Liberty's Chief Foe Is Theology.

The Ameliorating March Of The Last Few Centuries Has Been Initiated By The Heretics Of Each Age, Though I Concede That The Men And Women Denounced And Persecuted As Infidels By The Pious Of One Century Are Frequently Claimed As Saints By The Pious Of A Later Generation.

Is It Not Gain To Have Diminished The Faith That It Was The Duty Of The Wretched And The Miserable To Be Content With The Lot In Life Which Providence Had Awarded Them?

Will Any One, Save The Most Bigoted, Contend, That It Is Not Certain Gain To Humanity To Spread Unbelief In The Terrible Doctrine That Eternal Torment Is The Probable Fate Of The Great Majority Of The Human Family?

I Do Not Deny "god", Because That Word Conveys To Me No Idea, And I Cannot Deny That Which Presents To Me No Distinct Affirmation, And Of Which The Would-be Affirmer Has No Conception.

A Ground Frequently Taken By Christian Theologians Is That The Progress And Civilization Of The World Are Due To Christianity; And The Discussion Is Complicated By The Fact That Many Eminent Servants Of Humanity Have Been Nominal Christians, Of One Or Other Of The Sects. My Allegation Will Be That The Special Services Rendered To Human Progress By These Exceptional Men Have Not Been In Consequence Of Their Adhesion To Christianity, But In Spite Of It, And That The Specific Points Of Advantage To Human Kind Have Been In Ratio Of Their Direct Opposition To Precise Biblical Enactments.