An idea or institution may arise for one reason and be maintained for quite a different reason.

The sentiments attributed to Christ are in the Old Testament. They were familiar in the Jewish schools and to all the Pharisees, long before the time of Christ, as they were familiar in all the civilizations of the earth - Egyptian, Babylonian, and Persian, Greek, and Hindu.

No pope ever condemned slavery.

Any body of men who believe in hell will persecute whenever they have the power.

The Rationalist case needs no straining of evidence and always gains by the severest self-criticism.

If, it was natural to reason, God punishes men with eternal torment, it is surely lawful for men to use doses of it in a good cause.

Creeds made in Dark Ages are like drawings made in dark rooms

Not material or economic conditions in the ordinary sense, but perverse religious ideas explain the suspension of civilization in Europe from the 5th to the 12th century, and in the Mohammedan world after the 15th century.