All that is necessary, as it seems to me, to convince any reasonable person that the Bible is simply and purely of human invention â?? of barbarian invention â?? is to read it. Read it as you would any other book; think of it as you would of any other; get the bandage of reverence from your eyes; drive from your heart the phantom of fear; push from the throne of your brain the coiled form of superstition â?? then read the Holy Bible, and you will be amazed that you ever, for one moment, supposed a being of infinite wisdom, goodness and purity, to be the author of such ignorance and of such atrocity."
[Robert G. Ingersoll, "The Gods", 1872]