Part 1 (1/2)
Tyranny of G.o.d.
by Joseph Lewis.
FOREWORD
Go forth, little book, to destroy fear, prejudice and superst.i.tion, and help to install Reason in the minds of the human race to be its guide in the affairs of life and its living.
PREFACE TO SECOND EDITION
The most eloquent testimony given this little book is the fact that a second edition is made necessary only a few months after the publication of the first edition.
Favorable comments and letters of recommendation from men and women eminent in literary and scientific realms, and commendatory reviews in periodicals of high standard are, I think, sufficient cause for the belief that ”The Tyranny of G.o.d” forms a necessary cog in the machinery of intellectual thought and progress.
Even those who bitterly oppose the book admit that it possesses the power to make its readers think.
Of the many opposing reviews and adverse criticism of ”The Tyranny of G.o.d,” not a single one offers an argument in answer to it. For the most part, their characterization has been that it is ”pessimistic.” As if by calling it ”pessimistic,” they refute its claims!
If to tell a man the true nature of a disease from which he is suffering, with the hope that he will seek a cure for his malady, is pessimism, then I am a pessimist. Is the use of a danger signal at a hazardous crossing, for the purpose of preventing disaster, pessimism?
If to literally ”hold the mirror up to Nature,” disclosing Nature's utter disregard for the life and feelings of man, as a warning against the extravagant and useless propagating of life, is pessimism, then surely I am a pessimist.
If a fervent desire to help Man, instead of wasting time in prayer to ”G.o.d,” is pessimism, I am a pessimist.
If to think, to investigate, to express one's thoughts courageously in the face of centuries old dogma is pessimism, then I must confess I am a pessimist.
If to expose sham, hypocrisy and fraud; if to open the mind and free it from fear; if to stimulate the intellect, and work for the Here instead of the ”Hereafter”--if all these are cla.s.sified as pessimism, then truly may I be called an arch pessimist.
”The Tyranny of G.o.d” was written to express the truth as I see it--to portray life, not as we would like to have it, but as it actually is.
Millions are still like frightened children, afraid of their own shadows. Fear of the truth is the greatest deterrent to its acceptance.
JOSEPH LEWIS
_April 14, 1922_
PREFACE TO THE FOURTH EDITION
I am indeed gratified to send forth the fourth edition of ”The Tyranny of G.o.d.”
I wish, however, to say to the reader that my book deals with life philosophically and not individually. It was from the viewpoint of life in general and the universe as a whole that the sentiments herein were expressed.
To love G.o.d is not the duty of man and one of the most important tasks to be accomplished for the human race is to destroy the Theistic conception of Life and the Universe.