Do not Christians and Heathens, Jews and Gentiles, poets and philosophers, unite in allowing the starry influences?
Religion has always been the picklock of imperialism. Let them try to convert the heathens, and when they fail, we shall send in the French Navy to protect them and our political and commercial interests.
Agnosticism is a perfectly respectable and tenable philosophical position; it is not dogmatic and makes no pronouncements about the ultimate truths of the universe. It remains open to evidence and persuasion; lacking faith, it nevertheless does not deride faith. Atheism, on the other hand, is as unyielding and dogmatic about religious belief as true believers are about heathens. It tries to use reason to demolish a structure that is not built upon reason.
How long will the heathens rage?
Heathens are unredeemed outcasts from heaven who roam the planet without hope of surviving the deaths of their bodies. They may have values but they are not secured by any divine source. Yet we embrace this because we think it represents the truth.