This was originally printed in
The American Rationalist, Volume 17, Number 3, September/October
1962. How ironic that it should apply even today :
"The indestructible foundation of the whole edifice of Atheism is
its philosophy, materialism, or naturalism, as it is also known.
That philosophy regards the world as it actually is, views it in
the light of the data provided by progressive science and social
experience. Atheistic materialism is the logical outcome of
scientific knowledge gained over the centuries.
We make a fundamental error, I think, as we tilt at the windmills
of imagined gods. We need to review from where we have come, under
what conditions, and to see the threshold upon which we stand
now.
Our history has been marked by a ceaseless struggle against
ignorance and superstition. In ancient Greece the works of
the materialist philosopher Democritus, who first taught the atomic
theory of matter, were destroyed. Anaxagoras was banished from
Athens for being an Atheist. The materialist philosopher Epicurus,
revered by the ancients for having liberated man from fear of gods
and for asserting the validity of science, was for 2000 years
anathematized and falsely depicted as an enemy of morality and a
disseminator of vice. The Alexandria library, housing 700,000
scientific and literary works, was burned by Christian monks in 391
AD. Pope Gregory I (590-604) destroyed many valuable works by
ancient authors. In every society there have been forces that have
stood to lose by the dissemination of progressive scientific views.
In the past these forces either directly persecuted progressive
scientists and philosophers or sought to distort scientific
discoveries so as to deprive them of their progressive,
materialistic implications.
The Inquisition, a papal invention for suppressing all opposition
to the Catholic Church, savagely persecuted all progressive
thinkers; Giordano Bruno, Ludilio Vanini, and Galileo come readily
to mind.
Voltaire was imprisoned in the Bastille, and Diderot was sent to
prison. In our own country we are familiar with the story of Thomas
Paine, of the Salem witch trials, of Ingersoll, of Einstein. The
struggle is unceasing, as important today as during any other
period of history.
We need, therefore, to see what we fight and why. We need
not direct our main assault against the Bible or the Koran. We need
not argue endlessly about the historicity of Jesus. We should look
past trinities and angels and other theological blind alleys. We
must look to materialistic philosophy which alone enables men to
understand reality and to know how to deal with it. It is
true that today our kind are no longer burned at the stake, but
there are many other ways of exerting pressure. Our scientists and
progressive philosophers are dismissed from universities and other
employment. Outspoken scientific and philosophical works are much
less likely to be published than rather senseless junk. Character
assassination is common. Reactionary religious propaganda is
unceasingly drummed into unthinking minds through the captive media
of mass communication. As always, our opponents today are
formidable. But our strength lies in the positive approach of
uncovering and publicizing the laws of nature and human behavior,
and in applying these laws in the interest of human welfare. We
need not waste our time with endless arguments about tortuous paths
of the endless labyrinths of theology.
We need to know upon what we base ourselves. Atheism is
based upon a materialist philosophy, which holds that nothing
exists but natural phenomena. There are no supernatural forces or
entities, nor can there be any. Nature simply exists. " -
Madalyn Murray
OHair, Founder of American Atheists
Click here to read the
full text
