close a space, are propositions the truth of which may be denied
offhand. The ground of this is that the conception of squareness and
circularity, of straight lines and an enclosed space are mutually
destructive, they cancel each other. And so far as Atheism may be said
to involve the denial of particular gods that denial is based upon
precisely similar grounds. When defined it is seen that the attributes
of this defined god cancel each other as effectually as squareness rules
out the idea of a circle; either this or they are simply unthinkable.
You cannot have an infinite personality any more than you can have a
six-sided octagon, nor can you posit an infinite personality without
divesting the terms of all meaning.

It may also be noted in passing that both the theist and the Agnostic
actually do deny the existence of particular gods without the least
hesitation. No rational Agnostic would hesitate to deny the existence of
Jupiter, Javeh, Allah, or Brahma. No Christian would hesitate to deny
the existence of the gods of a tribe of savages. Even believers in the
current theology have evolved beyond the stage of the primitive
Christians, who accepted the existence of the Pagan deities with the
proviso that they were demons. And it is a mere verbal quibble to say
that these people merely deny each other's conception of deity. Each
man's conception of god _is_ his god, and to say that no being answering
to that conception exists is to say that his god does not exist, and in
relation to the god denied the denier is in exactly the position in
which he places the Atheist.

So far then the Atheism of each is just a question of degree or of
relation. So far as Atheism involves the denial of deity the follower of
one religion is an Atheist in relation to the followers of every other
religion. Each religion--among civilised people--is atheistic from the
standpoint of the followers of other gods. The affirmation of one god
involves the denial of other gods. This would really seem to be the
historical significance of the term. The early Christians were called
atheists by the Pagans, and some of them accepted it without demur. At a
later date Spinoza, Voltaire, Paine, and others were called atheists,
and the epithet has lost its force to-day only because the evolution of
thought has broken down many religious barriers, and is rapidly dividing
people into two groups--those who believe in some god and who believe
in none at all. Now