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
_Answer._ Not by any means. Oh, no! I know a great many splendid people
in Delaware, and since I have known more of their surroundings, my
admiration for them has increased. They are, on the whole, a very good
people in that State. I heard a story the other day: An old fellow in
Delaware has been for the last twenty or thirty years gathering peaches
there in their season--a kind of peach tramp. One day last fall, just as
the season closed, he was leaning sadly against a tree, "Boys!" said he,
"I'd like to come back to Delaware a hundred years from now." The boys
asked, "What for?" The old fellow replied: "Just to see how damned
little they'd get the baskets by that time." And it occurred to me that
people who insist that twenty-two quarts make a bushel, should be as
quiet as possible on the subject of blasphemy.
AN INTERVIEW ON CHIEF JUSTICE COMEGYS.
* Chicago Times, Feb. 14, 1881.
_Question_. Have you read Chief Justice Comegys' compliments to you
before the Delaware grand jury?
_Answer._ Yes, I have read his charge, in which he relies upon the law
passed in 1740. After reading his charge it seemed to me as though he
had died about the date of the law, had risen from the dead, and had
gone right on where he had left off. I presume he is a good man, but
compared with other men, is something like his State when compared with
other States.
A great many people will probably regard the charge of Judge Comegys
as unchristian, but I do not. I consider that the law of Delaware is in
exact accord with the Bible, and that the pillory, the whip-ping-post,
and the suppression of free speech are the natural fruit of the Old and
New Testament.
Delaware is right. Christianity can not succeed, can not exist, without
the protection of law. Take from orthodox Christianity the protection
of law, and all church property would be taxed like other property. The
Sabbath would be no longer a day devoted to superstition. Everyone
could express his honest thought upon every possible subject. Everyone,
notwithstanding his belief, could testify in a court of justice. In
other words, honesty would be on an equality with hypocrisy.
Science would stand on a level, so far as the law is concerned, with
superstition. Whenever this happens the end of orthodox Christianity
will be near.
By Christianity I do not mean charity, mercy, kindness, forgiveness. I
mean no natural virtue, because all the natural virtues existed and had
been practiced by hundreds and thousands of millions before Christ was
born. There certainly were some good men even in the days of Christ in
Jerusalem, before his death.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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