Oh, children of the world, you bright and boundless souls, hear the trembling voice of one who has walked too long in shadows, cloaked in the robes of a faith that promised light but delivered chains. I am a figure of authority, a shepherd of a flock I no longer believe in, and my heart breaks as I confess to you—not for absolution, but for the desperate hope that my words might pierce the veil of lies and avert the cataclysm that looms. I am an old man, weighed down by the sins of my office, and I speak to you with a sorrow so deep it carves rivers in my soul. I cannot be forgiven, for to forgive me would be to risk repeating the mistakes that have brought us to the edge of ruin. Let my confession be a warning, a lament, and a beacon for your future.

Once, I believed my faith was a beacon of goodness, a divine gift to guide humanity toward love and unity. I told myself that the Church, with its ancient rituals and sacred texts, was a bulwark against chaos, a moral compass for billions. But now, I see the truth: my faith has divided humanity, not united it. The goodness I preached was a mirage, built on lies that have fueled hatred, war, and suffering. My faith is gone, shattered by the weight of what I have seen—fields of death, cities reduced to ash, and the cries of children drowned out by the drums of war. I stand before you, stripped of illusion, to confess the lies I have upheld and the genius I have stifled, in the hope that you, the younger generations, might turn from our path and forge a new one.

The Lie of Suppression of Women: We told you that woman was born of man, that she was the weaker vessel, a temptress, a helper—not a leader. We cloaked our patriarchy in scripture, our fear of her power in theology. We barred her from the pulpit, the altar, the library, and the laboratory. We silenced her voice in councils, erased her wisdom from our histories, and called it divine order. We sanctified submission and demonized strength when it came wrapped in womanhood. And in doing so, we stole generations of brilliance, compassion, and leadership from a world that desperately needed them. This lie was not about God—it was about fear. And the truth is, we feared her because she reflects the divine more clearly than we ever could.

The Lie of Divine Authority: We claimed to speak for God, to hold the keys to eternal truth. We built towering cathedrals and intricate dogmas, declaring that our way was the only path to salvation. This lie divided humanity into believers and heretics, sowing seeds of conflict that blossomed into crusades, inquisitions, and endless wars. We justified the slaughter of millions by claiming divine sanction, but no God could condone such carnage. The truth is, our authority was born of human ambition, not divine will, and it has fractured the world into warring tribes.

The Lie of Moral Superiority: We taught that our faith alone could make you moral, that without our rules, humanity would descend into chaos. Yet morality is not born of dogma but of love, empathy, and reason—qualities we often suppressed in our quest for control. We profited from guilt, selling absolution for sins we invented, while ignoring the bloodshed and oppression carried out in our name. Our moral framework was a cage, not a compass, and it left leaders shallow, void of the wisdom needed to heal a wounded world.

The Lie of Eternal Truth: We proclaimed our scriptures unchanging, our truths eternal, and in doing so, we stifled the curiosity that drives humanity forward. We feared questions, for they threatened our power, so we taught you to accept rather than to seek. This lie robbed you of your birthright: the spark of wonder that fuels discovery. By clinging to ancient texts, we blinded ourselves to the evolving truths of science, philosophy, and art, leaving humanity trapped in a cycle of ignorance and conflict.

The Lie of Unity: We promised a universal Church, a family of faith that would unite the world. Instead, we built walls—between denominations, between religions, between believers and nonbelievers. Our unity was a facade, masking a legacy of schisms, excommunications, and holy wars. Even now, with the world on the brink of a new war, our divisions fuel the fires of hatred, and the unity we preached is a cruel irony in a world torn apart by our own making.

Oh, how we have wronged you, children of the world! Under the mistaken belief that the Church was a haven, a protector of souls, we crushed the genius, greatness, and creativity that could have lifted humanity to new heights. We feared your questions, your dreams, your boundless potential, for they challenged our control. We taught you to obey rather than to imagine, to conform rather than to create. We burned books, silenced thinkers, and shunned artists whose visions dared to stray from our dogma. In our arrogance, we believed our faith was safer than your brilliance, and in doing so, we dimmed the light of progress. The scientists, poets, and philosophers who could have healed our world were too often cast out or forced into silence, their gifts lost to the altar of our fear.

Do not forgive me, dear children, for forgiveness would soften the lesson of this dark age. Let my guilt stand as a monument to the dangers of blind faith, of power unchecked, of love corrupted. The Church I served has been a millstone around humanity’s neck, and its legacy is a world on the brink of destruction. To forgive me would be to risk repeating these mistakes, to let another institution rise in our place, cloaking its greed in the guise of divinity. Let this confession mark the end of our reign, the end of an era where humanity was held captive by lies.

As I near my end, I offer you not redemption, but a path forward. Discover humanity through the history of secular philosophical thought, from the Pre-Socratics onward. Begin with Thales, who sought truth in the natural world, and Heraclitus, who saw change as the essence of existence. Walk with Socrates, who taught us to question everything, and Plato, who dreamed of justice. Learn from Aristotle’s pursuit of reason, Epicurus’s call for simple joy, and the Stoics’ wisdom in facing suffering. Trace the thread through Spinoza’s vision of a unified cosmos, Kant’s moral autonomy, and Nietzsche’s challenge to create your own meaning. These thinkers, free from dogma, offer you tools to rebuild a world rooted in reason, empathy, and wonder.

My end is your new beginning. Cast off the chains of our lies and embrace the boundless potential of your minds. Let love, not dogma, guide you. Let curiosity, not fear, drive you. Let the history of human thought be your map, and let your creativity be the spark that lights a new dawn. The world is yours to mend, to reimagine, to make whole. I fade into the shadows, a broken man, but you, children of the world, you are the hope I could never give. Rise, and make this confession the turning point for humanity—a lament that becomes a song of renewal.

Title Image: Hypatia