By David Carlin, The Catholic Thing - The story begins with the Protestant Reformation... Regardless of anybody’s intentions, however, a divided Christianity would be easier to destroy than a united Christianity... This divided Christianity led in the 16th and 17th centuries to the rise of skepticism, especially in France. But skepticism, while it continues even to the present day to erode Christianity, is too purely negative a thing to replace the old faith. And a replacement is needed. You can’t just get rid of Christianity and leave the world with nothing to believe in.