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
This one commandment--this simple line--demonstrates that Jehovah
was not only not God, but that he was a poor, ignorant, superstitious
savage. This one line proves beyond all possible doubt that the Old
Testament was written by men, by barbarians.
John Wesley was right when he said that to give up a belief in
witchcraft was to give up the Bible.
Give up the Devil, and what can you do with the Book of Job? How will
you account for the lying spirits that Jehovah sent to mislead Ahab?
Ministers who admit that witchcraft is a superstition will read the
story of the Witch of Endor--will read it in a solemn, reverential
voice--with a theological voice--and will have the impudence to say that
they believe it.
It would be delightful to know that angels hover in the air; that they
guard the innocent, protect the good; that they bend over the cradles
and give health and happy dreams to pallid babes; that they fill
dungeons with the light of their presence and give hope to the
imprisoned; that they follow the fallen, the erring, the outcasts, the
friendless, and win them back to virtue, love and joy. But we have no
more evidence of the existence of good spirits than of bad. The angels
that visited Abraham and the mother of Samson are as unreal as the
ghosts and goblins of the Middle Ages. The angel that stopped the
donkey of Balaam, the one who walked in the furnace flames with Meshech,
Shadrack and Abed-nego, the one who slew the Assyrians and the one who
in a dream removed the suspicions of Joseph, were all created by the
imagination of the credulous, by the lovers of the marvelous, and
they have been handed down from dotage to infancy, from ignorance to
ignorance, through all the years. Except in Catholic countries, no
winged citizen of the celestial realm has visited the world for hundreds
of years. Only those who are blind to facts can see these beautiful
creatures, and only those who reach conclusions without the assistance
of evidence can believe in their existence. It is told that the great
Angelo, in decorating a church, painted some angels wearing sandals. A
cardinal looking at the picture said to the artist: "Whoever saw angels
with sandals?" Angelo answered with another question: "Whoever saw an
angel barefooted?"
The existence of angels has never been established. Of course, we know
that millions and millions have believed in seraphim and cherubim; have
believed that the angel Gabriel contended with the Devil for the body
of Moses; that angels shut the mouths of the lions for the protection
of Daniel; that angels ministered unto Christ, and that countless angels
will accompany the Savior when he comes to take possession of the world.
And we know that all these millions believe through blind, unreasoning
faith, holding all evidence and all facts in theological contempt.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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