The Works of Robert G. Ingersoll, Vol. 03 (of 12): Dresden Edition—LecturesIngersoll, Robert Green
General
The Works of Robert G. Ingersoll, Vol. 03 (of 12): Dresden Edition—Lectures
Ingersoll, Robert Green
Free thought
All of the Ten Commandments that are good were old; all that were new
are foolish. If Jehovah had been civilized he would have left out the
commandment about keeping the Sabbath, and in its place would have said:
"Thou shalt not enslave thy fellow-men." He would have omitted the one
about swearing, and said: "The man shall have but one wife, and the
woman but one husband." He would have left out the one about graven
images, and in its stead would have said: "Thou shalt not wage wars
of extermination, and thou shalt not unsheathe the sword except in
self-defence."
If Jehovah, had been civilized, how much grander the Ten Commandments
would have been.
All that we call progress--the enfranchisement of man, of labor, the
substitution of imprisonment for death, of fine for imprisonment, the
destruction of polygamy, the establishing of free speech, of the rights
of conscience; in short, all that has tended to the development and
civilization of man; all the results of investigation, observation,
experience and free thought; all that man has accomplished for the
benefit of man since the close of the Dark Ages--has been done in spite
of the Old Testament.
Let me further illustrate the morality, the mercy, the philosophy and
goodness of the Old Testament:
THE STORY OF ACHAN.
Joshua took the City of Jericho. Before the fall of the city he declared
that all the spoil taken should be given to the Lord.
In spite of this order Achan secreted a garment, some silver and gold.
Afterward Joshua tried to take the city of Ai. He failed and many of his
soldiers were slain.
Joshua sought for the cause of his defeat and he found that Achan had
secreted a garment, two hundred shekels of silver and a wedge of gold.
To this Achan confessed.
And thereupon Joshua took Achan, his sons and his daughters, his oxen
and his sheep--stoned them all to death and burned their bodies.
There is nothing to show that the sons and Daughters had committed any
crime. Certainly, the oxen and sheep should not have been stoned to
death for the crime of their owner. This was the justice, the mercy, of
Jehovah!
After Joshua had committed this crime, with the help of Jehovah he
captured the city of Ai.
THE STORY OF ELISHA.
"And he went up thence unto Bethel, and as he was going up by the way
there came forth little children out of the city and mocked him, and
said unto him, 'Go up, thou baldhead.'
"And he turned back and looked at them, and cursed them in the name of
the Lord. And there came forth two she-bears out of the wood and tore
forty and two children of them."
This was the work of the good God--the merciful Jehovah!
THE STORY OF DANIEL.
King Darius had honored and exalted Daniel, and the native princes were
jealous. So they induced the king to sign a decree to the effect that
any man who should make a petition to any god or man except to King
Darius, for thirty days, should be cast into the den of lions.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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