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
Does anybody believe that, who has the courage to think for himself?
Here is a man, for instance, that weighs 200 pounds and gets sick
and dies weighing 120; how much will he weigh in the morning of the
resurrection? Here is a cannibal, who eats another man; and we know that
the atoms you eat go into your body and become a part of you. After
the cannibal has eaten the missionary, and appropriated his atoms to
himself, and then dies, to whom will the atoms belong in the morning of
the resurrection? Could the missionary maintain an action of replevin,
and if so, what would the cannibal do for a body? It has been
demonstrated, in so far as logic can demonstrate anything, that there
is no creation and no destruction in Nature. It has been demonstrated,
again and again, that the atoms in us have been in millions of other
beings; have grown in the forests and in the grass, have blossomed in
flowers, and been in the metals. In other words, there are atoms in each
one of us that have been in millions of others; and when we die, these
atoms return to the earth, again appear in grass and trees, are again
eaten by animals, and again devoured by countless vegetable mouths and
turned into wood; and yet this church, in the nineteenth century,'in a
council composed of, and presided over by, professors and presidents
of colleges and theologians, solemnly tells us that it believes in the
literal resurrection of the body. This is almost enough to make
one despair of the future--almost enough to convince a man of the
immortality of the absurd. They know better. There is not one so
ignorant but knows better.
The Judgment-Day.
And what is the next thing?
"_We believe in a final judgment, the issues of which are everlasting
punishment and everlasting life!_"
At the final judgment all of us will be there. The thousands, and
millions, and billions, and trillions, and quadrillions that have died
will be there. The books will be opened, and each case will be called.
The sheep and the goats will be divided. The unbelievers will be sent to
the left, while the faithful will proudly walk to the right. The saved,
without a tear, will bid an eternal farewell to those who loved them
here--to those they loved. Nearly all the human race will go away to
everlasting punishment, and the fortunate few to eternal life. This
is the consolation of the Congregational Church! This is the hope that
dispels the gloom of life!
Pious Evasions.
When the clergy are caught, they give a different meaning to the
words and say the world was not made in seven days. They say "good
whiles"--"epochs."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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