His fears produced such fantastic monsters of the air that it was first necessary to relieve his tormented mind of these terrifying myths of ghosts and gods before he was able to acquire even the simplest rudiments of knowledge.
Man's ignorance and fears made him an easy prey of priests.
His gullibility was such that he believed everything he was told.
He soon became a slave to these liars and hypocrites.
And what did the priests tell him?
They told him that God had made a special revelation in a book called the Bible, and that it was necessary to believe every word in that book in order that he might save his soul. They told him that if he disobeyed their commands, he would suffer eternal damnation in a hell where "the fire never ceases, and where the worm never dies."
They also told him that it was a sin for him to read that book, and that the priest was especially ordained by God to interpret the meaning of each and every word.
And what was the priest's interpretation of the text of that book?
It was that man was a corrupt and sinful being, and that in order to be saved from punishment after death, he had to give a substantial part of the fruits of his labor to the priest to pray for him, and intercede with God on his behalf, so as to mitigate the punishment to which he had already been doomed.