/P "The Religious Pest--5 cents. The Crimes of God--5 cents. The Sins of My Lady Penitents--8 cents. The Last Religious Lie--5 cents. Neither God Nor Soul--15 cents." P/
Near the end of the detailed list 22 more works are advertised as anti-clerical novels.
On May 1, 1912, while its editor, Arturo M. Giovannitti, was in prison at Lawrence, Massachusetts, "Il Proletario" published an article under the caption, "The Priest":
"Now at last the nations have understood that God is a monstrous fable, and that hell, heaven, immortality, and all the other devilish things are states created by rascals to despoil and oppress the people."
We are very much indebted to the Social Reform Press for favoring us with the translation of "The Little Catechism," edited by Bartos Bittner, whose dead and corrupt body was found by neighbors in his lodging in Chicago. This blasphemous Catechism, from which quotations are to be given, was published for the use of the children of the Bohemian-American Socialists:
"Question. What is God?
Answer. God is a word used to designate an imaginary being which people of themselves have devised.
Q. Is it true that God has never been revealed?
A. As there is no God, He could not reveal himself.
Q. What is heaven?
A. Heaven is an imaginary place which churches have devised as a charm to entice their believers.
Q. How did man originate?
A. Just as did animals; by evolution from their lower kinds.
Q. Has man an immortal soul as Christianity teaches?
A. Man has no soul; it is only an imagination.
Q. Who is Jesus Christ?
A. Jesus Christ is the son of a Jewish girl called Mary.
Q. Is he the son of God?
A. There is no God, therefore there can be no God's son.
Q. Did Christ rise from the dead as Christianity teaches?
A. The report about Christ rising from the dead is a fable.
Q. Is it true that after Christ's death the Apostles received the Holy Ghost?
A. It is not; the Apostles had imbibed too freely of wine and their dizzy heads imagined all sorts of queer things.
Q. Did Christ ascend into heaven?
A. He did not; what the church teaches is a nonsensical fable, because there is no heaven, and there was no place to ascend to.
Q. Will Christ come to this earth?
A. He will not because no dead person can come back.
Q. Will Christ return on judgment day?
A. There will be no judgment day; that is all a fable so that preachers could scare people and hold them in their grasp. Man has no soul, neither had Christ a soul. All these things have been invented by the church.
Q. What is the Holy Spirit?
A. The Holy Spirit is an imagination existing only in the minds of crazy religious people.
Q. Is Christianity desirable?
A. Christianity is not advantageous to us, but is harmful, because it makes us spiritual cripples. By its teachings of bliss after death it deceives the people. Christianity is the greatest obstacle to the progress of mankind, therefore it is the duty of every citizen to help wipe out Christianity. All churches are impudent humbugs.
Q. Is there communion of saints?
A. No, because there is no God, no saints, no soul, and therefore our prayers are wholly useless, and only a waste of time, which should be spent in more useful things.
Q. What is our duty when we have learned that there is no God?
A. We should teach this knowledge to others.
Q. Should we take the name of God in vain?
A. Yes, because the name of God has no meaning."
Isador Ladoff, a Socialist of Cleveland, Ohio, and a candidate for office in 1911, speaks very frankly about religion on page 11 of his pamphlet, "Socialism, The Anti-Christ":
"The church knows that Socialism in spite of the declaration of neutrality of the latter in religious matters, undermines the very foundation of the former. The church realizes that Socialism is anti-Christ. For the church it is a question of life and death, a struggle for existence. Why, then, should the Socialists not engage in an open aggressive campaign against the church? Would not an honest war between Christ and anti-Christ be more dignified, more wise and more effective, than a false pretence of neutrality and a defensive attitude toward the attacks of the church? Let us have the courage of our convictions, not only in matters of social and economic significance, but in all things affecting the interests of the toiling masses of humanity, including religious institutions."
Rev. E. E. Carr, writing in the "Christian Socialist," Chicago, May 15, 1907, informs us that, "The Christian Socialists do not ask or desire that the party declare for religion. Strictly speaking, Socialism is a purely economic proposition.... We demand absolute freedom of religious opinion in the party, and that officials of the party cease teaching anti-religious dogma as an essential part of Socialist philosophy."
Dishonest Socialists, when arguing that their party does not advocate atheism as the "religion" of their contemplated state, frequently appeal to the religious plank of their 1908 National Platform, which declares that the Socialist Party is not concerned with matters of religious belief.