future will feel far more
happy and contented when he has not to contend at every step of his
intellectual forward development with those tormenting contradictions
between knowledge and faith which plague his youth, and occupy his
mature age unnecessarily with the slow renunciation of the notions which
he imbibed in his youth. What we sacrifice to God, we take away from
mankind, and absorb a great part of his best intellectual powers in
the pursuit of an unattainable goal. At any rate, the least that we can
expect in this respect from the state and society of the future is a
complete separation between ecclesiastical and worldly affairs, or
an absolute emancipation of the state and the school from every
ecclesiastical influence.

"Education must be founded upon _knowledge_, not upon _faith_; and
religion itself should be taught in the public schools only as religious
history and as an objective or scientific exposition of the different
religious systems prevailing among mankind. Any one who, after such an
education, still experiences the need of a definite law or rule of faith
may then attach himself to any religious sect that may seem good to him,
but cannot claim that the community should bear the cost of this special
fancy!

"As regards Christianity, or the _Paulinism_ which is falsely called
Christianity, it stands, by its dogmatic portion or contents, in such
striking and irreconcilable, nay absolutely absurd contradiction with
all the acquisitions and principles of modern science that its future
tragical fate can only be a question of time. But even its ethical
contents or its moral principles are in no way essentially distinguished
above those of other peoples, and were equally well and in part better
known to mankind even _before_ its appearance. Not only in this respect,
but also in its supposed character as the _world-religion_, it is
excelled by the much older and probably most widely diffused religious
system in the world, the celebrated _Buddhism_, which recognizes
neither the idea of a personal God, nor that of a personal duration,
and nevertheless teaches an extremely pure, amiable, and even ascetic
morality. The doctrine of Zoroaster or Zarathrustra also, 1800 years
B. C, taught the principles of humanity and toleration for those of
different modes of thinking in a manner and purity which were unknown
to the Semitic religions and especially to Christianity. Christianity
originated and spread, as is we