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Title: Treatise on the Gods (Maryland Paperback Bookshelf) by H. L. Mencken, H.L. Mencken ISBN: 0-8018-5654-X Publisher: Johns Hopkins University Press Pub. Date: 01 June, 1997 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $19.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.88 (8 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: Who knew religion could be this much fun?
Comment: It would be hard to claim, as others have, that this isn't a biased account of religion and it's roots. But one must remember, after all, that Mencken was an educated man. His bias leans in the direction of facts, evidence and rational thought, none of which are helpful in defending religious belief. This obsession with clarity, truth and facts is apparent throughout. Never does he consider, even for a second, how much sense religion would make if only he could rid himself of this sick need to focus on what actually is, and his blind faith in that terrible disease of the human mind known as logic. He erroneously believes he can explain away religion by reference to the facts of human existence! All kidding aside, this is a thoroughly researched study of the basis of religious belief. I don't think Mencken ever had in mind converting the faithful. His interest was in exploring what was at the root of the phenomenon of religious belief. That the facts point to the utter ridiculousness of religious belief is assumed from the beginning. The restraint Mencken shows in avoiding his usual vitriol is commendable. A glance at other works of religious criticism will show what a rare thing an attempt at objectivity in this area truly is. Well worth the price of admission.
Rating: 5
Summary: Cujus regio, ejus religio
Comment: In this sardonic, blasphemous and sometimes ferociously cynical pamphlet, H.L. Mencken castigates the irrationality and incredibility of all religions, e.g. there are 175.000 discrepancies in the manuscripts of the Christian New Testament.
But he considers religion rightly as one of ( for him) the greatest inventions of all times, giving the clergy enormous economical (all the temples became extremely rich) and political power. For Mencken, their power comes from the fear of Hell. The God of love that they preach invariably turns out to be a God of harsh and arbitrary penalties and brutalities. Religion is not only cruel (human sacrifices), but also a source of enormous human misery: 'Is a Catholic bishop a good citizen, when he commands, on penalty of Hell, that poor and miserable women convert themselves into mere brood sows?'(p. 270)
'The priest is the most immoral of men.' (p. 271)
His major targets are Roman Catholicism and Protestantism.
'Calvin was the true father of Puritanism, which is to say, of the worst obscenity of Western Civilization.' (p. 245) His God is an 'appalling monster'. (p. 272)
The Churches are well aware that science is their natural enemy. Therefore, they try to control education. They are always on the defensive (Galileo, Darwin) and they are opposed to all attempts of rational thinking. For Mencken, religious education is the same as organized ignorance.
He lambasts those who defend religion for 'practical' reasons: 'the fact that threats of Hell have their social uses is ... simply an argument against the human race!' (p. 268)
However, H.L. Mencken has a dark side: 'the democratic pestilence'. Like Plato, he was disgusted with the masses which were a source of a cancerous proliferation of demagogy. More, 'the reigning theologians heated up the mob against the enlightened minority.' (p. 255)
It shows his deep pessimism: the masses could not be educated and the mighty priests kept them in an irrational darkness.
This is an important flaw in his reasoning and it turned out to be a false prophesy. In many democratic countries, the religious right is on the defensive and is losing (lost) important battles.
This treatise is one of the most violent pamphlets I ever read: a Homerian battle of the enlightened one against the powerful caste of the priests.
A must read.
Rating: 5
Summary: Hard Headed Skeptic of the Theological Arts
Comment: H. L. Mencken was a rare man indeed. He was a hard headed skeptic of the theological arts, but took an intense, scholarly interest in it, and it was a boon to the universe of thoughtful men when he decided to report back to them on what he found there. The book he wrote will stand for a long while as the best of its kind--at once dispassionate and informative, with more than a little of his trademark wit thrown about with an undisguised glee. His enthusiasm for his subject bubbles out all over the place.
The book begins with an imaginary story of how religion must have gotten started among the first primitive men. It is a story well told, and reveals what Mencken imagines is at the root of men's heart much of the time--a fear of the unknown, and an understandable aspiration to master that fear by some means. Then, very early on, the con men step in to utilize the fear for their own ends--power and cash. To successfully create a job for himself, he proceeds to invent embellishments unintelligible to the poor saps, and rituals that only the initiated, such as himself, can perform.
The book continues with some comparative religion, basing most of it on what the Romans sneered at, that the Greeks made dramas about, what the Jews borrowed from the Babylonians, and what the Asiatics actually first dreamed up. He finds in all of this the roots of Christianity, and especially the stuff that Christ had never thought of, which the theologians later added for the most practical of reasons.
His account of the early church and the evolution of the bibles is gratifying in its scholarship and clarity of description. He makes the ancient theological quarrels come to life, imparting an understanding that is a valuable addition to any freethinker's equipment. Occasionally, the real Mencken peeks through, enlivening and enlightening as he goes.
The best part of the book, though, is when he shows how religion is inadequate for the job, and is in a full retreat before the onslaught of science and rational methods, leaving the truly civilized man with " a way of facing the impenetrable dark that must engulf him in the end, as it engulfs the birds of the air and the protozoa in the sea ooze....not perhaps with complete serenity, but at least with dignity, calm, a gallant spirit."
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Title: H.L. Mencken on Religion by H. L. Mencken, S. T. Joshi ISBN: 1573929824 Publisher: Prometheus Books Pub. Date: 01 October, 2002 List Price(USD): $29.00 |
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Title: Mencken Chrestomathy by H. L. Mencken ISBN: 0394752090 Publisher: Vintage Books USA Pub. Date: 01 April, 1982 List Price(USD): $19.95 |
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Title: Prejudices: A Selection (Maryland Paperback Bookshelf) by H. L. Mencken ISBN: 0801853419 Publisher: Johns Hopkins University Press Pub. Date: 01 April, 1996 List Price(USD): $19.95 |
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Title: On Politics: A Carnival of Buncombe (Maryland Paperback Bookshelf) by H. L. Mencken, Malcolm Moos ISBN: 0801853427 Publisher: Johns Hopkins University Press Pub. Date: 01 June, 1996 List Price(USD): $19.95 |
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Title: The Vintage Mencken by H. L. Mencken, Alistair Cooke ISBN: 0679728953 Publisher: Vintage Books USA Pub. Date: 01 March, 1990 List Price(USD): $13.00 |
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