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
Voltaire, who abolished torture in France; who did more for human
liberty than any other man, living or dead; who was the assassin
of superstition, and whose dagger still rusts in the heart of
Catholicism--he is with the rest. All the priests who have been
translated have had their happiness increased by looking at Voltaire.
Giordano Bruno, the first star of the morning after the long night;
Benedict Spinoza, the pantheist, the metaphysician, the pure and
generous man; Diderot, the encyclopedist, who endeavored to get all
knowledge in a small compass, so that he could put the peasant on an
equality intellectually with the prince; Diderot, who wished to sow all
over the world the seed of knowledge, and loved to labor for mankind,
while the priests wanted to burn; who did all he could to put out the
fires--he was lost, long, long ago. His cry for water has become so
common that his voice is now recognized through all the realms of
heaven, and the angels laughing, say to one another, "That is Diderot."
David Hume, the Scotch philosopher, is there, with his inquiry about
the "Human Understanding" and his argument against miracles. Beethoven,
master of music, and Wagner, the Shakespeare of harmony, who made the
air of this world rich forever, they are there; and to-night they have
better music in hell than in heaven!
Shelley, whose soul, like his own "Skylark," was a winged joy, has been
damned for many, many years; and Shakespeare, the greatest of the human
race, who did more to elevate mankind than all the priests who ever
lived and died, he is there; but founders of inquisitions, builders
of dungeons, makers of chains, inventors of instruments of torture,
tearers, and burners, and branders of human flesh, stealers of babes,
and sellers of husbands and wives and children, and they who kept the
horizon lurid with the fagot's flame for a thousand years--are in heaven
to-night. I wish heaven joy!
That is the doctrine with which we are polluting the souls of children.
That is the doctrine that puts a fiend by the dying bed and a prophecy
of hell over every cradle. That is "glad tidings of great joy."
Only a little while ago, when the great flood came upon the Ohio, sent
by him who is ruling the world and paying particular attention to the
affairs of nations, just in the gray of the morning they saw a house
floating down and on its top a human being. A few men went out to the
rescue. They found there a woman, a mother, and they wished to save her
life. She said: "No, I am going to stay where I am. In this house I
have three dead babes; I will not desert them." Think of a love so
limitless--stronger and deeper than despair and death! And yet, the
Christian religion says, that if that woman, that mother, did not happen
to believe in their creed God would send her soul to eternal fire! If
there is another world, and if in heaven they wear hats, when such a
woman climbs the opposite bank of the Jordan, Christ should lift his to
her.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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