There is a really good dialogue in the movie Inherit the Wind (1960) about this:
Quote:These are simple people, Henry, poor people. they work hard and they need to believe in something... something beautiful. They're seeking for something more perfect than what they have Window shopping for heaven. why do you want to take it away from them, Henry it's all they have...
Like my golden dancer.
Your what?
Golden dancer. She stood in the big side window in the general store in Wakeman, Ohio. I'd stand out on the street and say to myself, "if I had golden dancer, I'd have everything in the world I ever wanted. " I was about 7 years old at the time and a great judge of rocking horses. Golden dancer had a bright-red mane, blue eyes, and she was gold all over with purple spots. And when the sun hit her stirrups, She was a dazzling sight to behold.
But she was a week's wages for my father, So golden dancer and I always had a big plate-glass window between us. And then... Let's see... It couldn't have been christmas. It must have been my birthday. I woke in the morning, and there was golden dancer at the foot of my bed. Mom had skimped on the groceries, and my father had worked nights for a month. I jumped into the saddle, and I started to rock... and it broke.
No!
Split in 2. The wood was rotten. The whole thing was put together with spit and sealing wax. All shine and no substance, And that's how I feel about that demonstration I saw tonight, Matt... All glitter and glamour. You say you're giving the people hope I think you're stealing their hope. Oh no, Henry... As long as the prerequisite for that shining paradise is ignorance, bigotry, and hate... I say, "the hell with it. "
teachings of the Bible are so muddled and self-contradictory that it was possible for Christians to happily burn heretics alive for five long centuries. It was even possible for the most venerated patriarchs of the Church, like St. Augustine and St. Thomas Aquinas, to conclude that heretics should be tortured (Augustine) or killed outright (Aquinas). Martin Luther and John Calvin advocated the wholesale murder of heretics, apostates, Jews, and witches. - Sam Harris, "Letter To A Christian Nation"
