"It is from the Bible that man has learned cruelty, rapine, and murder; for the belief of a cruel God makes a cruel man." "One good schoolmaster is of more use than a hundred priests." "I do not believe in the creed professed by the Jewish church, by the Roman church, by the Greek church, by the Turkish church, by the Protestant church, nor by any church that I know of. My own mind is my own church." "All national institutions of churches, whether Jewish, Christian, or Turkish, appear to me no other than human inventions set up to terrify and enslave mankind, and monopolize power and profit." Thomas Paine, The Age of Reason