The Works of Robert G. Ingersoll, Vol. 01 (of 12): Dresden Edition—LecturesIngersoll, Robert Green
Religion
The Works of Robert G. Ingersoll, Vol. 01 (of 12): Dresden Edition—Lectures
Ingersoll, Robert Green
Free thought
Think of sending an average Presbyterian to convert a man who daily
offers this tender, this infinitely generous, this incomparable prayer.
Think of reading the 109th Psalm to a heathen who has a Bible of his own
in which is found this passage: "Blessed is that man and beloved of all
the gods, who is afraid of no man, and of whom no man is afraid."
Why should you read even the New Testament to a Hindu, when his own
Chrishna has said, "If a man strike thee, and in striking drop his
staff, pick it up and hand it to him again"? Why send a Presbyterian to
a Sufi, who says, "Better one moment of silent contemplation and inward
love, than seventy thousand years of outward worship"? "Whoso would
carelessly tread one worm that crawls on earth, that heartless one is
darkly alienate from God; but he that, living, embraceth all things
in his love, to live with him God bursts all bounds above, below." Why
should we endeavor to thrust our cruel and heartless theology upon one
who prays this prayer: "O God, show pity toward the wicked; for on
the good thou hast already bestowed thy mercy by having created them
virtuous"?
Compare this prayer with the curses and cruelties of the Old
Testament--with the infamies commanded and approved by the being whom we
are taught to worship as a God--and with the following tender product
of Presbyterianism: "It may seem absurd to human wisdom that God should
harden, blind, and deliver up some men to a reprobate sense; that he
should first deliver them over to evil, and then condemn them for that
evil; but the believing spiritual man sees no absurdity in all this,
knowing that God would be never a whit less good even though he should
destroy all men."
Of all the religions that have been produced by the egotism, the malice,
the ignorance and ambition of man, Presbyterianism is the most hideous.
But what shall I say more, for the time would fail me to tell of
Sabellianism, of a "Modal Trinity," and the "Eternal Procession of the
Holy Ghost"?
Upon these charges, a minister is to be tried, here in Chicago; in
this city of pluck and progress--this marvel of energy--this miracle
of nerve. The cry of "heresy," here, sounds like a wail from the Dark
Ages--a shriek from the Inquisition, or a groan from the grave of
Calvin.
Another effort is being made to enslave a man.
It is claimed that every member of the church has solemnly agreed
never to outgrow the creed; that he has pledged himself to remain an
intellectual dwarf. Upon this condition the church agrees to save his
soul, and he hands over his brains to bind the bargain. Should a fact be
found inconsistent with the creed, he binds himself to deny the fact
and curse the finder. With scraps of dogmas and crumbs of doctrine, he
agrees that his soul shall be satisfied forever. What an intellectual
feast the Confession of Faith must be! It reminds one of the dinner
described by Sydney Smith, where everything was cold except the water,
and everything sour except the vinegar.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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