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
Your attention is called to these six articles, established during the
reign of Henry VIII., and by the Church of England, simply because not
one of these articles is believed by that church to-day. If the law then
made by the church could be enforced now, every Episcopalian would be
burned at the stake.
Similar laws were passed in most Christian countries, as all orthodox
churches firmly believed that mankind could be legislated into heaven.
According to the creed of every church, slavery leads to heaven, liberty
leads to hell. It was claimed that God had founded the church, and that
to deny the authority of the church was to be a traitor to God, and
consequently an ally of the devil. To torture and destroy one of the
soldiers of Satan was a duty no good Christian cared to neglect. Nothing
can be sweeter than to earn the gratitude of God by killing your own
enemies. Such a mingling of profit and revenge, of heaven for yourself
and damnation for those you dislike, is a temptation that your ordinary
Christian never resists.
According to the theologians, God, the Father of us all, wrote a letter
to his children. The children have always differed somewhat as to the
meaning of this letter. In consequence of these honest differences,
these brothers began to cut out each other's hearts. In every land,
where this letter from God has been read, the children to whom and for
whom it was written have been filled with hatred and malice. They have
imprisoned and murdered each other, and the wives and children of each
other. In the name of God every possible crime has been committed, every
conceivable outrage has been perpetrated. Brave men, tender and loving
women, beautiful girls, and prattling babes have been exterminated in
the name of Jesus Christ. For more than fifty generations the church
has carried the black flag. Her vengeance has been measured only by
her power. During all these years of infamy no heretic has ever been
forgiven. With the heart of a fiend she has hated; with the clutch of
avarice she has grasped; with the jaws of a dragon she has devoured;
pitiless as famine, merciless as fire, with the conscience of a serpent:
such is the history of the Church of God.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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