“The business of the Christian is nothing else than to be ever preparing for death”

— Irenaeus

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Irenaeus 5

Bishop and saint 130–202

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“It taught that the business of this life was to prepare for death.”

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

A Thanksgiving Sermon (1897)
Context: It taught that the business of this life was to prepare for death. It insisted that a certain belief was necessary to insure salvation, and that all who failed to believe, or doubted in the least would suffer eternal pain. According to the church the natural desires, ambitions and passions of man were all wicked and depraved. To love God, to practice self-denial, to overcome desire, to despise wealth, to hate prosperity, to desert wife and children, to live on roots and berries, to repeat prayers, to wear rags, to live in filth, and drive love from the heart—these, for centuries, were the highest and most perfect virtues, and those who practiced them were saints. The saints did not assist their fellow-men. Their fellow-men assisted them. They did not labor for others. They were beggars—parasites—vermin. They were insane. They followed the teachings of Christ. They took no thought for the morrow. They mutilated their bodies—scarred their flesh and destroyed their minds for the sake of happiness in another world. During the journey of life they kept their eyes on the grave.

“With heartfelt conviction I say it: A sound philosophy must and can be nothing else than a propaedeutic to Christianity.”

Robert Mayer (1814–1878) German physicist

Kneller, Karl Alois. 1911. pp. 18. Christianity and the Leaders of Modern Science https://archive.org/stream/christianitylead00kneluoft#page/18/mode/2up. London.
Variant translation: "From the bottom of my heart I say a true philosophy can and should be nothing but a propaganda for the Christian religion." (in Western Christian Advocate, Volume 77. 1911. Methodist Church
Original: Aus vollem Herzen rufe ich es aus: Eine richtige Philosophie darf und kann nichts anderes sein als eine Propädeutik für die christliche Religion. (As quoted in "Robert Mayer und das Energieprinzip, 1842-1942: Gedenkschrift zur 100. Wiederkehr der Entdeckung des Energieprinzips" (1942), p. 328

“Men fear thought as they fear nothing else on earth – more than ruin, more even than death.”

Bertrand Russell (1872–1970) logician, one of the first analytic philosophers and political activist

Source: 1910s, Why Men Fight https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Why_Men_Fight (1917), pp. 178-179
Context: Men fear thought as they fear nothing else on earth – more than ruin, more even than death. Thought is subversive and revolutionary, destructive and terrible; thought is merciless to privilege, established institutions, and comfortable habits; thought is anarchic and lawless, indifferent to authority, careless of the well-tried wisdom of the ages. Thought looks into the pit of hell and is not afraid. It sees man, a feeble speck, surrounded by unfathomable depths of silence; yet it bears itself proudly, as unmoved as if it were lord of the universe. Thought is great and swift and free, the light of the world, and the chief glory of man.