The Works of Robert G. Ingersoll, Vol. 11 (of 12): Dresden Edition—MiscellanyIngersoll, Robert Green
Religion
The Works of Robert G. Ingersoll, Vol. 11 (of 12): Dresden Edition—Miscellany
Ingersoll, Robert Green
Free thought
SOWING AND REAPING.
I HAVE read the sermon on "Sowing and Reaping," and I now understand Mr.
Moody better than I did before. The other day, in New York, Mr. Moody
said that he implicitly believed the story of Jonah and really thought
that he was in the fish for three days.
When I read it I was surprised that a man living in the century of
Humboldt, Darwin, Huxley, Spencer and Haeckel, should believe such an
absurd and idiotic story.
Now I understand the whole thing. I can account for the amazing
credulity of this man. Mr. Moody never read one of my lectures. That
accounts for it all, and no wonder that he is a hundred years behind the
times. He never read one of my lectures; that is a perfect explanation.
Poor man! He has no idea of what he has lost. He has been living on
miracles and mistakes, on falsehood and foolishness, stuffing his mind
with absurdities when he could have had truth, facts and good, sound
sense.
Poor man!
Probably Mr. Moody has never read one word of Darwin and so he still
believes in the Garden of Eden and the talking snake and really thinks
that Jehovah took some mud, moulded the form of a man, breathed in its
nostrils, stood it up and called it Adam, and that he then took one
of Adam's ribs and some more mud and manufactured Eve. Probably he has
never read a word written by any great geologist and consequently still
believes in the story of the flood. Knowing nothing of astronomy, he
still thinks that Joshua stopped the sun.
Poor man! He has neglected Spencer and has no idea of evolution. He
thinks that man has, through all the ages, degenerated, the first pair
having been perfect. He does not believe that man came from lower forms
and has gradually journeyed upward.
He really thinks that the Devil outwitted God and vaccinated the human
race with the virus of total depravity.
Poor man!
He knows nothing of the great scientists--of the great thinkers, of the
emancipators of the human race; knows nothing of Spinoza, of Voltaire,
of Draper, Buckle, of Paine or Renan.
Mr. Moody ought to read something besides the Bible--ought to find
out what the really intelligent have thought. He ought to get some
new ideas--a few facts--and I think that, after he did so, he would be
astonished to find how ignorant and foolish he had been. He is a good
man. His heart is fairly good, but his head is almost useless.
The trouble with this sermon, "Sowing and Reaping," is that he
contradicts it. I believe that a man must reap what he sows, that every
human being must bear the natural consequences of his acts. Actions are
good or bad according to their consequences. That is my doctrine.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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