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
If there is any dogma that ought to be protected by law, predestination
is that doctrine. Surely it is a cheerful, joyous thing, to one who is
laboring, struggling, and suffering in this weary world, to think that
before he existed; before the earth was; before a star had glittered in
the heavens; before a ray of light had left the quiver of the sun, his
destiny had been irrevocably fixed, and that for an eternity before his
birth he had been doomed to bear eternal pain.
Fourth. With failing to preach the efficacy of a "vicarious sacrifice."
Suppose a man had been convicted of murder, and was about to be
hanged--the governor acting as the executioner; and suppose that just as
the doomed man was about to suffer death some one in the crowd should
step forward and say, "I am willing to die in the place of that
murderer. He has a family, and I have none." And suppose further, that
the governor should reply, "Come forward, young man, your offer is
accepted. A murder has been committed and somebody must be hung, and
your death will satisfy the law just as well as the death of the
murderer." What would you then think of the doctrine of "vicarious
sacrifice?"
This doctrine is the consummation of two outrages--forgiving one crime
and committing another.
Fifth, With having inculcated a phase of the doctrine commonly known as
"evolution," or "development".
The Church believes and teaches the exact opposite of this doctrine.
According to the philosophy of theology, man has continued to degenerate
for six thousand years. To teach that there is that in nature which
impels to higher forms and grander ends, is heresy, of course. The
Deity will damn Spencer and his "Evolution," Darwin and his "Origin
of Species," Bastian and his "Spontaneous Generation," Huxley and his
"Protoplasm" Tyndall and his "Prayer Gauge" and will save those, and
those only, who declare that the universe has been cursed, from the
smallest atom to the grandest star; that everything tends to evil and to
that only, and that the only perfect thing in nature is the Presbyterian
Confession of Faith.
Sixth, With having intimated that the reception of Socrates and Penelope
at heaven's gate was, to say the least, a trifle more cordial than that
of Catharine II.
Penelope, waiting patiently and trustfully for her lord's return,
delaying her suitors, while sadly weaving and unweaving the shroud of
Laertes, is the most perfect type of wife and woman produced by the
civilization of Greece.
Socrates, whose life was above reproach and whose death was beyond all
praise, stands to-day, in the estimation of every thoughtful man, at
least the peer of Christ.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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