For a thousand years the torch of progress was extinguished in the blood
of Christ, and His disciples, moved by ignorant zeal, by insane, cruel
creeds, destroyed with flame and sword a hundred millions of their
fellow-men. They made this world a hell. But if cathedrals had been
universities--if dungeons of the Inquisition had been laboratories--if
Christians had believed in character instead of creed--if they had taken
from the Bible all the good and thrown away the wicked and absurd--if
domes of temples had been observatories--if priests had been
philosophers--if missionaries had taught the useful arts--if astrology
had been astronomy--if the black art had been chemistry--if superstition
had been science--if religion had been humanity--it would have been a
heaven filled with love, with liberty, and joy.