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 is the solution of the whole question. This frees woman. The babes
that are then born will be welcome. They will be clasped with glad hands
to happy breasts. They will fill homes with light and joy.
Men and women who believe that slaves are purer, truer, than the free,
who believe that fear is a safer guide than knowledge, that only those
are really good who obey the commands of others, and that ignorance is
the soil in which the perfect, perfumed flower of virtue grows, will
with protesting hands hide their shocked faces.
Men and women who think that light is the enemy of virtue, that purity
dwells in darkness, that it is dangerous for human beings to know
themselves and the facts in Nature that affect their well being, will be
horrified at the thought of making intelligence the master of passion.
But I look forward to the time when men and women by reason of their
knowledge of consequences, of the morality born of intelligence, will
refuse to perpetuate disease and pain, will refuse to fill the world
with failures.
When that time comes the prison walls will fall, the dungeons will be
flooded with light, and the shadow of the scaffold will cease to curse
the earth. Poverty and crime will be childless. The withered hands of
want will not be stretched for alms. They will be dust. The whole world
will be intelligent, virtuous and free.
IX.
RELIGION can never reform mankind because religion is slavery.
It is far better to be free, to leave the forts and barricades of fear,
to stand erect and face the future with a smile.
It is far better to give yourself sometimes to negligence, to drift with
wave and tide, with the blind force of the world, to think and dream,
to forget the chains and limitations of the breathing life, to forget
purpose and object, to lounge in the picture gallery of the brain,
to feel once more the clasps and kisses of the past, to bring life's
morning back, to see again the forms and faces of the dead, to paint
fair pictures for the coming years, to forget all Gods, their promises
and threats, to feel within your veins life's joyous stream and hear the
martial music, the rhythmic beating of your fearless heart.
And then to rouse yourself to do all useful things, to reach with
thought and deed the ideal in your brain, to give your fancies wing,
that they, like chemist bees, may find art's nectar in the weeds of
common things, to look with trained and steady eyes for facts, to find
the subtle threads that join the distant with the now, to increase
knowledge, to take burdens from the weak, to develop the brain, to
defend the right, to make a palace for the soul.
This is real religion. This is real worship.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account