{"product_id":"2940013198821","title":"THE NECESSITY OF ATHEISM","description":"I. THE EVOLUTION OF RELIGIOUS BELIEFS                           21\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e     II. THE KORAN, THE OLD AND NEW TESTAMENTS                        31\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e    III. THE PROPHETS MOHAMMED, JESUS,\u003cbr\u003e         AND MOSES CHARLATANS OR VICTIMS\u003cbr\u003e         OF MENTAL AND PHYSICAL DISEASE                               65\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e     IV. SOUNDNESS OF A FOUNDATION FOR A\u003cbr\u003e         BELIEF IN A DEITY                                            94\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e      V. THE PERSISTENCE OF RELIGION                                 115\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e     VI. RELIGION AND SCIENCE                                        120\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e    VII. RELIGION AND MEDICINE                                       126\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e   VIII. RELIGION AND ASTRONOMY                                      148\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e     IX. RELIGION AND GEOGRAPHY                                      151\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e      X. RELIGION AND CHEMISTRY AND PHYSICS                          154\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e     XI. RELIGION AND GEOLOGY, PHILOLOGY,\u003cbr\u003e         AND EVOLUTION                                               157\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e    XII. RELIGION AND WITCHCRAFT                                     163\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e   XIII. RELIGION AND MORALITY                                       193\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e    XIV. CHRISTIANITY AND WAR                                        211\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e     XV. CHRISTIANITY AND SLAVERY                                    214\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e    XVI. CHRISTIANITY AND LABOR                                      224\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e   XVII. RELIGION AND WOMAN                                          242\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e  XVIII. THE PHILOSOPHERS AND THE GREAT\u003cbr\u003e         ILLUSION                                                    251\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e    XIX. THE DOOM OF RELIGION; THE NECESSITY\u003cbr\u003e         OF ATHEISM                                                  269\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e     XX. CONTEMPORARY OPINION                                        309\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003ePREFACE\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003ePlain speaking is necessary in any discussion of religion, for if the\u003cbr\u003efreethinker attacks the religious dogmas with hesitation, the orthodox\u003cbr\u003ebeliever assumes that it is with regret that the freethinker would\u003cbr\u003eremove the crutch that supports the orthodox. And all religious beliefs\u003cbr\u003eare \"crutches\" hindering the free locomotive efforts of an advancing\u003cbr\u003ehumanity. There are no problems related to human progress and happiness\u003cbr\u003ein this age which any theology can solve, and which the teachings of\u003cbr\u003efreethought cannot do better and without the aid of encumbrances.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eHavelock Ellis has stated that, \"The man who has never wrestled with his\u003cbr\u003eearly faith, the faith that he was brought up with and that yet is not\u003cbr\u003etruly his own--for no faith is our own that we have not arduously\u003cbr\u003ewon--has missed not only a moral but an intellectual discipline. The\u003cbr\u003eabsence of that discipline may mark a man for life and render all his\u003cbr\u003ework ineffective. He has missed a training in criticism, in analysis, in\u003cbr\u003eopen-mindedness, in the resolutely impersonal treatment of personal\u003cbr\u003eproblems, which no other training can compensate. He is, for the most\u003cbr\u003epart, condemned to live in a mental jungle where his arm will soon be\u003cbr\u003etoo feeble to clear away the growths that enclose him, and his eyes too\u003cbr\u003eweak to find the light.\" The man who has allowed his mental capacities\u003cbr\u003eto clear his way through the dense underbrush of religious dogma finds\u003cbr\u003ethat he has emerged into a purer and healthier atmosphere. In the\u003cbr\u003ebright light of this mental emancipation a man perceives the falsities\u003cbr\u003eof all religions in their historic, scientific, and metaphysical\u003cbr\u003easpects. The healthier mental viewpoint holds up to scorn and discards\u003cbr\u003ethe reactionary religious philosophy of morals, and the sum total of his\u003cbr\u003econclusions must be that religion is doomed; and doomed in this modern\u003cbr\u003eday by its absolute irrelevance to the needs and interests of modern\u003cbr\u003elife. And this not only by the steadily increasing army of freethinkers,\u003cbr\u003ebut by the indifference and neglect of those who still cling to the fast\u003cbr\u003eslipping folds of religious creeds--- the future freethinkers.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIt was Spinoza who remarked that, \"The proper study of a wise man is not\u003cbr\u003ehow to die but how to live.\" Religious creeds can but teach how man\u003cbr\u003eshould live, so that when he dies, he may be assured of salvation; and\u003cbr\u003ethe important thing is not what he does to help his fellow men while he\u003cbr\u003eis living, but how closely he lives in conformity to a reactionary code\u003cbr\u003eof dogmas. Religion has always aimed to smooth the sufferer's passage to\u003cbr\u003ethe next world, not to save him for this world.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eFreethought has dethroned the gods from the pedestal, and has replaced,\u003cbr\u003enot an empty idol, but an _ideal_, the ideal of a man who is his own\u003cbr\u003egod.","brand":"SAP","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47082347725040,"sku":"2940013198821","price":0.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/2940013198821_p0.jpg?v=1763589226","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/2940013198821","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}