“And yet, I admit that the most infamous popes, the most heartless and fiendish bishops, friars, and priests were models of mercy, charity, and justice when compared with the orthodox God—with the God they worshiped. These popes, these bishops, these priests could persecute only for a few years—they could burn only for a few moments—but their God threatened to imprison and burn forever; and their God is as much worse than they were, as hell is worse than the Inquisition.”

— Robert G. Ingersoll

Rome, or Reason? A Reply to Cardinal Manning. Part I. The North American Review (1888)

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Robert G. Ingersoll 439

Union United States Army officer 1833–1899

Martin Marprelate (1588–1589)

"The Epistle" (October 1588), p. 10.

“I often feel that worse than the most fiendish Nazis were those Germans who went along with the persecution of the Jews not because they really disliked them but because it was the thing.”

Christopher Isherwood (1904–1986) English novelist

The Paris Review interview (1973)

“Let us be honest. Did all the priests of Rome increase the mental wealth of man as much as Bruno? Did all the priests of France do as great a work for the civilization of the world as Diderot and Voltaire? Did all the ministers of Scotland add as much to the sum of human knowledge as David Hume? Have all the clergymen, monks, friars, ministers, priests, bishops, cardinals and popes, from the day of Pentecost to the last election, done as much for human liberty as Thomas Paine?”

Robert G. Ingersoll (1833–1899) Union United States Army officer

as much for science as Charles Darwin?
The Great Infidels (1881)

“God is love, the bishops tell.
Yes, I know, But love is hell.”

T. H. White (1906–1964) author

"All For Love".

“Only the prosecutors' witnesses were admitted, those of the defence were chucked out … Can there be worse justice than this? I am treated like a criminal.”

Silvio Berlusconi (1936) Italian politician

As quoted in "Silvio Berlusconi says judges out to 'destroy' him" in The Telegraph (16 February 2012) http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/silvio-berlusconi/9086144/Silvio-Berlusconi-says-judges-out-to-destroy-him.html
2012