Leo especially objected to things we take for granted today: secular public education, freedom of religion, freedom of speech, freedom of association, separation of church and state.

"The Passion of the Christ" really amounts to sadomasochism and homeroticism, sending a political message that Mel Gibson’s true passion is anti-Semitism and Catholic fundamentalism.

The truths about the Diocletian Persecution are that a tiny number believed so strongly that they died for their faith, but that the vast majority either went into hiding or abjured the faith.

Sexual hypocrisy is hardly new to the religion industry, especially among evangelists who preach purity and practice infidelity – infidelity, at least, to their creed or congregation or consort.

A popular Scientology Q&A says, with a bit of historical amnesia about religion, “psychiatric theories that man is a mere animal have been used to rationalize, for example, the wholesale slaughter of human beings in World Wars I and II.”

Even the “Catholic Encyclopedia” admits, "His attitude of mind towards religious truth was that of a rationalist." To Bruno it would have been easier for him to change his sex than to change his mind.

The conflict of the Roman Catholic Church against Galileo is an apt illustration of the inescapable irreconcilability of theological doctrine and science. It also shows how bullies destroy benefactors.

Pope John Paul II said that concupiscence (lust) is bad, not nudity. Yet there is no sexual passion, and therefore no procreation, without lust!

Why do people still believe in astrology? People turn to astrology, as they turn to religion, because having the stars guide their lives is a comfort for the faint of heart. But it was always magic.

one could pay money, get change, and receive a piece of paper with which one got remission of sin. The price is stipulated and there is no indulgence without "alms." That sounds like a sale.