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
Of course all persons elected to office will either swear or affirm to
support the Constitution. Men who do not believe in this God, cannot
so swear or affirm. Such men will not be allowed to hold any office of
trust or honor. A God in the Constitution will not interfere with the
oaths or affirmations of hypocrites. Such a provision will only exclude
honest and conscientious unbelievers. Intelligent people know that 110
one knows whether there is a God or not. The existence of such a Being
is merely a matter of opinion. Men who believe in the liberty of man,
who are willing to die for the honor of their country, will be excluded
from taking any part in the administration of its affairs. Such a
provision would place the country under the feet of priests.
To recognize a Deity in the organic law of our country would be the
destruction of religious liberty. The God in the Constitution would have
to be protected. There would be laws against blasphemy, laws against the
publication of honest thoughts, laws against carrying books and papers
in the mails in which this constitutional God should be attacked.
Our land would be filled with theological spies, with religious
eavesdroppers, and all the snakes and reptiles of the lowest natures, in
this sunshine of religious authority, would uncoil and crawl.
It is proposed to acknowledge a God who is the lawful and rightful
Governor of nations; the one who ordained the powers that be. If
this God is really the Governor of nations, it is not necessary to
acknowledge him in the Constitution. This would not add to his power. If
he governs all nations now, he has always controlled the affairs of men.
Having this control, why did he not see to it that he was recognized in
the Constitution of the United States? If he had the supreme authority
and neglected to put himself in the Constitution, is not this, at least,
_prima facie_ evidence that he did not desire to be there?
For one, I am not in favor of the God who has "ordained the powers that
be." What have we to say of Russia--of Siberia? What can we say of the
persecuted and enslaved? What of the kings and nobles who live on the
stolen labor of others? What of the priest and cardinal and pope who
wrest, even from the hand of poverty, the single coin thrice earned?
Is it possible to flatter the Infinite with a constitutional amendment?
The Confederate States acknowledged God in their constitution, and yet
they were overwhelmed by a people in whose organic law no reference to
God is made. All the kings of the earth acknowledge the existence of
God, and God is their ally; and this belief in God is used as a means to
enslave and rob, to govern and degrade the people whom they call their
subjects.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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