Shelley made a number of claims in Necessity, including that one's beliefs are involuntary, and, therefore, that atheists do not choose to be so and should not be persecuted. Towards the end of the pamphlet he writes: "the mind cannot believe in the existence of a God."[2] Shelley signed the pamphlet, Thro' deficiency of proof, AN ATHEIST,[2] which gives an idea of the empiricist nature of Shelley's beliefs. According to Berman, Shelley also believed himself to have "refuted all the possible types of arguments for God's existence,"[3] but Shelley himself encouraged readers to offer proofs if they possess them.