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
_Answer_. Of course, there are thousands and thousands of men who
have now advanced intellectually to the point of perceiving the
limit of human knowledge. In other words, at last they are beginning
to know enough to know what can and cannot be known. Sensible men
know that nobody knows whether an infinite God exists or not.
Sensible men know that an infinite personality cannot, by human
testimony, be established. Sensible men are giving up trying to
answer the questions of origin and destiny, and are paying more
attention to what happens between these questions--that is to say,
to this world. Infidelity increases as knowledge increases, as
fear dies, and as the brain develops. After all, it is a question
of intelligence. Only cunning performs a miracle, only ignorance
believes it.
_Question_. Do you think that evolution and revealed religion are
compatible--that is to say, can a man be an evolutionist and a
Christian?
_Answer_. Evolution and Christianity may be compatible, provided
you take the ground that Christianity is only one of the links in
the chain, one of the phases of civilization. But if you mean by
Christianity what is generally understood, of course that and
evolution are absolutely incompatible. Christianity pretends to
be not only the truth, but, so far as religion is concerned, the
whole truth. Christianity pretends to give a history of religion
and a prophecy of destiny. As a philosophy, it is an absolute
failure. As a history, it is false. There is no possible way by
which Darwin and Moses can be harmonized. There is an inexpressible
conflict between Christianity and Science, and both cannot long
inhabit the same brain. You cannot harmonize evolution and the
atonement. The survival of the fittest does away with original sin.
_Question_. From your knowledge of the religious tendency in the
United States, how long will orthodox religion be popular?
_Answer_. I do not think that orthodox religion is popular to-day.
The ministers dare not preach the creed in all its naked deformity
and horror. They are endeavoring with the vines of sentiment to
cover up the caves and dens in which crawl the serpents of their
creed. Very few ministers care now to speak of eternal pain. They
leave out the lake of fire and brimstone. They are not fond of
putting in the lips of Christ the loving words, "Depart from me,
ye cursed." The miracles are avoided. In short, what is known as
orthodoxy is already unpopular. Most ministers are endeavoring to
harmonize what they are pleased to call science and Christianity,
and nothing is now so welcome to the average Christian as some work
tending to show that, after all, Joshua was an astronomer.
_Question_. What section of the United States, East, West, North,
or South, is the most advanced in liberal religious ideas?
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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