Part 19 (2/2)
The deities of one age are the by-words of the next. The religion of our day, and country, is no more exempt from the sneer of the future than others have been. When India was supreme, Brahma sat upon the world's throne. When the sceptre pa.s.sed to Egypt, Isis and Osiris received the homage of mankind. Greece, with her fierce valor, swept to empire, and Zeus put on the purple of authority. The earth trembled with the tread of Rome's intrepid sons, and Jove grasped with mailed hand the thunderbolts of heaven. Rome fell, and Christians from her territory, with the red sword of war, carved out the ruling nations of the world, and now Jehovah sits upon the old throne. Who will be His successor?
Ingersoll's lecture on The Religion of Our Day
Ladies and Gentlemen:--I am glad that I have lived long enough to see one gentleman in the pulpit brave enough to say that G.o.d would not be offended at one who speaks according to the dictates of his conscience; who does not believe that G.o.d will give wings to a bird, and then d.a.m.n the bird for flying. I thank the pastor and I thank the church for allowing its pastor to be so brave.
I admit that thousands and thousands of church people, with their pastors and the deacons, are today advocating religious principles that they deem right and good. I honor these men, but I do not believe that their method is a good one. I do not want these people to forgive me for the views I entertain, but I want them so to act that I will not have to forgive them. I am the friend of every one who preaches the gospel of absolute intellectual liberty, and that man is my friend.
Is there a G.o.d who says that if man does so and so He will d.a.m.n him?
Can there be such a fiend? I am not responsible to man unless I injure him; nor to G.o.d unless I injure Him, but one cannot injure G.o.d, for ”He is infinite.”
When I was young I was told that the bible was inspired, written by G.o.d, that even the lids of the book were inspired. They say He is a personal G.o.d; if so, He has not revealed Himself to me. There may be many G.o.ds. As I look around I see that justice does not prevail, that innocence is not always effectual and a perfect s.h.i.+eld. If there be a G.o.d these things could not be. If G.o.d made us all, why did He not make us all equally well. He had the power of an infinite G.o.d. Why did G.o.d people the earth with so many idiots? I admit that orthodoxy could not exist without them, but why did G.o.d make them? If we believe the bible then He should have made us all idiots, for the orthodox Christian says the idiots will not be d.a.m.ned, simply transplanted, while the sensible man, who believeth not, will be sent to eternal d.a.m.nation? If there is any G.o.d that made us, what right had He to make idiots? Is a man with a head like a pin under any obligation to thank G.o.d? Is the black man, born in slavery, under any obligation to thank G.o.d for his badge of servitude?
What kind of a G.o.d is it that will allow men and women to be put in dungeons and chains simply because they loved Him and prayed to Him?
And what kind of a G.o.d is it that will allow such men and women to be burned at the stake? If G.o.d won't love such men and women, then under what circ.u.mstances will he love?
Famine stalks over the land and millions die, not only the bad but the good, and there in the heavens above sits an infinite G.o.d who can do anything, can change the rocks and the stones, and yet these millions die. I do not say there is no G.o.d, but I do ask, what is G.o.d doing?
Look at the agony, and wretchedness and woe all over the land. Is there goodness, is there mercy in this? I do not say there is not, but I want to know, and I want to know if a man is to be d.a.m.ned for asking the question?
(He eloquently recited the agonies that cl.u.s.tered around the French Bastille, where great men and heroic women suffered and died for loving liberty, and said: If there is a G.o.d, I think that one word, Bastille, would bring the blush of shame to His face.)
I find that the men who have received revelation are the worst; and that where the bible goes there go the sword and the f.a.got. If an infinite G.o.d makes a revelation to me He knows how I will understand it. If G.o.d wrote the bible he knew that no two people would understand it alike.
When I read the bible I found that G.o.d in His infinite wisdom couldn't control the people He had created and that He had to drown them. If I had infinite power and couldn't make a people that I could control and had to drown them, why I'd resign.
Then I read in the bible such cruel things, and I do not believe that G.o.d can be cruel. Such cruelty may make one afraid, but cannot inspire love. I can't love a G.o.d that will inflict pain and sorrow, and I won't.
The preachers say all unbelievers will go to h.e.l.l--tidings of great joy. When I confront them they--say I'm taking away their consolation.
The old bible does not mention h.e.l.l or heaven. Now G.o.d should have notified Adam and Cain of h.e.l.l, but He didn't. When He came to drown all those people He didn't tell a single one that He would drown him.
He talked all about water--nothing about fire. When He came down on Mount Sinai, and told Moses how to cut out clothes for a priest, He never said one word on the subject. When G.o.d gave Moses the ten commandments, engraved on stone, there He said not one word about h.e.l.l.
There was plenty of room on the stone; why did He not add: ”If you don't keep these commandments you will be d.a.m.ned.” Through all these ages, when G.o.d was talking all the time, and when every howling prophet had His ear, not one word did He utter of h.e.l.l or heaven. For 4,000 years G.o.d got along without mentioning those places or even hinting of them. It seems to me that we ought to have been notified by Him.
(Here the orator recalled many stories from the old bible and subjected them to keen irony and ridicule. Reciting the story wherein the she bears came out of the woods and tore to pieces the forty children who mocked the prophet, he asked: If G.o.d did that, what would the devil have done under the same circ.u.mstances? Why; he said, did not G.o.d give a sure cure for leprosy, unless He wanted to have His chosen people to have that frightful disease?)
Do you believe that G.o.d ever told a widow if her brother-in-law refused to marry her to spit in his face? Do you believe any such nonsense from a G.o.d? I call that courting under difficulties. (Then Colonel Ingersoll dwelt pathetically on the sweet, innocent babes eaten up by the lions in the den, after Daniel was rescued from their jaws, and asked the question, what kind of a G.o.d was it that allowed such horrible deeds?)
They say that I pick out all the bad things in the bible. Well, G.o.d ought not to have put bad things in the book. If you only read the bible you will not believe it. Why, it is such a bad book that it has to be supported by legislation. In Maine and elsewhere they will send you to jail for two years if you deny the bible or the judgment day.
No, we are told we must not only believe in the G.o.d we have been talking about, but must also believe in another one.
Let us look at the church today. The orthodox church--that is, all but the Universalist. He is trying to be orthodox, but he can't get in.
The G.o.d of the Universalists, to say the least, is a gentleman.
Now, what is this religion? To believe certain things that we may be saved, that we won't be d.a.m.ned. What are they? First, that the old and new testament are inspired. No matter how kind, how just a man may be, unless he believes in the inspiration, he will be d.a.m.ned.
Second, he must believe in the trinity. That there are three in one.
That father and son are precisely of the same age, the son, possibly, a little mite older; that three times one is one, and that once one is three. It is a mercy you don't know how to understand it, but you must believe it or be d.a.m.ned. Therein you see the mercy of the Lord. This trinity doctrine was announced several hundred years after Christ was born: Do you believe such a doctrine will make a man good or honest?
Will it make him more just? Is the man that believes any better than the man who does not believe? How is it with nations? Look at Spain, the last slave-holder in the civilized world; she's christian, she believes in the trinity! And Italy, the beggar of the world. Under the rule of priestcraft money streamed in from every land and yet she did not advance. Today she is reduced to a hand-organ. Take poor Ireland, groaning under the heel of British oppression; could she cast off her priests she would soon be one with America in freedom.
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