About The Holy Bible: A LectureIngersoll, Robert Green
Religion
About The Holy Bible: A Lecture
Ingersoll, Robert Green
Bible -- Criticism, interpretation, etc.
Christ cared nothing for painting, for sculpture, for music--nothing for
any art. He said nothing about the duties of nation to nation, of king
to subject; nothing about the rights of man; nothing about intellectual
liberty or the freedom of speech. He said nothing about the sacredness
of home; not one word for the fireside; not a word in favor of marriage,
in honor of maternity.
He never married. He wandered homeless from place to place with a
few disciples. None of them seem to have been engaged in any useful
business, and they seem to have lived on alms.
All human ties were held in contempt; this world was sacrificed for the
next; all human effort was discouraged. God would support and protect.
At last, in the dusk of death, Christ, finding that he was mistaken,
cried out: "My God! My God! Why hast thou forsaken me?"
We have found that man must depend on himself. He must clear the land;
he must build the home; he must plow and plant; he must invent; he
must work with hand and brain; he must overcome the difficulties and
obstructions; he must conquer and enslave the forces of nature to the
end that they may do the work of the world.
X. WHY SHOULD WE PLACE CHRIST AT THE TOP AND SUMMIT OF THE HUMAN RACE?
WAS he kinder, more forgiving, more self-sacrificing than Buddha? Was he
wiser, did he meet death with more perfect calmness, than Socrates?
Was he more patient, more charitable, than Epictetus? Was he a greater
philosopher, a deeper thinker, than Epicurus? In what respect was he the
superior of Zoroaster? Was he gentler than Laotse, more universal than
Confucius? Were his ideas of human rights and duties superior to those
of Zeno? Did he express grander truths than Cicero? Was his mind subtler
than Spinoza's? Was his brain equal to Kepler's or Newton's? Was he
grander in death--a sublimer martyr than Bruno? Was he in intelligence,
in the force and beauty of expression, in breadth and scope of thought,
in wealth of illustration, in aptness of comparison, in knowledge of the
human brain and heart, of all passions, hopes and fears, the equal of
Shakespeare, the greatest of the human race?
If Christ was in fact God, he knew all the future.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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