One does not know whether to laugh or to cry. No, these never discover anything. At Salem, the parson clung pathetically to his witch text after the laity had abandoned it in remorse and tears for the crimes and cruelties it has persuaded them to do. There are no witches. Hell fire is gone, but the text remains.
Infant damnation is gone, but the text remains.
More than two hundred death penalties are gone from the law books, but the texts that authorized them remain. It does certainly seem to suggest that if man continues in the direction of enlightenment, his religious practice may, in the end, attain some semblance of human decency. All rights reserved.