An Optimistic Vision of a Future without Religion

One of these days the cold bright light of science & reason will shine through the cathedral windows & we shall go out into the fields to seek God for ourselves. The great laws of Nature will be understood--our destiny and our past will be clear. We shall then be able to dispense with the religious toys that have agreeably fostered the development of mankind.

Winston Churchill

I came across this quote in Churchill, Hitler, and The Unnecessary War, by Patrick Buchanan. Buchanan tries to refute the notion that, by resisting Hitler until the U.S. and U.S.S.R. entered the war, Churchill single-handedly saved the world from Nazism. In Buchanan's view, Nazi Germany had neither the means nor the desire to dominate the world. Churchill's refusal to negotiate with Nazi Germany only ensured that the Eastern European nations that Britain went to war for in the first place would spend the next 50 years under the rule of a totalitarian state as murderous and evil as Nazi Germany. Buchanan persuaded me that Churchill's reputation as a military strategist and the savior of civilization is undeserved. His book also makes clear, with quotations like the one above, that Churchill was a god-like writer.