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
Nothing. Whole races were enslaved, and the cruel lash was put upon the
naked back of toil. What did God do? Nothing. Children were sold from
the arms of mothers. All the sweet humanities of life were trodden
beneath the brutal foot of creed; and what did God do? Nothing. Human
beings, his children, were tracked through swamps by bloodhounds; and
what did God do? Nothing. Wild storms sweep over the earth and the
shipwrecked go down in the billows; and what does God do? Nothing. There
come plague and pestilence and famine. What does God do? Thousands
and thousands perish. Little children die upon the withered breasts of
mothers; and what does God do? Nothing.
What evidence has Dr. Thomas that the cries and tears of man have ever
touched the heart of God? Let us be honest. I appeal to the history
of the world; I appeal to the tears, and blood, and agony, and
imprisonment, and death of hundreds and millions of the bravest and
best. Have they ever touched the heart of the Infinite? Has the hand of
help ever been reached from heaven? I do not know; but I do not believe
it.
Dr. Thomas tells me that is orthodox Christianity. What right has he
to tell what is orthodox Christianity? He is a heretic. He had too much
brain to remain in the Methodist pulpit. He had a doubt--and a doubt is
born of an idea. And his doctrine has been declared by his own church
to be unorthodox. They have passed on his case and they have found him
unconstitutional. What right has he to state what is orthodox? And here
is what he says: "Christianity"--orthodox Christianity I suppose
he means--"teaches, concerning the future world, that rewards and
punishments are carried over from time to eternity; that the principles
of the government of God are the same there as here; that character, and
not profession determines destiny; and that Humboldt, and Dickens, and
all others who have gone and shall go to that world shall receive their
just rewards; that souls will always be in the place in which for the
time, be it now or a million years hence, they are fitted. That is what
Christianity teaches."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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