It has become increasingly apparent that what men have hitherto
attributed to the gods are nothing but the ideals they value and grope
for in themselves. The ideal of the freethinker, the conception that
places the supreme worth of human life in the expanding horizon of man's
usefulness to man, is forever menaced by the supernaturalism of the
theist which manifests itself in the multifarious religious sects that
are the most active and constant menace to civilization and to mankind
today. That religion in the past has produced suffering incalculable and
has been the greatest obstacle in the advance of secular knowledge is a
fact too well attested to by history to be denied by any sincere and
unbiased intelligent man. That today it constitutes a cultural lag, an
active menace to the best interests of humanity and the last refuge of
human savagery, is the contention of the freethinker.
The conception of the God-idea as held by society in general stands in
the same position as the vermiform appendix does to the anatomy of man.
It may have been useful in some way thousands of years ago, but today it
constitutes a detriment to the well-being of the individual without
offering any compensatory usefulness. Agree or disagree with this
contention you may, but only when you are made aware of the facts that
can be brought to the aid of this conviction. Just as the fundamental
principle of justice is outraged when a man or an institution is
condemned by jurist or popular opinion when an opportunity is not given
to present the facts on both aspects of the case, just so is no man
justified in making a decision between theism and atheism until he
becomes acquainted with both sides of the controversy. Freethought but
asks a hearing and the exercise of the unbiased reason of the man who
has not hitherto been made aware of its contentions.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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