do so
because, consciously or unconsciously, they seek there the satisfaction
of wants, the worth of living, and security for what they passionately
prize, which they have not found and despair of finding in the human
venture as they know it. Reliance upon God for what life does not
afford, has, in my opinion, harmful consequences. It diverts attention
from the specific conditions upon which a better or a worse life
depends; it leads men to regard themselves as spectators of a course of
events which they in reality help to determine; it makes the highest
human excellence consist in acquiescence in the supposed will of a being
that is defined as not human, a being that is above the driving force of
impulse, that does not experience vacillating moods or conflicting
desires, that is never harassed by doubts or misled by ignorance....
Theism is in essence repressive, prohibitory, ascetic. The outcome of
its influence is that expertness in practical living and expertness in
evaluating life, instead of uniting to take advantage of a common
opportunity, are set against each other. This is the profound dualism
which remains to be mastered. It can be mastered by the concentration
upon human needs and powers.

JOHN DEWEY

The method we term "scientific" forms for the modern man (and a man is
not modern merely because he lives in 1931) the sole, dependable means
of disclosing the realities of existence. It is the sole authentic mode
of revelation. This possession of a new method, to the use of which no
limits can be put, signifies a new idea of the nature and possibilities
of experience. It imports a new morale of confidence, control, and
security.

C. E. M. JOAD

All through the century (nineteenth), whenever and wherever there is a
movement for change and betterment, the clergy are found opposing it. In
this they are merely carrying on the tradition of their order. When one
looks back over history, one realizes that there is scarcely any
discovery which science has made for human advancement and happiness
which churchmen and theologians have not violently opposed. Not content
with burning each other, they burnt the men who discovered the earth's
motion, burnt the men who made the first tentative beginnings of physics
and chemistry, burnt the men who laid the foundations of our medical
knowledge.... Bad as has been the church's record in the past, it is not
greatly improved in the present.... For two thousand years teache