30,000 pilgrims arrived daily, and one of them says, "day and night two clerics stood at the altar of St. Peter with rakes and drew off the infinite sums of money."

Those who believe prayer will help them and know they are being prayed for may indeed get better, thanks to the placebo effect. The same could be said of giving pets to the elderly who like animals.

It is characteristic of the teaching of European history that it assumes the general populace acquiesced in all the ideas of a church that diverged radically from the organization founded under the original gospels.

What is seldom admitted is that the Church was hurting from the loss of income to the Protestant churches, and stipulated a meeting in an Italian town — so that the Inquisition could finish off the heretics.

The greatest burden in the world is superstition, not only of ceremonies in the church, but of imaginary and scarecrow sins at home."

What Pius IX condemned generally as "Liberalism" is today seen as general principles of modern civilization.

If God wanted us to know the truth, he wouldn't have given us badly translated revelations!

If all of this sounds like Hollywood hype, bear in mind that, in the same year (2001), Andrea Yates believed she was possessed by the devil, and that only by drowning her children could she save them.

"If you gain, you gain all; if you lose, you lose nothing. Wager then without hesitation that He is." No one knows if Pascal his won his Wager.