The whip degrades; a severe father teaches his children to dissemble; their love is pretense, and their obedience a species of self-defense. Fear is the father of lies.
It is impossible for me to conceive of a character more utterly detestable than that of the Hebrew god.
The history of the world shows that when a mean thing was done, man did it; when a good thing was done, man did it.
The savage prays to a stone that he calls a god, while the Christian prays to a god he calls a spirit, and the prayers of both are equally useful.
Do not trust those in whom the compulsion to punish is strong.
Spirituality for the most part is a mask worn by idleness, arrogance and greed.
If there be an infinite Being, he does not need our help – we need not waste our energies in his defense.
If, with all the time at my disposal, with all the wealth of the resources of this vast universe, to do with as I will, I could not produce a better scheme of life than now prevails, I would be ashamed of my efforts and consider my work a humiliating failure.
On every hand there seems to be design to defeat design. If God created man – if he is the father of us all, why did he make the criminals, the insane, the deformed and idiotic? Should the mother, who clasps to her breast an idiot child, thank God?
I read the other day an account of a meeting between John Knox and John Calvin. Imagine a dialogue between a pestilence and a famine!
Strange but true: those who have loved God most have loved men least.
Twenty years after the death of Luther there were more Catholics than when he was born. And twenty years after the death of Voltaire there were millions less than when he was born.
Epithets are not arguments. Abuse does not persuade.
The book, called the Bible, is filled with passages equally horrible, unjust and atrocious. This is the book to be read in schools in order to make our children loving, kind and gentle! This is the book they wish to be recognized in our Constitution as the source of all authority and justice!
The churches have no confidence in each other. Why? Because they are acquainted with each other.
They knew no better, but I do not propose to follow the example of a barbarian because he was honestly a barbarian.
The moment you introduce a despotism in the world of thought, you succeed in making hypocrites – and you get in such a position that you never know what your neighbor thinks.
Only a few years ago there was no person too ignorant to successfully answer Charles Darwin; and the more ignorant he was the more cheerfully he undertook the task.
The ministers, who preached at these revivals, were in earnest. They were zealous and sincere. They were not philosophers. To them science was the name of a vague dread – a dangerous enemy. They did not know much, but they believed a great deal.
The old lady who said there must be a devil, else how could they make pictures that looked exactly like him, reasoned like a trained theologian – like a doctor of divinity.