mid the
general stream of evolution, keeping its head above water as best it
might, and thinking neither of whence nor whither.' Many volumes have
been written to give a purposive interpretation of the rise and
evolutionary ramifications of living forms. The course of evolution
itself is their refutation."

When the Churches could no longer ignore the rising tide of secular
opinion, they resorted to compromise and called to their aid a certain
number of intellectually dishonest scientists. The attempt to harmonize
Christianity and Evolution can only be accounted for in terms of either
dishonesty or stupidity.

"And that is true of the whole range of science. Science is, in fact,
atheistic or nothing. It knows nothing of God, it does not bother about
God, its triumphs are achieved by leaving God out of account." (_C.
Cohen_.)

What has heretofore been mentioned is but a mere trifle when one
considers the vast number of similar incidents in which religion has
played the role of barrier to progress. These examples, though few, are
sufficient to impress the mind of any clear-minded, intelligent
individual with the conviction, in spite of all the sophistry and
casuistry of the ecclesiastical apologies, that progress in this world
has taken place in direct proportion to the degree that the mind of man
has liberated itself from the control of theology and the myth of
religion.

CHAPTER XII

RELIGION AND WITCHCRAFT

_Better that a man's body should be destroyed than his soul. The
worst death of the soul is freedom to err_.

ST. AUGUSTINE.

_It would be hard to calculate the perilous import of so treacherous
an utterance, an utterance the latent sentiment of which has been
responsible for I know not how much human agony. Menacing indeed to
human happiness was such a claim, and in the course of time when the
corporate body of the church became all-powerful in Christendom, it
put into tyrannical practice what had been but a theological
theory_.

LLEWELYN POWYS.

It is the purpose of this chapter to trace the origin of witches,
wizards, and devils, the widespread belief in them at the time of pagan
Rome, and the manner in which these were incorporated into Christian
theology.

With the rise of Christianity and the gain of political power by its
adherents, the perverted pagan idea of witchcraft became the source of
the most terrible persecutions in the bloody histo