The French Revolution of the 1790s, a bloody, even diabolical uprising against all forms of religion, ushered in the modern era. The 19th century was one of paradox: an unprecedented spread of evangelistic Christianity across the globe, along with the emergence of a new optimistic atheism in Europe and North America ̜a belief that by understanding nature scientifically, man can create heaven on earth without religion. As the century advanced, however, the angry philosophies of men like Nietzsche and Marx, and the rise of conflicting nationalisms and racisms, darkly foreshadowed where all this anti-Christian rebellion would lead.