Honorary Knight Commander
"Religion is the cruelest fraud ever perpetrated upon the human race."
DIVINE FRAUDLet me tell you that religion is the cruelest fraud ever perpetrated upon the human race. It is the last of the great schemes of thievery that man must legally prohibit so as to protect himself from the charlatans who prey: upon the ignorance and fears of the people.
Religion is the great obstacle in the path of intellectual progress. Intellectual emancipation broke the spell of superstition and ushered in the Age of Reason and the Dawn of Science. Education becomes the primary object of civilisation. The church knows that an educated man is an unbeliever. What perversity justifies the inflicting of pain or suffering? Everyone who has contributed to the relief of pain and suffering has been an infidel to the Bible god. Every new invention and beneficial discovery violates Biblical ethics.
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Man's inhumanity to man will continue as long as man loves God more than he loves his fellow man.
HOLY HORRORS
Royalty lived in a wild extravagance of silks and satins; of diamonds and gold and precious jewels; of gilded palaces and magnificent halls, all wrung from the very lifeblood of the people. Sensualism was its consuming activity. And the church, walking arm in arm with royalty, fed contentedly upon the fat of the land. When the state could no longer increase the servitude; when the state could no longer rob the people through pillage and taxation, the priests, sly, unscrupulous and heartless, completed the job.
The people seemed doomed to this existence. No avenue of escape was open. Destitution was written across their horizon. Could anything be worse than to have insane, ignorant, superstitious and brutal men with unlimited power inflict tortures upon innocent and defenseless people under the delusion that they were performing their acts with the approval of God?
Bind the limbs, chain the mentality, and you have the condition of society that is most acceptable to the church. With such a society the church can best ply its trade. Such a condition offers a ready market for its wares with a most fruitful return. The priests thrive on it, and so they are careful to nurture it, to cultivate and develop it. To them it is the ideal condition. Licentious priests revel in the poverty and ignorance of the poor fools over whom they have control.
Magic and superstition were the physicians of that time. It was a sacrilege to resort to medicine; a blasphemy to call the doctor. The church held a monopoly for the cure of disease. Medals, candles, holy oil, and the like were sold to cure anything from a sore throat to granulated eyelids. Amulets and tokens, charms and relics were either sold to protect from harm or to bring good luck. The more serious the ailment, the more sacred should be the article to effect a cure. And so from rheumatism to cholera morbus it was necessary to invoke the efficacy of pieces of the original cross, bones of the saints, and the toenail of Jesus Christ.
A mother whose child was dying of a disease, the virulency of which was tearing its little helpless body to pieces, whose tender flesh was being burnt by the heat of a consuming fever, could, on paying an exorbitant price -- and provided her Catholicism was without a blemish � secure the most precious of all the church's articles, the one most capable of effecting a miraculous cure � a vial containing the Virgin Mary's milk!
In the year 1585, in the town of Embrun, France, the male generative organ of St. Foutin was greatly revered. A jar was placed beneath his emblem to catch the wine with which it was generally anointed. The wine was left to sour, and then it was known as "Holy Vinegar." The women drank it in order to be blessed with children.
And until suppressed in 1780 the affected parts of the generative organs of both male and female sufferers were treated by purchasing at church fairs representations of the creative organs and having priests pour upon them the oil of Saint Cosmas.
Every fraud was practiced under the guise of religion, and practiced with profit. Every crime that furthered the ends of the church was commended, or at least condoned. Every effort to crush those who protested was applauded. Freedom of discussion was prohibited. Intellectual life was decaying for want of expression and for lack of the sunlight of approval. Superstition was not only rampant; the very atmosphere was so laden with it that the people breathed it into their very being. Truly every man was afraid of his shadow. Every clap of thunder was an ominous warning, and every bolt of lightning, a flash of anger and vengeance.
Saints were multiplied and their bodies were sold in bits; each piece was highly treasured as separately efficacious. Their bones, teeth, eyelashes, and hair were of potent medicinal value. Nothing mattered save the worship of God. It was sinful to help man. If man suffered, it was God's will and nothing should be done about it. The supreme authority on earth was in the Jesuits, the holy men of God, who bartered every principle, sacrificed every right no matter how sacred, and prostituted their religion to hold the reins of power. They controlled the education of the country, and through the confessional every corrupt and licentious member of the government became a cat's-paw in their hands. Picture the very worst conditions conceivable and you will have a glimpse of the true situation as it existed under these heartless and unscrupulous men. With perfect mockery God was worshiped as the giver of all knowledge, but it was death not to remain in ignorance.
In the city of Toulouse, the seventh largest city in France, the clergy enjoyed absolute domination. This city was famous for its holiness. It possessed the most sacred relics, and was the only city in the world that owned a part of the dress of the Virgin Mary. It was proved to be her dress, because when cut with a scissors, blood would flow from it. But whether it was her wedding gown which she wore when she was approached by the Holy Ghost, or a simple morning frock is not stated. There were enough bones of the saints to stock a skeleton factory, and the lumber business that could be started by the accumulation of the pieces of the original cross would make any business man envious.
And more precious still was the most valuable of all the sacred relics. It was the prepuce, or foreskin, of Jesus Christ. This priceless possession was on display in a glass case and was carried in processions only on the most Holy Days. It is needless to say that this was the only true one.
PURE ATHEISM
Atheism rises above creeds and puts Humanity upon one plane.
There can be no "chosen people" in the Atheist philosophy.
There are no bended knees in Atheism;
No supplications, no prayers;
No sacrificial redemptions;
No "divine" revelations;
No washing in the blood of the lamb;
No crusades, no massacres, no holy wars;
No heaven, no hell, no purgatory;
No silly rewards and no vindictive punishments;
No christs, and no saviors;
No devils, no ghosts and no gods.
Atheism breaks down the barriers of nationalities and like "one touch of nature makes the whole world kin."
Systems of religion make people clannish and bigoted.
Their chief aim and interest in life is to gather together and pick out the faults of others and reveal their secret hatred of those who do not believe as they do.
Atheism is Mental Freedom
Atheism is a vigorous and a courageous philosophy.
It is not afraid to face the problems of life, and it is not afraid to confess that there are problems yet to be solved.
It does not claim that it has solved all the questions of the universe, but it does claim that it has discovered the approach and learned the method of solving them.
It has dedicated itself to a passionate quest for the truth.
It believes that truth for truth's sake is the highest ideal. And that virtue is its own reward.
It believes that love of humanity is a higher ideal than a love of God. We cannot help God, but we can help mankind. "Hands that help are better far than lips that pray." Praying to God is humiliating; worshipping God degrading.
It believes with Ingersoll, when he said: "Give me the storm and tempest of thought and action rather than the dead calm of ignorance and faith. Banish me from Eden when you will, but first let me eat of the fruit of the tree of knowledge." Atheism is a self-reliant philosophy.
It makes a man intellectually free. He is thrilled to enthusiasm by his mental emancipation and he faces the universe without fear of ghosts or gods.
It teaches man that unless he devotes his energies and applies himself whole-heartedly to the task he wishes to achieve, the accomplishment will not be made.
It warns him that any reliance upon prayers or "divine" help will prove a bitter disappointment.
To the philosophy of Atheism belongs the credit of robbing Death of its horror and its terror.
If Atheism writes upon the blackboard of the Universe a question mark, it writes it for the purpose of stating that there is a question yet to be answered.
Is it not better to place a question mark upon a problem while seeking an answer than to put the label "God" there and consider the matter solved?
The Asylum of Ignorance.
Does not the word "God" only confuse and make more difficult the solution by assuming a conclusion that is utterly groundless and palpably absurd? "God," said Spinoza, "is the Asylum of Ignorance."
No better description has ever been uttered.
Joseph Lewis (1889-1968)
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