All that is necessary, as it seems to me, to convince any reasonable
person that the Bible is simply and purely of human invention--of
barbarian invention--is to read it. Read it as you would any other book;
think of it as you would any other; get the bandage of reverence from
your eyes; drive from your heart the phantom of fear; push from the
throne of your brain the cowled form of superstition--then read the Holy
Bible, and you will be amazed that you ever, for one moment, supposed a
being of infinite wisdom, goodness and purity, to be the author of such
ignorance and such atrocity.