"As we put into all our schools more humane education, and foster the spirit of justice and kindness toward the "lower" creatures, just as soon shall we reach the roots not only of cruelty but of crime."

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There is a great ladder of religious cruelty, and, of its many rungs, three are the most important. People used to make human sacrifices to their god, perhaps even sacrificing those they loved the best ... Then, during the moral epoch of humanity, people sacrificed the strongest instincts they had, their 'nature,' to their god... Finally: what was left to be sacrificed? ... Didn't people have to sacrifice God himself and worship rocks, stupidity, gravity, fate, or nothingness out of sheer cruelty to themselves?

— Friedrich Nietzsche