Theism or Atheism: The Great Alternative

This is a fiercely argued case for atheism from one of early 20th century's most articulate freethinkers. Chapman Cohen doesn't merely argue against God's existence, he interrogates why humanity ever needed the concept, and whether modern minds can afford to retain it. Writing with the polemical fire of his era, Cohen dissects the traditional proofs for deity and finds them wanting, but his real target is softer: the assumption that religious belief, even if intellectually unnecessary, remains socially useful. He contests this vigorously, arguing that theistic frameworks have actively obstructed moral and intellectual progress. The book is most striking when it turns evolutionary theory against religious consolation, Cohen insists that if nature's cruelty proves anything, it proves indifference, not divine benevolence. This is period polemic, certainly, and sometimes dated in its assumptions about 'primitive' minds, but its central provocation remains: can ethics survive without God? For readers interested in the intellectual history of secularism, or anyone curious why the God debate refuses to die.