The Necessity of Atheism | Page 7

natives are
Animists. The Cape Settlements themselves are Protestants.

More concretely, it is estimated that 10.7% of the inhabitants of the
globe are Protestants; 16.2% are Catholics; 7.1% are Greek Orthodox;
10% are Animists; 1.4% are Shintoists; 18.2% are Confucians and
Taoists; 12.8% are Hindus; 8.4% are Buddhists; 13.4% are Moslems;
and 1.8% are Hebrews and unclassified sects. Truly, a religious babel!
and 10% of all the inhabitants of the globe, about the same number of
people who profess to Protestantism, are Animists. This is the lowest
stage of primitive religion, and millions of humans are still quagmired
in the sloth of a primitive faith which once must have been the faith of
all human beings.
The Mohammedan, the Jew, the Christian, will readily agree that the
animism, the fetishism, and idolatry of the savage were man-made
foolish beliefs. They can readily perceive that there was nothing
supernatural, nothing revealed, in such beliefs; but they do not realize
that to him, in his infantile development, the fetish and the idol were
just as supernatural and superior as the modern conception of a
Supreme Being. In each age man creates his god, in his own image, and
within the confines of his own mental development. The mind of man
has expanded so that it has conquered more and more of his
environment; it has grown and wrested from nature those secrets which
constitute his civilization. Along with this has progressed the
conception of a deity, but only to a certain extent. The mind has
embellished the outward appearance of its gods, consolidated them, and
built upon them intricate systems of theology, upon which feed vast
hordes of clergy; but the basic conception, the fundamental principle,
that there must be something supernatural to explain something which
we cannot explain at the present moment, that conception still drugs the
mind of man. Primitive man did not understand the meaning of
lightning, thunder, shadows, echoes, etc., and he placed these among
the supernatural phenomena. The modern mind explains these
phenomena, understands the laws governing their production. Yet, it is
this same modern mind which persists in going back to our savage
ancestors and their mental sloth, by attributing the myriads of
phenomena which still elude its present stage of mental development,
to a particular idol, this time, a Supreme Being. Brahmanism, Jainism,
Buddhism, Hinduism, Confucianism, Taoism, Zoroastrianism,

Hebrewism, Mohammedanism, Christianity--which is the true religion?
Let us suppose for a moment that an inhabitant of Mars, if there be
such, were by a "miracle" to be transported to this earth and endowed
with the mental capacity of the average inhabitant of the earth (a thing
which perhaps would not be so flattering to our guest), were to be
approached by a zealot of each one of these faiths, who hoped to
convert this stranger to its ranks. Since the factor of coercion by force
of environment to which each of these earthlings was subject would
naturally be absent, the Martian would be in a position to make a fair
choice. How much would the visitor be impressed by the statements of
the Christian, Mohammedan, or Jew, when advised that unless he
embraced their particular creed, he would be damned to eternal torture
in their particular Hell?
If a Christian were to accost him and endeavor to put the fear of God
into him, and if our visitor, being from Mars, already knew that of the
world's population, only about 27 per cent are Christians, and the other
73 per cent are Non-Christians, is it logical to suppose that he would
ever be convinced that an omniscient, omnipotent, benevolent,
Supreme Being would select only one quarter of his children whom he
had created for redemption, with the infallible knowledge that nearly
three-quarters of them would be confined to Hell for not believing what
He could have made them believe if He were truly omnipotent,
omniscient, and benevolent? Would he not rather reply that on his
planet such a "Father" who would select some of his children for
rewards, and maliciously torture his other children, would not be
designated as a God but a Devil? Were the Martian to be further
informed that each one of God's children was represented in actual
figures by hundreds of millions and that these have been living on the
planet Earth for hundreds of thousands of years, and were the visitor to
contemplate the vast incomprehensible number of souls that have been
confined to Hell by such a father, might he not cut his visit short? He
would be apt to repeat with James Mill, "Think of a being who would
make a Hell, who would create the human race with the infallible
foreknowledge and therefore with the intention that the great majority
of them should be consigned to horrible and everlasting torment."