94

V. THE PERSISTENCE OF RELIGION 115

VI. RELIGION AND SCIENCE 120

VII. RELIGION AND MEDICINE 126

VIII. RELIGION AND ASTRONOMY 148

IX. RELIGION AND GEOGRAPHY 151

X. RELIGION AND CHEMISTRY AND PHYSICS 154

XI. RELIGION AND GEOLOGY, PHILOLOGY,
AND EVOLUTION 157

XII. RELIGION AND WITCHCRAFT 163

XIII. RELIGION AND MORALITY 193

XIV. CHRISTIANITY AND WAR 211

XV. CHRISTIANITY AND SLAVERY 214

XVI. CHRISTIANITY AND LABOR 224

XVII. RELIGION AND WOMAN 242

XVIII. THE PHILOSOPHERS AND THE GREAT
ILLUSION 251

XIX. THE DOOM OF RELIGION; THE NECESSITY
OF ATHEISM 269

XX. CONTEMPORARY OPINION 309

PREFACE

Plain speaking is necessary in any discussion of religion, for if the
freethinker attacks the religious dogmas with hesitation, the orthodox
believer assumes that it is with regret that the freethinker would
remove the crutch that supports the orthodox. And all religious beliefs
are "crutches" hindering the free locomotive efforts of an advancing
humanity. There are no problems related to human progress and happiness
in this age which any theology can solve, and which the teachings of
freethought cannot do better and without the aid of encumbrances.

Havelock Ellis has stated that, "The man who has never wrestled with his
early faith, the faith that he was brought up with and that yet is not
truly his own--for no faith is our own that we have not arduously
won--has missed not only a moral but an intellectual discipline. The
absence of that discipline may mark a man for life and render all his
work ineffective. He has missed a training in criticism, in analysis, in
open-mindedness, in the resolutely impersonal treatment of personal
problems, which no other training can