re denied the pleasure of using the word in that honest sense,
because of another which has been given to it. To the ordinary man
"Religion" means, not the soul's longing for growth, the "hunger and
thirst after righteousness", but certain forms in which this hunger
has manifested itself in history, and prevails today throughout the
world; that is to say, institutions having fixed dogmas and
"revelations", creeds and rituals, with an administering caste
claiming supernatural sanction. By such institutions the moral
strivings of the race, the affections of childhood and the aspirations
of youth are made the prerogatives and stock in trade of
ecclesiastical hierarchies. It is the thesis of this book that
"Religion" in this sense is a source of income to parasites, and the
natural ally of every form of oppression and exploitation.

If by my jesting at "Bootstrap-lifting" I have wounded some dear
prejudice of the reader, let me endeavor to speak in a more persuasive
voice. I am a man who has suffered, and has seen the suffering of
others; I have devoted my life to analyzing the causes of the
suffering, to find out if it be necessary and fore-ordained, or if by
any chance there be a way of escape for future generations. I have
found that the latter is the case; the suffering is needless, it can
with ease and certainty be banished from the earth. I know this with
the knowledge of science--in the same way that the navigator of a ship
knows his latitude and longitude, and the point of the compass to
which he must steer in order to reach the port.

Come, reader, let us put aside prejudice, and the terrors of the cults
of the unknown. The power which made us has given us a mind, and the
impulse to its use; let us see what can be done with it to rid the
earth of its ancient evils. And do not be troubled if at the outset
this book seems to be entirely "destructive". I assure you that I am
no crude materialist, I am not so shallow as to imagine that our race
will be satisfied with a barren rationalism. I know that the old
symbols came out of the heart of man because they corresponded to
certain needs of the heart of man. I know that new symbols will be
found, corresponding more exactly to the needs of our time. If here I
set to work to tear down an old and ramshackle building, it is not
from blind destructfulness, but as an architect who means to put a new
and sounder structure in its place. Before we part company I shall
submit t