And they achieved a united Germany under Prussian leadership. Unfortunately the indirect result was the creation of a war-party in Germany, which Bismarck could keep in check, but which the Kaiser could not control when Bismarck was gone; and we all know what happened next!
It is the same in small things, as in big. You see it in mountaineering. Not only does equipment improve, enabling harder climbs to be done more safely; but the climbs being done, both on our own crags and in the big ranges, are unbelievably harder than 50 years ago. And the chief reason is in the attitude of mind; no longer do people climb for the pure fun of it and the companionship, they climb for results. On our crags, a fall is accepted, in the fairly confident belief that the rope technique will render it harmless; on the greater ranges, climbers accept that if their luck runs out, they will not come back. So of course they are able to climb much harder things. Apart from the risk of losing your life, the only penalty for indulging in such a ruthless attitude is that you may not be able to retreat into a more balanced frame of mind, when you return to the valley. You get locked into the attitude, which you have chosen; and then slowly and imperceptibly you cease to be able to see things from other points of view.
But there is no need for this, because actually one is faced with a choice when events bring verification. In religion, if it is correct that Jesus saved mankind from being led down an Evolutionary cul-de-sac, everyone benefits from this. He did not do it for personal advancement. The sun shines on the just and the unjust. We all escaped tyranny, through the self-sacrifice of the men who died in the two World Wars: not just the deserving. So salvation benefits the righteous and unrighteous alike. Maybe the Leeds shoppers prefer the spirit of money and possessions to the spirit of Jesus; but they benefit from the spirit of Jesus being around in the visible form of churches. They can wistfully wish they could see the point in going to church, even while they do not do so. Their idolatry of money and possessions is not so compulsive. Take away the churches, leave them with their idolatry, and the outlook is more desolate. True life may still be in Christ, but a little brushes off onto other people.
Similarly with the sense of brotherhood or indwelling which the communion service is supposed to foster; a little brushes off onto other people. I once asked a friend why no-one had ever asked me what I meant by “indwelling”? Her reply was that few would know even if I explained, others like herself knew exactly what I meant; either way they would not ask! How hard it is to talk about a spiritual truth to the spiritually blind! But a little brushes off onto other people. Often after taking part in a communion service, where we celebrate the hope that the spirit of Christ will dwell in all of us, have I then taken part in a church council meeting where the clergyman in the chair has wangled to get his own way!