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
Interview in the New York Journal--Rev. Roberts. MacArthur--A
Personal Devil--Devils who held Conversations with Christ not simply
personifications of Evil--The Temptation--The "Man of Straw"--Christ's
Mission authenticated by the Casting Out of Devils--Spain--God
Responsible for the Actions of Man--Rev. Dr. J. Lewis Parks--Rev. Dr. E.
F. Moldehnke--Patience amidst the Misfortunes of Others--Yellow Fever
as a Divine Agent--The Doctrine that All is for the Best--Rev. Mr.
Hamlin--Why Did God Create a Successful Rival?--A Compliment by the
Rev. Mr. Belcher--Rev. W. C. Buchanan--No Argument Old until it is
Answered--Why should God Create sentient Beings to be Damned?--Rev. J.
W. Campbell--Rev. Henry Frank--Rev. E. C.J. Kraeling on Christ and the
Devil--Would he make a World like This?
MY REVIEWERS REVIEWED.
* This lecture was delivered by Col. Ingersoll in San
Francisco Cal., June 27, 1877. It was a reply to various
clergymen of that city, who had made violent attacks upon
him after the delivery of his lectures, "The Liberty of Man,
Woman and Child," and "The Ghosts."
I.
AGAINST the aspersions of the pulpit and the religious press, I offer
in evidence this magnificent audience. Although I represent but a small
part of the holy cause of intellectual liberty, even that part shall not
be defiled or smirched by a single personality. Whatever I say, I shall
say because I believe it will tend to make this world grander, man
nearer just, the father kinder, the mother more loving, the children
more affectionate, and because I believe it will make an additional
flower bloom in the pathway of every one who hears me.
In the first place, what have I said? What has been my offence? What
have I done? I am spoken of by the clergy as though I were a wolf that
in the absence of the good shepherd had fattened upon his innocent
flock. What have I said?
I delivered a lecture entitled, "The Liberty of Man, Woman and
Child." In that lecture I said that man was entitled to physical and
intellectual liberty. I defined physical liberty to be the right to do
right; the right to do anything that did not interfere with the real
happiness of others. I defined intellectual liberty to be the right to
think right, and the right to think wrong--provided you did your best to
think right.
This must be so, because thought is only an instrumentality by which we
seek to ascertain the truth. Every man has the right to think, whether
his thought is in reality right or wrong; and he cannot be accountable
to any being for thinking wrong. There is upon man, so far as thought
is concerned, the obligation to think the best he can, and to honestly
express his best thought. Whenever he finds what is right, or what he
honestly believes to be the right, he is less than a man if he fears to
express his conviction before an assembled world.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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