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_. If it will sympathize with the toilers, as it did with
the slaves; if it will side with the needy; if it will only take
the right side it will elect the next President. The poor should
not resort to violence; the rich should appeal to the intelligence
of the working people. These questions cannot be settled by envy
and scorn. The motto of both parties should be: "Come, let us
reason together." The Republican party was the grandest organization
that ever existed. It was brave, intelligent and just. It sincerely
loved the right. A certificate of membership was a patent of
nobility. If it will only stand by the right again, its victorious
banner will float over all the intelligent sons of toil.
--_The Times_, Chicago, Illinois, November 4, 1886.
REPLY TO THE REV. B. F. MORSE.*
[* At the usual weekly meeting of the Baptist ministers at
the Publication Rooms yesterday, the Rev. Dr. B. F. Morse
read an essay on "Christianity vs. Materialism." His
contention was that all nature showed that design, not
evolution, was its origin.
In his concluding remarks Dr. Morse said that he knew from
unquestionable authority, that Robert G. Ingersoll did not
believe what he uttered in his lectures, and that to get out
of a financial embarrassment he looked around for a money
making scheme that could be put into immediate execution.
To lecture against Christianity was the most rapid way of
giving him the needed cash and, what was quite as acceptable
to him, at the same time, notoriety.]
This aquatic or web-footed theologian who expects to go to heaven
by diving is not worth answering. Nothing can be more idiotic than
to answer an argument by saying he who makes it does not believe
it. Belief has nothing to do with the cogency or worth of an
argument. There is another thing. This man, or rather this
minister, says that I attacked Christianity simply to make money.
Is it possible that, after preachers have had the field for eighteen
hundred years, the way to make money is to attack the clergy? Is
this intended as a slander against me or the ministers?
The trouble is that my arguments cannot be answered. All the
preachers in the world cannot prove that slavery is better than
liberty. They cannot show that all have not an equal right to
think. They cannot show that all have not an equal right to express
their thoughts. They cannot show that a decent God will punish a
decent man for making the best guess he can. This is all there is
about it.
--_The Herald_, New York, December 14, 1886.
INGERSOLL ON McGLYNN.
The attitude of the Roman Catholic Church in Dr. McGlynn's case is
consistent with the history and constitution of the Catholic Church
--perfectly consistent with its ends, its objects, and its means--
and just as perfectly inconsistent with intellectual liberty and
the real civilization of the human race.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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