“The philosopher as we understand him . . . will make use of religions for his project of cultivation and education, just as he will make use of whatever political and economic states are at hand . . . For the strong and independent who are prepared and predestined to command and in whom the reason and art of a governing race become incarnate, religion is one more means for overcoming resistances, for the ability to rule — as a bond that unites rulers and subjects and betrays and delivers the consciences of the latter, that which is most concealed and intimate and would like to elude obedience, to the former . . .”

To ordinary human beings, finally — the vast majority who exist for service and the general advantage, and who may exist only for that — religion gives an inestimable contentment with their situation and type, manifold peace of the heart, an ennobling of obedience. . . . Religion and religious significance spread the splendor of the sun over such ever-toiling human beings and make their own sight tolerable to them.

Friedrich Nietzsche, Beyond Good and Evil, sec. 61; cited in Benjamin Wiker, 10 Books That Screwed Up the World (Washington DC: Regnery, 2008), 160-61.