The Works of Robert G. Ingersoll, Vol. 02 (of 12): Dresden Edition—LecturesIngersoll, Robert Green
Religion
The Works of Robert G. Ingersoll, Vol. 02 (of 12): Dresden Edition—Lectures
Ingersoll, Robert Green
Free thought
This century will be called Darwin's century. He was one of the greatest
men who ever touched this globe. He has explained more of the phenomena
of life than all of the religious teachers. Write the name of Charles
Darwin on the one hand and the name of every theologian who ever lived
on the other, and from that name has come more light to the world
than from all of those. His doctrine of evolution, his doctrine of the
survival of the fittest, his doctrine of the origin of species,
has removed in every thinking mind the last vestige of orthodox
Christianity. He has not only stated, but he has demonstrated, that the
inspired writer knew nothing of this world, nothing of the origin of
man, nothing of geology, nothing of astronomy, nothing of nature; that
the Bible is a book written by ignorance--at the instigation of fear.
Think of the men who replied to him. Only a few years ago there was no
person too ignorant to successfully answer Charles Darwin; and the more
ignorant he was the more cheerfully he undertook the task. He was held
up to the ridicule, the scorn and contempt of the Christian world, and
yet when he died, England was proud to put his dust with that of her
noblest and her grandest. Charles Darwin conquered the intellectual
world, and his doctrines are now accepted facts. His light has broken
in on some of the clergy, and the greatest man who to-day occupies
the pulpit of one of the orthodox: churches, Henry Ward Beecher, is a
believer in the theories of Charles Darwin--a man of more genius than
all the clergy of that entire church put together.
And yet we are told in this little creed that orthodox religion is about
to conquer the world! It will be driven to the wilds of Africa. It must
go to some savage country; it has lost its hold upon civilization. It is
unfortunate to have a religion that cannot be accepted by the intellect
of a nation. It is unfortunate to have a religion against which every
good and noble heart protests. Let us have a good religion or none. My
pity has been excited by seeing these ministers endeavor to warp and
twist the passages of Scripture to fit the demonstrations of science. Of
course, I have not time to recount all the discoveries and events that
have assisted in the destruction of superstition. Every fact is an
enemy of the church. Every fact is a heretic. Every demonstration is
an infidel. Everything that ever really happened testifies against the
supernatural.
The church teaches that man was created perfect, and that for six
thousand years he has degenerated. Darwin demonstrated the falsity
of this dogma. He shows that man has for thousands of ages steadily
advanced; that the Garden of Eden is an ignorant myth; that the doctrine
of original sin has no foundation in fact; that the atonement is an
absurdity; that the serpent did not tempt, and that man did not "fall."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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