The Christian churches were offered two things: the spirit of Jesus and the idiotic morality of Paul, and they rejected read more

The Christian churches were offered two things: the spirit of Jesus and the idiotic morality of Paul, and they rejected the higher inspiration... Following Paul, we have turned the goodness of love into a fiend and degraded the crowning impulse of our being into a capital sin.

And the wisdom to distinguish one from the other.

And the wisdom to distinguish one from the other.

The human understanding is no dry light, but receives infusion from the will and affections; which proceed sciences which may read more

The human understanding is no dry light, but receives infusion from the will and affections; which proceed sciences which may be called "sciences as one would." For what a man had rather were true he more readily believes. Therefore he rejects difficult things from impatience of research; sober things, because they narrow hope; the deeper things of nature, from superstition; the light of experience, from arrogance and pride; things not commonly believed, out of deference to the opinion of the vulgar. Numberless in short are the ways, and sometimes imperceptible, in which the affections color and infect the understanding.

The whole point of Christianity is that everyone in the world, from Charles Manson to Mother Teresa, deserves to go read more

The whole point of Christianity is that everyone in the world, from Charles Manson to Mother Teresa, deserves to go to hell.

Sermons remain one of the last forms of public discourse where it is culturally forbidden to talk back.

Sermons remain one of the last forms of public discourse where it is culturally forbidden to talk back.

The devil personifies not the nature that is around us but the nature that is within us- the infinitely ferocious read more

The devil personifies not the nature that is around us but the nature that is within us- the infinitely ferocious and cunning prehuman creature that is still within us, sealed in the subconscious cellars of the psyche.

Scientific criticism has no nobler task than to shatter false beliefs.

Scientific criticism has no nobler task than to shatter false beliefs.

Prayer is a confession of one's own unworthiness and weakness.

Prayer is a confession of one's own unworthiness and weakness.

And even in our sleep pain that cannot forget falls drop by drop upon the heart, and in our own read more

And even in our sleep pain that cannot forget falls drop by drop upon the heart, and in our own despair, against our will, comes wisdom to us by the awful grace of God.