I don't see how anybody can read the Bible and believe it's the word of God, or believe that it is anything but a barbarous story of a barbarous people.

I wouldn't say that religion has promoted the social progress of mankind. I say that it has been a detriment to the progress of civilization, and I would also say this: that the emancipation of the mind from religious superstition is as essential to the progress of civilization as is emancipation from physical slavery.