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 have never said so. Never. I have said, One world at a time. Why? Do
not make yourself miserable about another. Why? Because I do not know
anything about it, and it may be good. So do not worry. That is all. Y
or do not know where you are going to land. It may be the happy port of
heaven. Wait until you get there. It will be time enough to make trouble
then. This is what I have said. I have said that the golden bridge of
life from gloom emerges, and on shadow rests. I do not know. I admit it.
Life is a shadowy strange and winding road on which we travel for a few
short steps, just a little way from the cradle with its lullaby of love,
to the low and quiet wayside inn where all at last must sleep, and where
the only salutation is "Good-Night!" Whether there is a good morning I
do not know, but I am willing to wait.
Let us think these high and splendid thoughts. Let us build palaces for
the future, but do not let us spend time making dungeons for men who
happen to differ from us. I am willing to take the conceptions of
Humboldt and Darwin, of Haeckel and Spinoza, and I am willing to compare
their splendid conceptions with the doctrine embraced in the Baptist
creed. This gentleman has his ideas upon a variety of questions, and he
tells me that, "No one has a right to say that Dickens, Longfellow, and
Darwin are castaways!" Why not? They were not Christians. They did
not believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. They did not believe in the
inspiration of the Scriptures. And, if orthodox religion be true, they
are castaways. But he says: "No one has the right to say that orthodoxy
condemns to perdition any man who has struggled toward the right, and
who has tried to bless the earth he is raised on." That is what I say,
but that is not what orthodoxy says. Orthodoxy says that the best man
in the world, if he fails to believe in the existence of God, or in the
divinity of Christ, will be eternally lost. Does it not say it? Is there
an orthodox minister in this town now who will stand up and say that an
honest atheist can be saved? He will not. Let any preacher say it, and
he will be tried for heresy.
I will tell you what orthodoxy is. A man goes to the day of judgment,
and they cross-examine him, and they say to him:
"Did you believe the Bible?"
"No."
"Did you belong to the church?"
"No."
"Did you take care of your wife and children?"
"Yes?"
"Pay your debts?"
"Yes."
"Love your country?"
"Yes."
"Love the whole world?"
"Yes."
"Never made anybody unhappy?"
"Not that I know of. If there is any man or woman that I ever wronged
let them stand up and say so. That is the kind of man I am; but," said
he, "I did not believe the Bible. I did not believe in the divinity
of Jesus Christ, and, to tell you the truth, I did not believe in the
existence of God. I now find I was mistaken; but that was my doctrine."
Now, I want to know what, according to the orthodox church, is done with
that man?
He is sent to hell.
That is their doctrine.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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