“Religious moderation is the direct result of taking scripture less and less seriously. So why not take it less seriously still? Why not admit the the Bible is merely a collection of imperfect books written by highly fallible human beings.”

Source: Speaking the Truth: Ecumenism, Liberation, and Black Theology (1986), pp. 7-8

Source: Truth and Truthfulness (2002), p. 3

Source: Dancing Girls

Fond Farewell.
Lyrics, From a Basement on the Hill (posthumous, 2004)

"The Gods" (1876) as published in The Gods and Other Lectures (1879).
Context: Day by day, religious conceptions grow less and less intense. Day by day, the old spirit dies out of book and creed. The burning enthusiasm, the quenchless zeal of the early church have gone, never, never to return. The ceremonies remain, but the ancient faith is fading out of the human heart. The worn-out arguments fail to convince, and denunciations that once blanched the faces of a race, excite in us only derision and disgust. As time rolls on, the miracles grow mean and small, and the evidences our fathers thought conclusive utterly fail to satisfy us.

Source: Shirley (1849), Ch. 5: Hollow's Cottage

The Decline and Fall of Science (1976)

archy and mehitabel (1927), what the ants are saying