The Works of Robert G. Ingersoll, Vol. 08 (of 12): Dresden Edition—InterviewsIngersoll, Robert Green
Religion
The Works of Robert G. Ingersoll, Vol. 08 (of 12): Dresden Edition—Interviews
Ingersoll, Robert Green
Free thought
There should be a religion of the body--a religion that will prevent
deformity, that will refuse to multiply insanity, that will not
propagate disease--a religion that is judged by its consequences in
this world. Orthodox Christianity has taught, and still teaches,
that in this world the difference between the good and the bad is
that the bad enjoy themselves, while the good carry the cross of
virtue with bleeding brows bound and pierced with the thorns of
honesty and kindness. All this, in my judgment, is immoral. The
man who does wrong carries a cross. There is no world, no star,
in which the result of wrong is real happiness. There is no world,
no star, in which the result of doing right is unhappiness. Virtue
and vice must be the same everywhere.
Vice must be vice everywhere, because its consequences are evil;
and virtue must be virtue everywhere, because its consequences are
good. There can be no such thing as forgiveness. These facts are
the only restraining influences possible--the innocent man cannot
suffer for the guilty and satisfy the law.
_Question_. How do you answer the argument, or the fact, that the
church is constantly increasing, and that there are now four hundred
millions of Christians?
_Answer_. That is what I call the argument of numbers. If that
argument is good now, it was always good. If Christians were at
any time in the minority, then, according to this argument,
Christianity was wrong. Every religion that has succeeded has
appealed to the argument of numbers. There was a time when Buddhism
was in a majority. Buddha not only had, but has more followers
then Christ. Success is not a demonstration. Mohammed was a
success, and a success from the commencement. Upon a thousand
fields he was victor. Of the scattered tribes of the desert, he
made a nation, and this nation took the fairest part of Europe from
the followers of the cross. In the history of the world, the
success of Mohammed is unparalleled, but this success does not
establish that he was the prophet of God.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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