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
I am also charged with making an onslaught upon the good as well as the
bad. I say here today that never in my life have I said one word against
honesty, one word against liberty, one word against charity, one word
against any institution that is good. I attack the bad, not the good,
and I would like to have some minister point out in some lecture or
speech that I have delivered, one word against the good, against the
highest happiness of the human race.
I have said all I was able to say in favor of justice, in favor of
liberty, in favor of home, in favor of wife and children, in favor of
progress, and in favor of universal kindness; but not one word in favor
of the bad, and I never expect to.
Dr. Thomas also attacks my statement that the brain thinks in spite of
us.
Doesn't it? Can any man tell what he is going to think to-morrow? You
see, you hear, you taste, you feel, you smell--these are the avenues by
which Nature approaches the brain, the consequence of this is thought,
and you cannot by any possibility help thinking.
Neither can you determine what you will think. These impressions are
made independently of your will. "But," says this reverend doctor,
"Whence comes this conception of space?" I can tell him. There is such
a thing as matter. We conceive that matter occupies room--space--and,
in our minds, space is simply the opposite of matter. And it comes
naturally--not supernaturally.
Does the gentleman contend there had to be a revelation of God for us to
conceive of a place where there is nothing? We know there is something.
We can think of the opposite of something, and therefore we say space.
"But," says this gentleman, "Where do we get the idea of good and bad?"
I can tell him; no trouble about that. Every man has the capacity to
enjoy and the capacity to suffer--every man. Whenever a man enjoys
himself he calls that good; whenever he suffers he calls that bad.
The animals that are useful to him he calls good; the poisonous, the
hurtful, he calls bad. The vegetables that he can eat and use he calls
good; those that are of no use except to choke the growth of the good
ones, he calls bad. When the sun shines, when everything in nature is
out that ministers to him, he says "this is good;" when the storm comes
and blows down his hut, when the frost comes and lays down his crop,
he says "this is bad." And all phenomena that affect men well he calls
good; all that affect him ill he calls bad.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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