In this way his mind is poisoned, paralyzed. On all other subjects he has liberty--and in all other directions he is urged to study and think. From his mother's arms he goes to the Sunday school. His poor little mind is filled with miracles and wonders. He is told about a God who made the world and who rewards and punishes. He is told that this God is the author of the Bible--that Christ is his son. He is told about original sin and the atonement, and he believes what he hears. No reasons are given--no facts--no evidence is presented--nothing but assertion. If he asks questions, he is silenced by more solemn assertions and warned against the devices of the evil one. Every Sunday school is a kind of inquisition where they torture and deform the minds of children--where they force their souls into Catholic or Protestant moulds--and do all they can to destroy the originality, the individuality, and the veracity of the soul. In the theological seminary the destruction is complete. When the minister leaves the seminary, he is not seeking the truth. He has it. He has a revelation from God, and he has a creed in exact accordance with that revelation. His business is to stand by that revelation and to defend that creed. Arguments against the revelation and the creed he will not read, he will not hear. All facts that are against his religion he will deny. It is impossible for him to be candid. The tremendous "verities" of eternal joy, of everlasting pain are in his creed, and they result from believing the false and denying the true. Investigation is an infinite danger, unbelief is an infinite offence and deserves and will receive infinite punishment. In the shadow of this tremendous "fact" his courage dies, his manhood is lost, and in his fear he cries out that he believes, whether he does or not. He says and teaches that credulity is safe and thought dangerous. Yet he pretends to be a teacher--a leader, one selected by God to educate his fellow-men. These orthodox ministers have been the slanderers of the really great men of our century. They denounced Lyell, the great geologist, for giving facts to the world. They hated and belittled Humboldt, one of the greatest and most intellectual of the race. They ridiculed and derided Darwin, the greatest naturalist, the keenest observer, the best judge of the value of a fact, the most wonderful discoverer of truth that the world has produced. In every orthodox pulpit stood a traducer of the greatest of scientists--of one who filled the world with intellectual light. The church has been the enemy of every science, of every real thinker, and for many centuries has used her power to prevent intellectual progress.