Joseph Lewis

“ If priests—of all clans—were free of disease and immune to death, then there might be some basis for the claim of the religionists. But these "men of God" are victims of the natural course of life, "even as you and I." They enjoy no exemptions. They suffer the same ills; they feel the same sensations; they are subject to the same passions of the body, the same frailties of the mind, are victims of circumstances and misfortune, and they meet inevitable death just as every other person. They commit the same kind of crimes as other mortals, and especially, because of their "calling," ”

“ To nature the night is just as important as the day, and the life of the germ we call disease is as important as the life of the body upon which it feeds.
It follows the same law of life; it is born, reproduces and dies.
There are forms of life that live by night that are equally as favored by nature as those which live by day.
Freaks of all kinds exist in nature—from the utterly ridiculous to the terrifying monstrosities. This is proof of the lack of design in Nature as far as man is concerned. ”

“ It is now established by verifiable evidence that religion stultifies the brain and is the great obstacle in the path of intellectual progress.
The more religious a person is, the more he is steeped in ignorance and superstition, the less is his sense of moral [Pg 35] responsibility. The more intelligent a person, the less religious he is. There is an old saying that "where there are three scientists, there are two atheists."
The countries whose governments are dominated by religion and religious institutions are the most backward. ”

“ Unless death is made a lesson for the living, the life lived is wasted.
Why should life come into existence only to be destroyed? One dies and another is born—for what? A few miserable hours of life—then oblivion! ”

“ Praise cannot be heard when ears cannot hear; joy cannot be experienced when the heart no longer beats; and the happiness of an affectionate embrace can no longer be felt when arms are limp and the eyes are forever closed. ”

“ Every man and woman who has contributed to the relief of the pain and suffering of humanity has been an infidel to the Bible God!
Every new invention, every new discovery for the benefit of man violates these Biblical edicts! ”

“ Whether it is to be progress or stagnation.
As long as man loves a phantom in the sky more than he loves his fellow man, there will never be peace upon this earth; so long as man worships a Tyrant as the "Fatherhood of God," there will never be a "Brotherhood of Man."
You must make the choice, you must come to the decision.
Is it to be God or Man? Churches or Homes—preparation for death or happiness for the living? ”

“ If ever man needed an example of the benefit of the one against the other, he need but read the pages of history for proof of how religion retarded progress and provoked hatred among the children of men. ”

“ Most of our social and domestic problems would have been solved, and equally as important, our understanding and relations with the other peoples of the world would have, by now, brought about universal peace.
Man would have a better understanding of his motives and actions, and would have learned to curb his primitive instincts for revenge and retaliation. He would, by now, know that wars of hate, aggression, and aggrandizement are only productive of more hate and more human suffering. ”

“ That is why it is so difficult for some people to understand the nature of disease, and why it has taken man so long to comprehend the true conditions of life.
This deception prevails in matters of great importance, as well as in matters of little consequence.
There is no "voice of nature" to tell man that which is true and that which is false, nor to warn him of the dangers of life. He must find the truth for himself, and only after very bitter experiences. ”

“ The only duty you owe is to yourself and to your family.
The duty you owe to yourself is to do the best you can, and the duty you owe to your family is to endeavor to make them happy.
Emancipate yourself from these stultifying creeds, and protect your children from the contamination of religion.
Get off your knees, stand erect, and look the whole world in the face.
Get all the joy and happiness you can out of life.
Enjoy the fruits of your labor and waste it not upon the myth of heaven; support not the parasites of God.
[Pg 63]
Do not knowingly harm another human being; ”

“ How rightfully Robert G. Ingersoll said that, "Christianity has made more lunatics than it ever provided asylums for."
On the other hand, we do not believe that Man is a depraved human being. We do not believe that there is a tyrant God, or that there is a hell, and that man will suffer the pains and penalties of eternal torment. We do not believe that you should make yourself as miserable as [Pg 13] possible Here in the hope of securing some happiness "Hereafter."
We do not believe that disease is a punishment for sin. ”

“ Practically in our own lifetime, and certainly since the Declaration of Independence, man has wrought the most amazing achievements in the field of science and progress ever recorded in human history. ”

“ To build a church when a hospital is needed is to take from the parched lips of the sick the cup of relief and from the suffering the merciful hand of help.
When the object of man's conduct will be to improve the conditions of his fellow man and not the appeasement of a mythical God, he will become more understanding and more indulgent of the frailties, mistakes, and action of others, and by the same token he will become more appreciative of their efforts. ”

“ We believe that disease is a natural consequence of the processes of life, and that the "ills of the flesh" inevitably follow where one form of life lives upon another, and where "at the banquet of life each in turn is a guest and a dish." ”

“ The church knows that an educated man is an unbeliever.
That is why there is a continual struggle on the part of the clergy to adulterate education with superstition. To maintain their untenable position they must keep the people shackled to a form of mental slavery.
[Pg 28]
Both fear and superstition are forms of a contagious disease.
The ignorance of man produced natural fears of the elements of nature. What he could not understand he attributed to malevolent spirits whose primary purpose was to punish and harm him. ”

“ Thomas A. Edison—the greatest of human benefactors—wrested from nature her most guarded secret—the mystery of the human voice.
He disproved, as it was once believed, that the human voice, like the heart, was the "gift of God." He demonstrated that the human voice was merely the natural mechanism of sound produced by air of the lungs passing over the "cords" of the throat and larynx in the same manner as are sounds produced by the strings of a musical instrument.
As a result of Edison's invention, man himself has already produced artificially [Pg 48] every manifestation of the human voice! ”

“ This sadistic delusion causes him to insist that others—under pain of punishment—be as miserable as himself, for fear that if others fail to do as he does, it will provoke the wrath of his tyrant God to a more severe chastisement.
The inevitable result is that Man devotes his life, not to the essentials of living and the making of a happy home, but to the building of temples and churches where he can "lift his voice to God" in a frenzy of fanaticism, and eventually he becomes a victim of hysteria. ”

“ They are not free from a single rule of life; what others must endure, they likewise must experience. They cannot protect themselves from the forces of nature, and the laws of life, any more than you can. ”

“ Anesthesia was discovered.
Do you know what it means to relieve man of his pain and suffering? Anesthesia is the most humane of all of man's accomplishments, and what a merciful accomplishment it was.
For this great discovery we are indebted to Dr. W. T. G. Morton.
[Pg 38]
Do you know that the religionists opposed the use of anesthesia on the ground that God sent pain as a punishment for sin, and it was considered the greatest of sacrileges to use it—just think of it, a sin to relieve man of his misery! What a monstrous perversion! ”

“ The telephone, wireless telegraphy, the steam engine, refrigeration, the washing and sewing machines, the mechanical weaving of cloth, and the myriad uses of electric and atomic power will make man the master of his destiny once he frees himself from the myth of a tyrant God.
Ingersoll best expressed man's inventions and their uses when he said that, "Science took the thunderbolt from the gods, and in the electric spark, freedom, with thought, with intelligence and with love, sweeps under all the waves of the sea ”

“ To list all the great discoveries in the field of science and medicine during the past century, such as aspirin, insulin, penicillin, and the streptomycin drugs would require the undivided attention of a medical historian and a veritable encyclopedia to record them.
And yet, there are still many diseases that plague man of which he has no knowledge. They eat and ravage his mind and body with excruciating pain and torture, and he is utterly helpless against [Pg 49] them. ”

“ Just as there are some foods which have been so adulterated and refined that when eaten they add no nourishment to the body, so there are truths which have been adulterated by religion and superstition so as to be utterly valueless in nourishing the mind with intelligence. ”

“ The enlightened and completely emancipated man from the fears of a God and the dogma of hate and revenge would make him a brother to his fellow man.
[Pg 55]
He would devote his energies to discoveries and inventions, which theology previously condemned as a defiance of God, but which have proved so beneficial to him.
He would no longer be a slave to a God and live in cringing fear!
To build a church when a school house is needed is to perpetrate a theft upon education. ”

“ Man seeks to relieve his fellow man from the suffering of disease and the pangs of mental agony. The believers in God are content that man's suffering is [Pg 39] ordained, and therefore he accepts life and its trials and tribulations as a penance for living.
The fear of the wrath of God has been a stumbling block to progress. ”

“ Despite discouraging signs here and there, the seeds of freedom planted by the American Revolution will take root, [Pg 37] and throughout the world, if man will learn to zealously guard his freedom, Peace and Progress will come to all the world. ”

“ It might well be that we are nothing more than "disease germs" in the [Pg 24] environment in which we live. The same basic construction by which they live forms the same pattern upon which our life is built. ”

“ At the same time we try to fortify his mind with courage to withstand the rebuffs, the trials and tribulations of life. That it is a difficult and arduous task no one can deny because we cannot correct all of "God's mistakes" in one life time. ”

“ Man's inhumanity to man will continue as long as man loves God more than he loves his fellow man. ”

“ Unless a child is taught to talk, it will never be able to speak the language of our tongue. Without teaching the child the rudiments of speech, he would be unable to communicate his thoughts to others. ”

“ While we know that sometimes "ingratitude is more strong than traitor's arms," we also know that "mercy is twice blest; it blesses him that gives and him that takes," and, it should be remembered that while Loyalty is the most important of the virtues, Patience is the most valuable. ”

“ It is their duty to do everything within their power to stop its demoralizing and paralyzing influence upon the life of man.
We will never achieve intellectual liberty until the wickedness of this book has been discarded with the belief in the flatness of the earth. ”

“ He will develop a greater consciousness to avoid mistakes and to prevent injury. Life and its living will take on a greater significance, and our efforts and energies will be devoted to creating as much joy and happiness as possible for all living creatures. ”

“ His time and energy are wasted to [Pg 11] cleanse his "soul," which he does not possess, and to save himself from a future punishment in hell which exists only in his imagination.
Religious hallucinations take on many forms.
Some do not wash themselves; some wash only their fingers; some think that the filthier they are, the "holier" they are; some cut off their hair, while others let it grow long; some refuse to stand up, while others refuse to sit down; some amputate their genitals, and some their breasts; some pull out their teeth, and others wither their limbs ”