“Very shortly the temple was once again a wonder of the world, and the Ephesian Church settled down to a long reign marked only by the usual bitter quarrels, heresies, and internal dissent through which all major faiths struggle.
Any religion begins in a moment of transforming truth. That moment quickly shatters into falsehood and shame and stagecraft, bitter comedy, sometimes murder. Thieves catch hold of any chance for power. The early years of a faith are best not too closely examined by its faithful.”
Source: The Life of the World to Come (2004), Chapter 12, “Alec Solves a Mystery” (p. 201)
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Kage Baker 79
American writer 1952–2010Related quotes

Source: The Cultural Contradictions of Capitalism (1976), Chapter 6, The Public Household, p. 244
Context: Gadgets can be engineered, programs can be designed, institutions can be built, but belief has an organic quality, and it cannot be called into being by fiat. Once a faith is shattered, it takes a long time to grow again - for its soil is experience - and to become effective again.

“It were better to be of no Church, than to be bitter for any.”
535
Fruits of Solitude (1682), Part I

“In a world that has REALLY been turned on its head, truth is a moment of falsehood.”
Source: Reincarnation & Christianity https://www.theosophical.org/files/resources/articles/ReincarnationChristianity.pdf (1967)

“In our windy world
What's up is faith, what's down is heresy.”
Harold, Act i, Scene 1, reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919)

"The Lees of Happiness"
Quoted, Tales of the Jazz Age (1922)