Fifty Years on the Rationalist Front By Issac Goldberg
Is The Position Of Atheism Growing Stronger?I showed that at every period during the 5,000 years of history when men developed a higher culture Atheism appeared. We find it in ancient Egypt in spite of the scantiness of the literary remains and the despotic power of the priests.
The Psychology of ReligionI then held the eccentric opinion that the first object of any science was to tell us the nature of the reality or realities it studied; that the first question which thoughtful people would put to a science of mind is, in view of the world-wide interest in the subject, whether the mind is a spiritual intruder in a material universe or merely a function of the steadily developing nervous system.
The Human Origin of MoralsThere are few subjects on which so much solemn nonsense has been written as on the nature of conscience and moral law; and there is no other phenomenon of the human mind of which it is possible to give so simple and natural an explanation.
The Lies And Fallacies Of The Encyclopedia BritanicaSuch articles as "Agnosticism" and "Atheism". did not concern the Catholic Church in particular and were left to more honest but hardly less bigoted clerical writers. I need say of them only that they reflect the cloudy ideas of some theologian and tell the reader no more about the situation in these matters today than if they had been written by a Hindu swami.
The Story of EvolutionModern science rediscovered the atoms of Democritus, analysed the universe into innumerable swarms of these tiny particles, and then showed how the infinite variety of things could be built up by their combinations.
The Story Of Religious ControversyPoor Firmicus concluded that the devil had revealed or inspired these things to the pagan nations before Christ was born, in order to spoil the success of the Christian Church when it should be founded. "The devil has his Christs!" he exclaimed.
The Vatican's Last CrimeThis, you may say, certainly looks like what happened, but it's impossible. How could a gang, smaller than that which looted New York in 1860 or St. Louis in 1890, take over a whole country, make a corrupt fortune that beggars Tammany, and have a very fair chance of becoming super-emperors?
How The Pope Of Peace Traded In BloodThe color chosen by the Popes is White. Their flag, it is true, White and Gold, to remind us that they are Kings and need a royal revenue of a billion a year, but that is, they say, necessary to a ruler of the world. Their personal color-theme is white, a flowing white cassock and a white-silk skull-cap: symbols of their purity life and purpose and their never-ceasing efforts to keep the world in peace and tranquillity.
How The Cross Courted the Swastika For Eight YearsIt is vitally necessary in the case of Germany. References to the Church in that country suggests to the reader at one moment that it is tremendously wealthy and powerful -- a good third of the nation -- and the next day represent it as cowering powerlessly under the Nazi lash.
The Vatican Buries International LawHow high Spain would have risen if men had continued to build on that superb foundation of that old Moorish civilization! But in 1923 I found only 30,000 folk, mostly poor and illiterate, living within the ancient walls; and I smiled sadly, when, as I passed along the almost deserted streets, a boy offered to show me where his ancestors had hanged "those wicked devils the Moors." It is worse today.
Hitler Dupes The VaticanSo the plot, using the international organization of the Roman Church to lull suspicion in other countries, was unified and took on cosmic proportions. Germany, Italy, and Japan were to rule and exploit the earth. The Pope -- he thought -- would be the universal chaplain, with the plan in reserve, of a League of Catholic power's strong enough to check any trickery of Hitler.
The Pious Traitors Of Belgium And FranceThe latest to hand reminds us how in a world which permits Catholics to intrigue in every newspaper office and every political lobby the Pope can command respectful attention for any eccentricity, audacity, or mendacity he cares to perpetrate.
The Pope And The Italian JackalTen years ago that appalling greed which is the principal dynamo of the barbaric energy that is wrecking the world expressed itself in four plausible ambitions: those of Nazi Germany, Fascist Italy, Imperialistic Japan, and the (spiritually) Imperialistic Vatican.
Atheist Russia Shakes The WorldBut the most amazing feature of all is the story of the relations of the Vatican with the Soviet civilization. In all that maelstrom of emotion that agitated the press and peoples of the world when mighty Russia entered the war nothing was more intriguing than the wavering and discordant note of the Catholic press.
Fascist Romanism Defies CivilizationBy the end of the 5th Century they were all ruined and the race from rim to rim of the known world was almost back in barbarism. We cannot compare our age with that awful beginning of the Dark Age, but since then not one of the tragedies that have cast their shadow upon a large area of the earth approaches in magnitude of evil and volume of suffering the world-wide degradation of our time.
The Tyranny Of The Clerical Gestapo...it must, whenever wealth and privilege are threatened, associate with any forces which disown the democratic restraints of our age and by violence and bloodshed suppress the critics of privilege and seek an extension of their wealth and power.
Rome Puts A Blight On CultureIt is one illustration of the evil that is done by the Black International in America in putting its own interests before national interests or those of the race. The aspect of this that concerns us here is that press and politicians say that the Church of Rome is so important an institution in America that they are bound to consult its wishes and are naturally reluctant to see anything wrong in its proceedings.
The Church The Enemy Of The WorkersThe first letter I received told me that the land is entirely Fascist, which I knew; that all the priests belong to the Fascist party, which is also called Catholic Action and holds its meetings in the Churches, and that every boy or youth works in it. The local newspapers praise the Germans every day as well as the Italians.
The Church Defies Modern LifeBut the richest and most powerful Church in America still gathers folk, in dazzling New York or nerve-racking Chicago or aristocratic Washington, to hear the preacher tell about the legions of devils that hunger for their souls and the vast lakes of fire underground into which they may slip at any moment.
How Catholics Are Hypnotized About Their Weird CreedBut many feel it very difficult to believe that the Roman Church, which they thought they knew well, is capable of this conspiracy against civilization: that is to say, a conspiracy for their own end's, no matter how they define these, of the leaders of the Church with powers which, if they succeeded, would certainly wreck civilization as we know it.
How The Faith Is ProtectedThe religious life of a good half of them consists in dodging the devil by going to Church once a week for half an hour and faintly hearing a priest in the far distance mumble prayers in Latin. The ease with which such folk were swept away from the Church in millions in Europe and South America as long as there was freedom of discussion shows what shallow and feeble roots their faith has.
The Artistic Sterility Of The ChurchThis involved a larger use than ever of its second weapon, suppression of truth and mendacity, in the lands that were not yet conquered, and I have endeavored to expose this and enable the reader to understand the Church. In the world at large it is, instead of being the impressive institution it represents in America, a tragic-comic spectacle.
The Catholic Church Does Far More Harm Than GoodThe bandits wanted the international influence of the Vatican to help to dupe the world about their designs; and they promised it a very large share of the spoils of victory by annihilating its critic's and recovering its lost provinces for it.