eds the same kind of training as any other part of the body
that requires exercise for development. Nourishment for the mind is
just as necessary as nourishment for the body.

Just as there are some foods which have been so adulterated and refined
that when eaten they add no nourishment to the body, so there are truths
which have been adulterated by religion and superstition so as to be
utterly valueless in nourishing the mind with intelligence.

Education becomes the primary object of civilization.

As Thomas Paine says: "Wisdom is not the purchase of a day."

The church knows that an educated man is an unbeliever.

That is why there is a continual struggle on the part of the clergy to
adulterate education with superstition. To maintain their untenable
position they must keep the people shackled to a form of mental slavery.

Both fear and superstition are forms of a contagious disease.

The ignorance of man produced natural fears of the elements of nature.
What he could not understand he attributed to malevolent spirits whose
primary purpose was to punish and harm him. Under this spell it seems
almost incredible that he ever advanced from his state of primitive
ignorance.

His fears produced such fantastic monsters of the air that it was first
necessary to relieve his tormented mind of these terrifying myths of
ghosts and gods before he was able to acquire even the simplest
rudiments of knowledge.

Man's ignorance and fears made him an easy prey of priests.

His gullibility was such that he believed everything he was told.

He soon became a slave to these liars and hypocrites.

And what did the priests tell him?

They told him that God had made a special revelation in a book called
the Bible, and that it was necessary to believe every word in that book
in order that he might save his soul. They told him that if he disobeyed
their commands, he would suffer eternal damnation in a hell where "the
fire never ceases, and where the worm never dies."

They also told him that it was a sin for him to read that book, and that
the priest was especially ordained by God to interpret the meaning of
each and every word.

And what was the priest's interpretation of the text of that book?

It was that man was a corrupt and sinful being, and that in order to be
saved from punishment after death, he had to give a substantial part of
the fruits of his labor to the priest to pray for him, and intercede
with God on his beh