Ingersoll in Canada: A Reply to Wendling, Archbishop Lynch, Bystander; and OthersPringle, Allen
Religion
Ingersoll in Canada: A Reply to Wendling, Archbishop Lynch, Bystander; and Others
Pringle, Allen
Christianity -- Controversial literature; Ingersoll, Robert Green, 1833-1899
Ingersoll of attacking a theology which, he tells us, is "opposed to
all reason," and now "well nigh obsolete." I would simply say if it is
"obsolete," it is the stock in trade of the Christian Church today. Take
away from it this obsolete theology (which is "opposed to all reason,")
and there is nothing left of Christianity worth speaking of; for the
morality Christianity contains does not of right belong to it It is
Pagan. It has been _appropriated_ by Christianity, and is not original
with it. There is not a single moral precept in the Bible, but was
taught before that book was written. (For proof of this, see Sir
Wm. Jones, Max Muller, Lord Amberly, and "Supernatural Religion.")
Therefore, when you take away the dogmas of Christianity--its "obsolete
theology"--you take away Christianity itself to all intents and
purposes. And hence the utter inconsistency and absurdity of our
opponents in taxing us with merely attacking a dead theology, when that
dead theology is all there is of a religion which they defend and
wish to perpetuate. Seeing, then, that the theology of Christianity is
admittedly dead, why not give it up and come over to us? for all you
have left--the brotherhood of man--belongs to us: it is our RELIGION OF
HUMANITY.
As the only salient point, to my mind, in Mr. Bray's reply to Ingersoll
is dealt with in the following letter, which I addressed to the
_Spectator_, and which appeared in its columns, I have only space here
to reproduce that letter:--
To the Editor of the Canadian Spectator:
Sir,--In your issue of the 10th instant, in a discourse in reply to Col.
Ingersoll, I find the following:--
"The lecturer, who seemed to imagine that he understood everything else,
was compelled to acknowledge that he did not understand why there should
be so much hunger and pain and misery. Why, the world over, life should
live upon life. When he has cast Jehovah out of the Universe, he is
pained and puzzled to account for the presence of wrong and sorrow. With
God he cannot account for it; without God he cannot account for it. If
Col. Ingersoll, or any other of that school, can give me an intelligent
theory of life, and satisfactory solution of the problem of the presence
of evil and pain without God, I am prepared to consider it."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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