(Holland mentions over and over that Jesus was punished the way slaves were, because he is interested in the psychological effect of this on Christian believers.) Hammurabi, quoted by Holland himself, said that ‘the strong should not harm the weak.’ The Upanishads instructed, ‘Give, be merciful’. If Holland does not keep the boundaries clear-cut, maybe it is just as shorthand, so as not to keep repeating ‘allegedly’, ‘supposedly’, ‘it was believed that’. Holland is very sarcastic about overblown reports, including by Voltaire, of Galileo’s sufferings at the hands of the Inquisition. Hypocrisy, it is declaring in black on white, is a distinguishing mark of atheism (like, say, the mark of Satan on witches).