An Apology for Atheism by Charles Southwell (1814-1860) First published anonymously in 1846 Transcribed by the Freethought Archives, www.freethought.vze.com "Not one of you reflects, that you ought know your Gods before you worship them."...

It would be absurd to doubt that religion has an important bearing on all the relations and conditions of life. The connexion between religions faith and political practice is, in truth, far closer than is generally thought. Public opinion has not ripened into a knowledge that religious error is the intangible but real substratum of all political injustice. Though the 'schoolmaster' has done much, there still remain and hold some away among us, many honest and energetic assertors of 'the rights