The Necessity of Atheism | Page 8

I

believe that our guest would assert that if such a Being actually existed
and demanded worship, he would certainly have revealed his true belief
to the first man Adam, and therefore saved his children an inestimable
amount of suffering.
Were the visitor to be further pressed by the zealot with the vision of
eternal hell, I believe he would retort that there is no reason for God to
punish those who doubt or deny faith in His existence, since it is His
own doing; and if He desired each one of His children to worship Him
according to the precepts of a certain creed, He surely would have
instilled that creed into man's make-up together with the rest of his
characteristics. Undoubtedly, He would not esteem any creed which
damned the human intellect by cursing the doubts which are the
necessary consequence of its exercise, or the creed which cursed the
moral faculty by asserting the guilt of honest error.
If our visitor would but glance at the history, the evolution, of religious
beliefs, he would realize and soundly assert that all religions are human
in their origins, erroneous in their theories, and ridiculous in their
threats and rewards.
CHAPTER II
THE KORAN AND THE OLD AND NEW TESTAMENTS
The Jews emerge into history, not a nation of keen spiritual aspirations
and altruistic ethics, but that pagan people, worshipping rocks, sheep
and cattle, and spirits of caves and wells, of whom the Old Testament,
tending towards its higher ideal, gives fragmentary but convincing
evidence.
JAMES T. SHOTWELL.
Consider Jahveh. Cruel god of a horde of nomadic invaders settling in
a land of farmers, he had his images, ranging in elaboration from an
uncut mazzebah or asherah, to a golden bull. He was plural by place
and tribe and function. What did the prophetic movement do with his
sacred powers? It identified his taboos with a written constitution.

HORACE M. KALLEN.
The mental attitude of these priest-dominated ancestors of ours is
amazing. They were like children in the hands of unscrupulous teachers.
In reading these old chronicles it is impossible not to be shocked by the
incongruity ever arising out of the juxtaposition of theory and practice.
LLEWELYN POWYS.
Our Martian visitor, having withstood the blasts of the Zealot, is
approached by a Mohammedan who places in his hands the Koran and
tells him that it is a divinely inspired revelation, as revealed by Allah
through his prophet, Mohammed. Having already had some experience
with earthly religionists, the Martian is disposed to avail himself of the
historical evidence regarding the life of Mohammed.
He finds that Mohammed, from all accounts, was a demagogue, a
charlatan, and a victim of mental disease. It strikes him strangely that
such an individual should be chosen by Allah as his disciple on earth to
make known his commands. He notes Mohammed's appearance on
earth in 600 A.D. and wonders why the Creator should have
procrastinated for such a long time; but decides to read the revelations
anyhow.
He discovers that "from the literary point of view, the Koran has little
merit. Declamation, repetition, puerility, a lack of logic, and
incoherence strike him at every turn. He finds it humiliating to the
human intellect to think that this mediocre literature has been the
subject of innumerable commentaries and that millions of men are still
wasting time in absorbing it."
A Hebrew next takes his turn at this obstinate guest and sets before him
the Old Testament. Again, the Martian is informed that it is an inspired
book actuated by God.
In his attempt to find the historical evidence corroborating this book,
the Martian finds that authentic history begins for the Israelites with the
constitution of Saul's monarchy about 1100 B.C. All that precedes

this--the deluge, the dispersal of mankind, Abraham, Jacob, Joseph, the
captivity in Egypt, Moses, Joshua, and the conquest of Canaan, is more
or less mythical.
In the Old Testament, our Martian reads the first chapter, glances at the
chronology, and is immediately bewildered since he has a fair
knowledge of our scientific advances. As he reads on, he becomes
aware of a host of errors, contradictions, and manifest absurdities.
When he questions the zealous Hebrew, he comes in contact with what
he is informed is Concordism, which he perceives is a false science that
consists in determining, at any cost, a perfect harmony between modern
science and the knowledge possessed by God's people. He is thus told
that the days of creation were not days at all, but periods; although the
Bible mentions the morning and evening of each day. Delving further
in this most holy of revelations, he learns that God is represented in a
manner most unworthy of what such a being should be represented. He
finds the Lord walking in the cool