Lectures of Col. R. G. Ingersoll - LatestIngersoll, Robert Green
Religion
Lectures of Col. R. G. Ingersoll - Latest
Ingersoll, Robert Green
Free thought
Now, there is another miracle I do not believe. I want to speak about
it as we would about any ordinary transaction in the world. In the
first place, I do not believe that any miracle was ever performed, and
if there was, you can't prove it. Why? Because it is altogether more
reasonable that the people lied about it than that it happened. And
why? Because, according to human experience, we know that people will
not always tell the truth, and we never saw a miracle, and we have got
to be governed by our experience, and if we go by our experience, it is
in favor that the thing never happened; that the man is mistaken. Now,
I want you to remember it. Here is a man that comes into Jerusalem,
and the first thing he does he cures the blind. He lets the light of
day visit the darkness of blindness. The eyes are opened and the whole
world is again pictured upon the brain. Another man is clothed with
leprosy. He touches him, and the disease falls from him, and he stands
pure, and clean, and whole. Another man is deformed, wrinkled, bent.
He touches him and throws upon him again the garment of youth. A man
is in his grave, and He says, "Come forth!" and he again walks in life,
feeling his heart throb and beat, and his blood going joyously through
his veins. They say that happened. I don't know. There is one
wonderful thing about the dead people that were raised--we don't hear
of them any more. What became of them? Why, if there was a man in
this town that had been raised from the dead, I would go to see him
tonight. I would say, "Where were you when you got the notice to come
back? What kind of country is it? What kind of opening there for a
young man? How did you like it?" But nobody ever paid the slightest
attention to them there. They didn't even excite interest when they
died the second time. Nobody said, "Why, that man isn't afraid. He has
been there." Not a word. They pass away quietly. You see I don't
believe it. There is something wrong somewhere about that business.
And then there is another trouble in my mind. Now, you know I may
suffer eternal punishment for all this.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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