The founder of a religion must be able to turn water into wine--cure
with a word the blind and lame, and raise with a simple touch the dead
to life. It was necessary for him to demonstrate to the satisfaction
of his barbarian disciple, that he was superior to nature. In times of
ignorance this was easy to do. The credulity of the savage was almost
boundless. To him the marvelous was the beautiful, the mysterious was
the sublime. Consequently, every religion has for its foundation a
miracle--that is to say, a violation of nature--that is to say, a
falsehood.