The Works of Robert G. Ingersoll, Vol. 04 (of 12): Dresden Edition—LecturesIngersoll, Robert Green
Religion
The Works of Robert G. Ingersoll, Vol. 04 (of 12): Dresden Edition—Lectures
Ingersoll, Robert Green
Free thought
Somebody who was "inspired" has said that Christ was of the blood of
David through his father Joseph.
This is all the evidence we have.
Can we believe that God, the creator of the Universe, learned the trade
of a carpenter in Palestine, that he gathered a few disciples about
him, and after teaching for about three years, suffered himself to be
crucified by a few ignorant and pious Jews?
Christ, according to the faith, is the second person in the Trinity, the
Father being the first and the Holy Ghost the third. Each of these three
persons is God. Christ is his own father and his own son. The Holy Ghost
is neither father nor son, but both. The son was begotten by the father,
but existed before he was begotten--just the same before as after.
Christ is just as old as his father, and the father is just as young as
his son. The Holy Ghost proceeded from the Father and Son, but was equal
to the Father and Son before he proceeded, that is to say, before he
existed, but he is of the same age of the other two.
So, it is declared that the Father is God, and the Son God and the Holy
Ghost God, and that these three Gods make one God.
According to the celestial multiplication table, once one is three, and
three times one is one, and according to heavenly subtraction if we take
two from three, three are left. The addition is equally peculiar, if
we add two to one we have but one. Each one is equal to himself and the
other two. Nothing ever was, nothing ever can be more perfectly idiotic
and absurd than the dogma of the Trinity.
How is it possible to prove the existence of the Trinity?
Is it possible for a human being, who has been born but once, to
comprehend, or to imagine the existence of three beings, each of whom is
equal to the three?
Think of one of these beings as the father of one, and think of that one
as half human and all God, and think of the third as having proceeded
from the other two, and then think of all three as one. Think that after
the father begot the son, the father was still alone, and after the
Holy Ghost proceeded from the father and the son, the father was still
alone--because there never was and never will be but one God.
At this point, absurdity having reached its limit, nothing more can be
said except: "Let us pray."
V. THE THEOLOGICAL CHRIST
IN the New Testament we find the teachings and sayings of Christ. If
we say that the book is inspired, then we must admit that Christ really
said all the things attributed to him by the various writers. If the
book is inspired we must accept it all. We have no right to reject the
contradictory and absurd and accept the reasonable and good. We must
take it all just as it is.
My own observation has led me to believe that men are generally
consistent in their theories and inconsistent in their lives.
So, I think that Christ in his utterances was true to his theory, to his
philosophy.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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