The Works of Robert G. Ingersoll, Vol. 06 (of 12): Dresden Edition—DiscussionsIngersoll, Robert Green
Religion
The Works of Robert G. Ingersoll, Vol. 06 (of 12): Dresden Edition—Discussions
Ingersoll, Robert Green
Free thought
All the languages of the world are not sufficient to express the filth
of polygamy. It makes man a beast, and woman a slave. It destroys the
fireside and makes virtue an outcast. It takes us back to the barbarism
of animals, and leaves the heart a den in which crawl and hiss the slimy
serpents of most loathsome lust. And yet Mr. Black insists that we owe
to the Bible the present elevation of woman. Where will he find in the
Old Testament the rights of wife, and mother, and daughter defined?
Even in the New Testament she is told to "learn in silence, with all
subjection;" that she "is not suffered to teach, nor to usurp any
authority over the man, but to be in silence." She is told that "the
head of every man is Christ, and the head of the woman is man, and the
head of Christ is God." In other words, there is the same difference
between the wife and husband that there is between the husband and
Christ.
The reasons given for this infamous doctrine are that "Adam was first
formed, and then Eve;" that "Adam was not deceived," but that "the woman
being deceived, was in the transgression." These childish reasons are
the only ones given by the inspired writers. We are also told that "a
man, indeed, ought to cover his head, forasmuch as he is the image and
glory of God;" but that "the woman is the glory of the man," and this is
justified from the fact, and the remarkable fact, set forth in the very
next verse--that "the man is not of the woman, but the woman of the
man." And the same gallant apostle says: "Neither was the man created
for the woman, but the woman for the man;" "Wives, submit yourselves
unto your husbands as unto the Lord; for the husband is the head of the
wife, even as Christ is the head of the church, and he is the savior of
the body. Therefore, as the church is subject unto Christ, so let the
wives be subject to their own husbands in everything." These are the
passages that have liberated woman!
According to the Old Testament, woman had to ask pardon, and had to be
purified, for the crime of having borne sons and daughters. If in this
world there is a figure of perfect purity, it is a mother holding in her
thrilled and happy arms her child. The doctrine that woman is the slave,
or serf, of man--whether it comes from heaven or from hell, from God or
a demon, from the golden streets of the New Jerusalem or from the very
Sodom of perdition--is savagery, pure and simple.
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