Lectures of Col. R. G. Ingersoll - LatestIngersoll, Robert Green
Religion
Lectures of Col. R. G. Ingersoll - Latest
Ingersoll, Robert Green
Free thought
Reformation is not enough. If the man who steals becomes perfectly
honest, that is not enough; if the man who hates his fellow-man changes
and loves his fellowman, that is not enough; he must go through the
mysterious thing called the second birth; he must be born again. That
is not enough unless he has faith; he must believe something that he
does not understand. Reformation is not enough; there must be what they
call conversion. I deny it. According to the church, nothing so
excites the wrath of God--nothing so corrugates the brows of Jehovah
with revenge--as a man relying on his own good works. He must admit
that he ought to be damned, and that of the two he prefers it, before
God will consent to save him. I saw a man the other day, and he said
to me, "I am a Unitarian Universalist; that is what I am." Said I,
"What do you mean by that?" "Well," said he, "here is what I mean:
the Unitarian thinks he is too good to be damned, and the Universalist
thinks God is too good to damn him, and I believe them both."
What is the next thing in this great creed?
"We believe that the scriptures of the old and new testaments are the
records of God's revelation of Himself in the work of redemption; that
they are written by men, under the special guidance of the Holy Spirit,
and that they constitute an authoritative standard by which religious
teaching and human conduct are to be regulated and judged."
This is the creed of the Congregational Church; that is, it is the
result of the high-joint commission appointed to draw up a creed for
churches; and there we have the statement that the bible was written
"by men, under the special guidance of the Holy Spirit." What part of
the bible? All of it; all of it; and yet what is this old testament
that was written by an infinitely good God? The being who wrote it did
not know the shape of the world He had made. The being who wrote it
knew nothing of human nature; He commands men to love Him, as if one
could love upon command. The same God upheld the institution of human
slavery; and the church says the bible that upholds that institution
was written by men under the guidance of the Holy Spirit. Then I
disagree with the Holy Ghost upon that institution.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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