y it
should be "unpleasant" for a Mahommedan or Buddhist to say so. But
that "it ought to be" unpleasant for any man to say anything which he
sincerely, and after due deliberation, believes, is, to my mind, a
proposition of the most profoundly immoral character. I verily believe
that the great good which has been effected in the world by
Christianity has been largely counteracted by the pestilent doctrine
on which all the Churches have insisted, that honest disbelief in
their more or less astonishing creeds is a moral offence, indeed a sin
of the deepest dye, deserving and involving the same future
retribution as murder and robbery. If we could only see, in one view,
the torrents of hypocrisy and cruelty, the lies, the slaughter, the
violations of every obligation of humanity, which have flowed from
this source along the course of the history of Christian nations, our
worst imaginations of Hell would pale beside the vision.

A thousand times, no! It ought _not_ to be unpleasant to say that
which one honestly believes or disbelieves. That it so constantly is
painful to do so, is quite enough obstacle to the progress of mankind
in that most valuable of all qualities, honesty of word or of deed,
without erecting a sad concomitant of human weakness into something to
be admired and cherished. The bravest of soldiers often, and very
naturally, "feel it unpleasant" to go into action; but a court-martial
which did its duty would make short work of the officer who
promulgated the doctrine that his men _ought_ to fell their duty
unpleasant.

I am very well aware, as I suppose most thoughtful people are in these
times, that the process of breaking away from old beliefs is extremely
unpleasant; and I am much disposed to think that the encouragement,
the consolation, and the peace afforded to earnest believers in even
the worst forms of Christianity are of great practical advantage to
them. What deductions must be made from this gain on the score of the
harm done to the citizen by the ascetic other-worldliness of logical
Christianity; to the ruler, by the hatred, malice, and all
uncharitableness of sectarian bigotry; to the legislator, by the
spirit of exclusiveness and domination of those that count themselves
pillars of orthodoxy; to the philosopher, by the restraints on the
freedom of learning and teaching which every Church exercises, when it
is strong enough; to the conscientious soul, by the introspective
hunting after sins