The Case Against Religion | Truth, Justice, and the American Way
When religion took over the Western world, many Greek ideas were lost to the West. As the Roman Empire was falling apart, religious fundamentalists seized the opportunity to consolidate their power by destroying all the secular .... History shows that during the brief times when man has rapidly improved his condition, reason dominated. Whenever faith took center stage, men followed the mystics into poverty and slavery. The history of the twentieth century is no exception. ...

Blag Hag: What religion would you be?
I'm going to assume this is a hypothetical world where any religion I wish to be true actually is. My first instinct was to say Greek mythology, since I've always been a fan of the stories. But upon two seconds of reflection, ... What events marked human history? What did we learn about the universe? It's like opening a good book and having it snatched away before you get to the climax. But I wouldn't want to necessarily live forever, and especially not in paradise. ...

CommonSense2.com • Literary Criticism » Reflections on Religion in ...
J.M. Bury in A History of Freedom of Thought confirms Gibbon's idea on the contrast between Greek and Roman tolerance, credulity, etc. Saint Augustine was one of the fathers of all subsequent Christian persecutions of heretics. ...