e ecclesiastics
practice when they insist that from the time a child is out of its
infancy its instruction shall be placed in their hands. They take the
most precious possession of man, his mind, and mould it to their desire.
The mind of a child is plastic, it is like a moist piece of clay and
they mould it and form it to their desire. Warped and poured into the
ecclesiastic mould of fear, the mind of the child becomes set and fixed
with the years. Then it is too late for rational thinking, as far as
religious matters go, the mind of the adult is firmly set in the form
that the ecclesiastic has fashioned for him in his youth. It is
impossible for the adult so taught to reason clearly and rationally
concerning his religion; the mould is too strong, the clay has set,
reason cannot penetrate into that hardened form. That is why it is
almost impossible for the adult who has been exposed to this mental
moulding from his infancy to break away from the fears and superstitions
learned on his mother's knee.

If Christianity, Hebrewism, Mohammedanism, or any other creed is true,
its truth must be more apparent at the age of twenty-five than it is at
the age of five. Why does the ecclesiastic not leave off his advances
until the child reaches a mature age, an age when he can reason? Then,
if theism is true, he can accept it with a reasoning mind, not a blindly
faithful mind. The theist realizes, however, that belief is at one pole,
reason at the other. Belief, creed, religion, are ideations of the
primitive mind and the mind of the child; reason is the product of
mature thought. Schopenhauer remarked that, "The power of religious
dogma when inculcated early is such as to stifle conscience, compassion,
and finally every feeling of humanity."

It is an undeniable fact that if the clergy would but leave their
tainted hands off the minds of our children until they would have
reached a mature age, there would be no religious instinct. Religious
instinct is a myth. Give me but two generations of men who have not been
subjected to this religious influence in childhood, and there will be a
race of atheists.

The ecclesiastic has from earliest times taken the standpoint that the
masses of people are of crude susceptibility and clumsy intelligence,
"sordid in their pursuits and sunk in drudgery; and religion provides
the only means of proclaiming and making them feel the high import of
life." (_Schopenhauer._) Thus the theist is led to t