The Necessity of Atheism

By Percy Bysshe Shelley

Introduction by Henry S. Salt.

Narrated by Oberon Michaels

The Necessity of Atheism was first published by Shelley in 1811. In 1813 he printed a revised and expanded version of it as one of the notes to his poem Queen Mab.

Shelley evinced a searing contempt for organized religion but maintained a belief in a benevolent non-sectarian World Spirit.

in the opening statement of this pamphlet, he makes clear the nature of his qualified deism :

'There is no God. This negation must be understood solely to affect a creative Deity. The hypothesis of a pervading Spirit co-eternal with the universe remains unshaken.'

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