triot of the planet on which he dwells. This is no cold
and cheerless philosophy; it is an elevating and ennobling ideal which
may console him in his afflictions and teach him how to live and how to
die. It is a self-reliant philosophy that makes a man intellectually
free, and this mental emancipation allows him to face the world without
fear of ghosts and gods. It relates solely to facts, while theism
resorts to opinions that are grounded only upon emotionalism. Joseph
Lewis has well noted that, "Atheism does not believe that man's mission
on earth is to love and glorify God, but it does believe in living this
life so that when you pass on, the world will be better for your having
lived."

The history of the past ages informs us what the world was like with
God. The progress of secular knowledge and science have given us
measures by which we could produce a better society than has ever
existed under the obstructionism of the Gods.

"The knowledge exists by which universal happiness can be secured, the
chief obstacle to its utilization for that purpose is the teaching of
religion. Religion prevents our children from having a rational
education; religion prevents us from removing the fundamental causes of
war; religion prevents us from teaching the ethics of scientific
cooperation in place of the old fierce doctrines of sin and punishment.
It is possible that mankind is on the threshold of a golden age, but if
so, it will be necessary to slay the dragon that guards the door, and
this dragon is religion." (_Bertrand Russell._)

It is interesting to contemplate the changes that may occur in our
civilization in the next few centuries. On the one hand we have that
long period of sterile time, 15,000 years, for the stage of neolithic
man, and on the other the vast material progress of the past three
hundred years. We may not be able to discern with clarity in what
direction changes will occur, but in one aspect we can discern a
well-marked tendency. That is the inevitable conquest of the philosophy
of atheism. And with this conquest can be clearly seen that it would
give to this earth a much sounder foundation upon which to build our
progress, and that long-delayed freedom, the emancipation of the mind
from all myths and fables. The inevitableness of atheism has been well
summed up by Chapman Cohen:

"Looking at the whole course of Human History, and noting how the vilest
and most ruinous practices have been ever associat