“. . . they [James Mill, John Stuart Mill, Jeremy Bentham] wanted all the moral benefits of Christianity, except without the Christianity part. They were the kind of self-assured chaps (so common in the nineteenth century) who took the fruits of centuries of Christian moral formation for granted even as they cheerfully chopped down the tree that had borne them. In consequence, they foolishly thought that because many Englishmen were generally solid and decent folk, moral solidity and decency could be counted on as standard equipment of human nature, and the whole religious thing could be thrown overboard as distracting nonsense.”

Benjamin Wiker, 10 Books That Screwed Up the World (Washington DC: Regnery, 2008), 77.