The Logical Atheist

If first-time Bible readers don't walk away from the Abrahamic religions in utter disgust after reading the outrageous tales of Adam and Eve, Noah and the flood, or the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah along with the murder of Lot's wife, then the story of the binding of Isaac (Genesis 22, not the video game) should do the trick. What an evil story in every respect!  I couldn't bear to rehearse the details, which everyone knows anyway. And I won't discuss the endless and pointless interpretations of medieval and modern rabbis and other so-called religious authorities. Calling the story an allegory gets you nowhere: what is its point? Nothing good, that's for sure. It's enough to know the broad plot. Abraham robotically agrees to carry out God's command to butcher and then burn his son Isaac (his wife Sarah's only child) as a sacrifice, and Isaac is robotically obeys his father command to prepare for the event. If I wanted to play at biblical interpretat...

God was much on the scene during Wednesday's inaugural ceremonies. We had the usual opening and closing prayers and the swearing-in on a Bible. Prompted by Chief Justice John Roberts, Joe Biden continued the tradition, said to have begun with George Washington , of adding "so help me God" to the end of the oath. Those words are not in Article II of the U.S. Constitution. The oath there is only: "I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the Office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my Ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States."  Maybe this tampered-with oath is a violation of the Constitution and therefore shouldn't count. The religious stuff continued with Garth Brooks singing of "Amazing Grace": Amazing grace, how sweet the sound That saved a wretch like me Wretch? Really?  It should not go without mention that Capitol rioters on Jan. 6 paused to pray --"in Christ...

[S]o powerful is the influence of this sin of Adam upon the human race, that they all become liable to eternal torments on this account. One would have supposed that after having brought temporal death into the world by this transgression, and after having corrupted every moral principle of the human heart, the contrivers of the scheme might have been contented, without annexing to this crime any other fatal consequences; but fanaticism and superstition delight in murder, misery, and eternal fire; and to this flaming lake I wish them a speedy passage, never more to rise to insult the dignity, or destroy the happiness of the human race. --Elihu Palmer (1764-1806), Principles of Nature; or, A Development of the Moral Causes of Happiness and Misery Among the Human Species

If the disclosure of my thoughts and reflections resulting from a constant habit of contemplating Nature in her diversified relations and real modes of existence, can throw a single ray of light into the darkened intellect of man, it will increase my hopes of future progression, and essentially tranquillize the sensations of my heart. It ought to be perceived by every enlightened mind, that long-established prejudices are not to be suddenly eradicated; but by protruding the activity of intellect into the field of actual existence, some diminution of human misery may be reasonably expected. Man sees not with clearness, that his sufferings are frequently the consequences of his blind attachment to error and superstition; he seeks for their origin in the distant heavens, or the anger or resentment of supposed supernatural agents, while the truth often is, that his own prepossessions are the causes of his calamity. --Elihu Palmer (1764-1806), Principles of Nature; or, A Development of the ...

There is no system either of education, politics, or religion, which ought to be excepted from the severest scrutiny of the human mind, or the closest examination which the human faculties can bestow upon it; yet habit and custom of long duration have so strongly attached man to his errors, that he reluctantly relinquishes those tenets which serve only to disturb his peace, and destroy his happiness; while the privileged impostors of the world, or those who feast upon the continuation or error and prejudice, unite their strongest exertions to persuade man that his most important interests in time and eternity depend upon the preservation of ancient and unnatural establishments; which, in fact, are as destructive to human felicity, as they are derogatory to the divine purity of supreme intelligence. The influence of authority, the fear of incurring clerical displeasure, and the dread of eternal torments, have partially annihilated the energy of intellectual powers, and taught man trembl...

The faculties of man ought to be circumscribed only by that extensive circle which embraces the full extent of their native and accumulated activity. When religious prejudices are permitted to mingle their gloomy effects with the exalted conceptions of enlightened reason, the important cause of truth and the dearest interests of humanity become perceptibly retrograde, and darkness instead of light pervades the moral world. When Moses, by authority pretendedly divine, diffused light over the world previous to the creation of the sun, Superstition greedily swallowed the holy absurdity; but when Galileo asserted the sphericity of the earth, they cried heresy, and armed against science and philosophy, and yet the latter was an important truth in the system of nature; the former, a stupid blunder of ignorance and fanaticism. Such, O Superstition! are thy pious efforts to blind the human mind, the better to subjugate its powers, and rob man of the fruits of his industry. --Elihu Palmer (176...

How is it possible that man should have any clear conceptions of natural truth, when his understanding is constantly insulted with a thousand incongruous and non-existent relations, such as ghosts, witches, and devils, which perpetually disturb the imagination, and draw the rational faculties into the vortex of fancy and fanaticism? and this will ever be the case so long as superstition, or, which is the same thing, a religion claiming a supernatural birth, shall spread its bloody and baneful influence among intelligent beings. --Elihu Palmer (1764-1806), Principles of Nature; or, A Development of the Moral Causes of Happiness and Misery Among the Human Species