The Works of Robert G. Ingersoll, Vol. 07 (of 12): Dresden Edition—DiscussionsIngersoll, Robert Green
Religion
The Works of Robert G. Ingersoll, Vol. 07 (of 12): Dresden Edition—Discussions
Ingersoll, Robert Green
Free thought
So, Galileo did not make his discoveries because he was a Christian,
but in spite of it. His Bible was the other way, and so was his creed.
Consequently, they could not by any possibility have assisted him.
Kepler did not discover or announce what are known as the "Three Laws"
because he was a Christian; but, as I said about Galileo, in spite of
his creed.
Every Christian who has really found out and demonstrated and clung to
a fact inconsistent with the absolute inspiration of the Scriptures, has
done so certainly without the assistance of his creed.
Let me illustrate this: When our ancestors were burning each other to
please God; when they were ready to destroy a man with sword and
flame for teaching the rotundity of the world, the Moors in Spain were
teaching geography to their children with brass globes. So, too, they
had observatories and knew something of the orbits of the stars.
They did not find out these things because they were Mohammedans, or
on account of their belief in the impossible. They were far beyond the
Christians, intellectually, and it has been very poetically said by Mrs.
Browning, that "Science was thrust into the brain of Europe on the point
of a Moorish lance."
From the Arabs we got our numerals, making mathematics of the higher
branches practical. We also got from them the art of making cotton
paper, which is almost at the foundation of modern intelligence. We
learned from them to make cotton cloth, making cleanliness possible in
Christendom.
So from among people of different religions we have learned many useful
things; but they did not discover them on account of their religion.
It will not do to say that the religion of Greece was true because the
Greeks were the greatest sculptors. Neither is it an argument in favor
of monarchy that Shakespeare, the greatest of men, was born and lived in
a monarchy.
Dr. Da Costa takes one of the effects of a general cause, or of a vast
number of causes, and makes it the cause, not only of other effects,
but of the general cause. He seems to think that all events for
many centuries, and especially all the good ones, were caused by
Christianity.
As a matter of fact, the civilization of our time is the result of
countless causes with which Christianity had little to do, except by way
of hindrance.
Does the Doctor think that the material progress of the world was caused
by this passage: "Take no thought for the morrow"?
Does he seriously insist that the wealth of Christendom rests on this
inspired declaration: "It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye
of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven"?
The Rev. Mr. Peters, in answer, takes the ground that the Bible has
produced the richest and most varied literature the world has ever seen.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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