cultivated
|
|||
|
|
men supporting them. The leader of the Apra (Associacion Popular
|
|||
|
|
Revolucionaria Americana) in Peru, once regarded as the last
|
|||
|
|
stronghold of the priests, got 100,000 votes for the Presidency in
|
|||
|
|
1921, and the party has carried several revolts. In Chile, the twin
|
|||
|
|
clerical Republic, an Atheist-Socialist government had power for a
|
|||
|
|
time in 1932. In Brazil and Argentina Atheism spreads equally. Only
|
|||
|
|
the fact that the middle class and wealthy have a common interest
|
|||
|
|
with the clergy in opposing it, on account of its general alliance
|
|||
|
|
with Communism or Socialism, keeps it, in cheek. Trade unions,
|
|||
|
|
missionaries complain, are sometimes so aggressively atheistic that
|
|||
|
|
they will not admit a Christian worker. In 20 years between
|
|||
|
|
10,000,000 and 20,000,000 Atheists have appeared in Latin America.
|
|||
|
|
The Church frantically appeals for violent suppression or, as in
|
|||
|
|
Mexico, bloody revolt, but the movement spreads year by year.
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
3. The Grand Total and the Future
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
One of those skeptical writers who, of course, accept no creed
|
|||
|
|
but regard Atheism and Materialism as crude and superficial, Dr.
|
|||
|
|
C.M. Joad, has written lately on "The Return of Dogma." In a
|
|||
|
|
Rationalist magazine he says, dogmatically, that "the intellect of
|
|||
|
|
the contemporary world is being submerged beneath a wave of belief"
|
|||
|
|
and that "the movement of contemporary intellectuals into the Roman
|
|||
|
|
Catholic Church has achieved the dimensions of a stampede." You
|
|||
|
|
possibly have not noticed the stampede in America and think that
|
|||
|
|
maybe it is in England, France, and Germany. Well, the stampede of
|
|||
|
|
"intellectuals" in England consists, it seems, of Chesterton,
|
|||
|
|
Waugh, Lunn, Knox, and Hemingway; in France of Coeteau; and for
|
|||
|
|
Germany he mentions only Hitlerism, which has smashed the Catholic
|
|||
|
|
Church. He reminds me of a similar American writer who,
|
|||
|
|
illustrating the stampede of intellectuals back to religion, gives
|
|||
|
|
the names of Eugene O'Neill, Sheila Kaye Smith, J. Maritain, and
|
|||
|
|
Compton Mackenzie!
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
This is the only kind of "liberalism" that is allowed
|
|||
|
|
expression in our press and magazines and gets its books honestly
|
|||
|
|
reviewed and adopted in the circulating libraries. And it is
|
|||
|
|
extraordinarily ignorant and misleading. Dr. Joad, for instance, is
|
|||
|
|
a man of high courage and integrity, and one has no alternative but
|
|||
|
|
to think that he is remarkably ignorant about the religious
|
|||
|
|
situation on which he writes. For in spite of the desertion of
|
|||
|
|
science, in spite of the abandonment of the traditional anti-
|
|||
|
|
clericalism of Labor in many countries, in spite of the disowning
|
|||
|
|
of its great skeptical pioneers by the feminist-movement of our
|
|||
|
|
time, in spite of an alliance of the clergy with violence and all
|
|||
|
|
the maneuvers I described in the first chapter, Atheism has made a
|
|||
|
|
hundred times more progress in the last 10 years than any religion
|
|||
|
|
ever made. I have not in this small space been able even to glance
|
|||
|
|
at every country. While I write I hear, for instance, that at the
|
|||
|
|
Census recently taken in Australia about 800,000 -- one-seventh of
|
|||
|
|
the entire population yet, presumably, all adults wrote themselves
|
|||
|
|
as having "no religion." Central and west-central Canada, New
|
|||
|
|
Zealand, and the other, British colonies and dominions add to the
|
|||
|
|
total.
|
|||
|
|
Bank of Wisdom
|
|||
|
|
Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201
|
|||
|
|
33
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
IS THE POSITION OF ATHEISM GROWING STRONGER?
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
Given the conditions for the operation of the historic law --
|
|||
|
|
freedom and knowledge -- Atheism will in this century be the common
|
|||
|
|
attitude of civilized people. Non-Christians are the great majority
|
|||
|
|
in every free country today. Atheists number tens of millions,
|
|||
|
|
quite apart from Communist activity, in such countries. Let us get
|
|||
|
|
those facts recognized before it is too late. Sooner or later the
|
|||
|
|
despairing Churches will try to get a world-alliance with something
|
|||
|
|
like Fascist tyranny to check the growth of Atheism. It is their
|
|||
|
|
one hope. Let our young folk act in defense of the liberties that
|
|||
|
|
have been won for them and break up this fabric of lies.
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
**** ****
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
Reproducible Electronic Publishing can defeat censorship.
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
The Bank of Wisdom is a collection of the most thoughtful,
|
|||
|
|
scholarly and factual books. These computer books are reprints of
|
|||
|
|
suppressed books and will cover American and world history; the
|
|||
|
|
Biographies and writings of famous persons, and especially of our
|
|||
|
|
nations Founding Fathers. They will include philosophy and
|
|||
|
|
religion. all these subjects, and more, will be made available to
|
|||
|
|
the public in electronic form, easily copied and distributed, so
|
|||
|
|
that America can again become what its Founders intended --
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
The Free Market-Place of Ideas.
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
The Bank of Wisdom is always looking for more of these old,
|
|||
|
|
hidden, suppressed and forgotten books that contain needed facts
|
|||
|
|
and information for today. If you have such books please contact
|
|||
|
|
us, we need to give them back to America.
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
**** ****
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
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|
|||
|
|
|
|||
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|
|||
|
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|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
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|
|||
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|
|
|||
|
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|
|||
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|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
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|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
Bank of Wisdom
|
|||
|
|
Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201
|
|||
|
|
34
|
|||
|
|
|