intellectual courage and humanity
prevail against bigotry and obscurantism." (_Haggard, "Devils, Doctors,
and Drugs."_)

As a result of the lack of control of these plagues there are in the
world at the present moment thousands of children suffering from
congenital syphilis who would never have been born but for the desire of
Christians to see sinners punished. With regard to the spread of sex
knowledge, the clergy's attitude is dangerous to human welfare. The
artificial ignorance of sex subjects which orthodox Christians attempt
to enforce upon the young is extremely dangerous to mental and physical
health. The young are much less likely to act wisely when they are
ignorant, than when they are instructed.

These two venereal diseases are no more controlled under the moral
standards of today than they were two centuries ago, and yet medical
science offers for these diseases what it can offer for few others; both
a prevention and a cure. And it is due to the ignorance and the bigotry
of the theists that the spread of sex knowledge is hampered so that a
sane conception of sex and the prevention of venereal disease does not
eradicate these diseases. The theists have, therefore, without sense or
justice, founded their morality on disease; neglecting the fact that all
disease is immoral in the widest sense, since it is detrimental to the
happiness of man, and that no one disease is more so than another. The
morality of the body is health--not disease. So much for the actual
facts and reality. In passing to the theoretical, we again see the truth
of the statement that religion is the last resort of human savagery.

To postulate that a supreme being is omnipotent, omniscient, and
all-loving, and then to assume that he inflicts disease on his children
as punishment for sin is a sadistic mental aberration. In his
omniscience he full well knows beforehand what each of his children will
do. He foreordains their sins and then punishes his children for sins
that he wills them to commit. It is just as if a syphilitic father
should punish his syphilitic child because the child has that congenital
disease for which the father is responsible. If the theist insists that
his deity is all that he claims him to be, then it is only logical that
instead of man asking his god for forgiveness, what actually should be
is that God should ask the forgiveness of man for his bungling and
error.

Christianity has attempted from its inception to e