Heretics And Heresies: From 'The Gods and Other Lectures'Ingersoll, Robert Green
Religion
Heretics And Heresies: From 'The Gods and Other Lectures'
Ingersoll, Robert Green
Free thought; Heresy
Who can estimate the misery that has been caused by this most infamous
doctrine of eternal punishment? Think of the lives it has blighted--of
the tears it has caused--of the agony it has produced. Think of the
millions who have been driven to insanity by this most terrible of
dogmas. This doctrine renders God the basest and most cruel being in
the universe. Compared with him, the most frightful deities of the most
barbarous and degraded tribes are miracles of goodness and mercy. There
is nothing more degrading than to worship such a god. Lower than this
the soul can never sink. If the doctrine of eternal damnation is true,
let me share the fate of the unconverted; let me have my portion in
hell, rather than in heaven with a god infamous enough to inflict
eternal misery upon any of the sons of men.
Second. With having spoken a few kind words of Robert Collyer and John
Stuart Mill.
I have the honor of a slight acquaintance with Robert Collyer. I have
read with pleasure some of his exquisite productions. He has a brain
full of the dawn, the head of a philosopher, the imagination of a poet
and the sincere heart of a child.
Is a minister to be silenced because he speaks fairly of a noble and
candid adversary? Is it a crime to compliment a lover of justice, an
advocate of liberty; one who devotes his life to the elevation of man,
the discovery of truth, and the promulgation of what he believes to be
right?
Can that tongue be palsied by a presbytery that praises a self-denying
and heroic life? Is it a sin to speak a charitable word over the grave
of John Stuart Mill? Is it heretical to pay a just and graceful tribute
to departed worth? Must the true Presbyterian violate the sanctity of
the tomb, dig open the grave and ask his God to curse the silent dust?
Is Presbyterianism so narrow that it conceives of no excellence, of no
purity of intention, of no spiritual and moral grandeur outside of its
barbaric creed? Does it still retain within its stony heart all the
malice of its founder? Is it still warming its fleshless hands at the
flames that consumed Servetus? Does it still glory in the damnation of
infants, and does it still persist in emptying the cradle in order that
perdition may be filled? Is it still starving the soul and famishing
the heart? Is it still trembling and shivering, crouching and crawling
before its ignorant Confession of Faith?
Had such men as Robert Collyer and John Stuart Mill been present at the
burning of Servetus, they would have extinguished the flames with their
tears. Had the presbytery of Chicago been there, they would have quietly
turned their backs, solemnly divided their coat tails, and warmed
themselves.
Third, With having spoken disparagingly of the doctrine of
predestination.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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