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
Let us take another step. Where would we have been if authority had
always triumphed? Where would we have been if such statutes had always
been carried out? We have now a science called astronomy. That science
has done more to enlarge the horizon of human thought than all things
else. We now live in an infinite universe. We know that the sun is a
million times larger than our earth, and we know that there are other
great luminaries millions of times larger than our sun. We know that
there are planets so far away that light, traveling at the rate of
one hundred and eighty-five thousand miles a second, requires fifteen
thousand years to reach this grain of sand, this tear, we call the
earth--and we now know that all the fields of space are sown thick with
constellations. If that statute had been enforced, that science would
not now be the property of the human mind. That science is contrary to
the Bible, and for asserting the truth you become a criminal. For
what sum of money, for what amount of wealth, would the world have the
science of astronomy expunged from the brain of man? We learned the
story of the stars in spite of that statute.
The first men who said the world was round were scourged for scoffing at
the Scriptures. And even Martin Luther, speaking of one of the greatest
men that ever lived, said: "Does he think with his little lever to
overturn the Universe of God?" Martin Luther insisted that such men
ought to be trampled under foot. If that statute had been carried into
effect, Galileo would have been impossible. Kepler, the discoverer of
the three laws, would have died with the great secret locked in his
brain, and mankind would have been left ignorant, superstitious, and
besotted. And what else? If that statute had been carried out, the
world would have been deprived of the philosophy of Spinoza; of the
philosophy, of the literature, of the wit and wisdom, the justice and
mercy of Voltaire, the greatest Frenchman that ever drew the breath of
life--the man who by his mighty pen abolished torture in a nation, and
helped to civilize a world.
If that statute had been enforced, nearly all the books that enrich the
libraries of the world could not have been written. If that statute had
been enforced, Humboldt could not have delivered the lectures now known
as "The Cosmos." If that statute had been enforced, Charles Darwin would
not have been allowed to give to the world his discoveries that have
been of more benefit to mankind than all the sermons ever uttered. In
England they have placed his sacred dust in the great Abbey. If he had
lived in New Jersey, and this statute could have been enforced, he would
have lived one year at least in your penitentiary. Why? That man went
so far as not simply to deny the truth of your Bible, but absolutely
to deny the existence of your God. Was he a good man? Yes, one of the
noblest and greatest of men. Humboldt, the greatest German who ever
lived, was of the same opinion.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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