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
Well, that may have been the object of Jesus Christ. I do not deny it.
But what was the result? The Christian world has caused more war than
all the rest of the world beside. Most of the cunning instruments of
death have been devised by Christians. All the wonderful machinery by
which the life is blown from men, by which nations are conquered and
enslaved--all these machines have been born in Christian brains. And yet
he came to bring peace, they say; but the Testament says otherwise: "I
came not to bring peace, but a sword." And the sword was brought. What
are the Christian nations doing to-day in Europe? Is there a solitary
Christian nation that will trust any other? How many millions of
Christians are in the uniform of forgiveness, armed with the muskets of
love?
There was an old Spaniard on the bed of death, who sent for a priest,
and the priest told him that he would have to forgive his enemies before
he died. He said, "I have none." "What! no enemies?" "Not one," said the
dying man; "I killed the last one three months ago."
How many millions of Christians are now armed and equipped to destroy
their fellow-Christians? Who are the men in Europe crying against war?
Who wishes to have the nations disarmed? Is it the church? No; the men
who do not believe in what they call this religion of peace. When there
is a war, and when they make a few thousand widows and orphans; when
they strew the plain with dead patriots, Christians assemble in their
churches and sing "Te Deum Laudamus." Why? Because he has enabled a
few of his children to kill some others of his children. This is the
religion of peace--the religion that invented the Krupp gun, that will
hurl a ball weighing two thousand pounds through twenty-four inches
of solid steel. This is the religion of peace that covers the sea with
men-of-war, clad in mail, in the name of universal forgiveness. This is
the religion that drills and uniforms five millions of men to kill their
fellows.
The Wars It Brought.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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