It is wonderful, indeed, how reason deceives itself. Without God it seems that there can be no religion, yet such a religion is proclaimed by atheists. They say, “In the place of these outworn tales of God let us put the truth. God is nowhere visible, while Nature and humanity are actual facts. Humanity is not only a fact, it is a force able, by the paths of reason and experience, to attain in the course of centuries unimaginable perfection. This idea of progression contains such internal force and profundity that it is enough to compensate man for religious sentiment, and to bind the race in the universal religion of humanity.” Is this not the Biblical, “Ye shall be as gods?” Such are the doctrines of modern Positivist science, and of the so-called Utilitarianism.

Konstantin Pobedonostev, Reflections of a Russian Statesman 1898