upon a scrutiny of the facts of nature, and upon an
examination of the origin and contents of the god-idea. And upon these
grounds it may fairly claim to be irrefutable and inevitable.
Circumstances may obstruct its universal acceptance as a reasoned mental
attitude, but that merely delays, it does not destroy the certainty of
its final triumph.

With the supposed direful consequences that would follow the triumph of
Atheism I have not dealt with at length. These are the bugbears which
the designing normally employ in order to frighten the timid and
credulous. Mental uprightness and moral integrity are certainly not the
property of one religion, nor can it be said with truth that they belong
to any. And examining the histories of religion it is a fair assumption
that in whatever direction the world may suffer from the disappearance
of religion there will be no moral catastrophe. Looking at the whole
course of human history, and noting how the vilest and most ruinous
practices have been ever associated with religion, and have ever relied
upon religion for support, the cause for speculation is, not what will
happen to the world when religion dies out, but how human society has
managed to flourish while the belief in the gods ruled.

Fortunately for human society nature has not left the operation of the
fundamental virtues dependent upon the acceptance of this or that theory
of the world. The social and family instincts, which are inseparable
from our nature as men and women, and which operate in ways of which we
are largely unconscious, are the grounds of all the higher and finer
virtues, and while a change in opinion may affect their operation here
and there, it can never alter their fundamental character. Conduct, in
short, comes from life, it is not the creation of a theory to be
dismissed by resolution or refashioned by a vote.

What Atheism would mean in practice would be an enormous concentration
of energy upon purely human affairs, and a judgment of conduct in terms
of human happiness and prosperity. And that certainly furnishes no cause
for alarm. It is, indeed, our greatest need. We need an awakening to the
untapped power and possibilities of human nature. If the gods die, man
their creator still lives; and the creative energy which once covered
the face of nature with innumerable gods, which spent itself in the
attempt to win their favour, and which called forth a heaven in the
endeavour to redress the wrongs