Part 1

Produced by David Widger

THE WORKS OF ROBERT G. INGERSOLL

"THE CLERGY KNOW, THAT I KNOW, THAT THEY KNOW, THAT THEY DO NOT KNOW."

IN TWELVE VOLUMES, VOLUME II.

LECTURES

1900

THE DRESDEN EDITION

TO

MRS. SUE. M. FARRELL,

IN LAW MY SISTER,

AND IN FACT MY FRIEND,

THIS VOLUME,

AS A TOKEN OF RESPECT AND LOVE, IS DEDICATED.

CONTENTS OF VOLUME II.

SOME MISTAKES OF MOSES.

(1879.)

Preface--I. He who endeavors to control the Mind by Force is a Tyrant, and he who submits is a Slave--All I Ask--When a Religion is Founded--Freedom for the Orthodox Clergy--Every Minister an Attorney--Submission to the Orthodox and the Dead--Bounden Duty of the Ministry--The Minister Factory at Andover--II. Free Schools--No Sectarian Sciences--Religion and the Schools--Scientific Hypocrites--III. The Politicians and the Churches--IV. Man and Woman the Highest Possible Titles--Belief Dependent on Surroundings--Worship of Ancestors--Blindness Necessary to Keeping the Narrow Path--The Bible the Chain that Binds--A Bible of the Middle Ages and the Awe it Inspired--V. The Pentateuch--Moses Not the Author--Belief out of which Grew Religious Ceremonies--Egypt the Source of the Information of Moses--VI. Monday--Nothing, in the Light of Raw Material--The Story of Creation Begun--The Same Story, substantially, Found in the Records of Babylon, Egypt, and India--Inspiration Unnecessary to the Truth--Usefulness of Miracles to Fit Lies to Facts--Division of Darkness and Light--VII. Tuesday--The Firmament and Some Biblical Notions about it--Laws of Evaporation Unknown to the Inspired Writer--VIII. Wednesday--The Waters Gathered into Seas--Fruit and Nothing to Eat it--Five Epochs in the Organic History of the Earth--Balance between the Total Amounts of Animal and Vegetable Life--Vegetation Prior to the Appearance of the Sun--IX. Thursday--Sun and Moon Manufactured--Magnitude of the Solar Orb--Dimensions of Some of the Planets--Moses' Guess at the Size of Sun and Moon--Joshua's Control of the Heavenly Bodies--A Hypothesis Urged by Ministers--The Theory of "Refraction"--Rev. Henry Morey--Astronomical Knowledge of Chinese Savants--The Motion of the Earth Reversed by Jehovah for the Reassurance of Ahaz--"Errors" Renounced by Button--X. "He made the Stars Also"--Distance of the Nearest Star--XI. Friday--Whales and Other Living Creatures Produced--XII. Saturday--Reproduction Inaugurated--XIII. "Let Us Make Man"--Human Beings Created in the Physical Image and Likeness of God--Inquiry as to the Process Adopted--Development of Living Forms According to Evolution--How Were Adam and Eve Created?--The Rib Story--Age of Man Upon the Earth--A Statue Apparently Made before the World--XIV. Sunday--Sacredness of the Sabbath Destroyed by the Theory of Vast "Periods"--Reflections on the Sabbath--XV. The Necessity for a Good Memory--The Two Accounts of the Creation in Genesis I and II--Order of Creation in the First Account--Order of Creation in the Second Account--Fastidiousness of Adam in the Choice of a Helpmeet--Dr. Adam Clark's Commentary--Dr. Scott's Guess--Dr. Matthew Henry's Admission--The Blonde and Brunette Problem--The Result of Unbelief and the Reward of Faith--"Give Him a Harp"--XVI. The Garden--Location of Eden--The Four Rivers--The Tree of Knowledge--Andover Appealed To--XVII. The Fall--The Serpent--Dr. Adam Clark Gives a Zoological Explanation--Dr. Henry Dissents--Whence This Serpent?--XVIII. Dampness--A Race of Giants--Wickedness of Mankind--An Ark Constructed--A Universal Flood Indicated--Animals Probably Admitted to the Ark--How Did They Get There?--Problem of Food and Service--A Shoreless Sea Covered with Innumerable Dead--Drs. Clark and Henry on the Situation--The Ark Takes Ground--New Difficulties--Noah's Sacrifice--The Rainbow as a Memorandum--Babylonian, Egyptian, and Indian Legends of a Flood--XIX. Bacchus and Babel--Interest Attaching to Noah--Where Did Our First Parents and the Serpent Acquire a Common Language?--Babel and the Confusion of Tongues--XX. Faith in Filth--Immodesty of Biblical Diction--XXI. The Hebrews--God's Promises to Abraham--The Sojourning of Israel in Egypt--Marvelous Increase--Moses and Aaron--XXII. The Plagues--Competitive Miracle Working--Defeat of the Local Magicians--XXIII. The Flight Out of Egypt--Three Million People in a Desert--Destruction of Pharaoh ana His Host--Manna--A Superfluity of Quails--Rev. Alexander Cruden's Commentary--Hornets as Allies of the Israelites--Durability of the Clothing of the Jewish People--An Ointment Monopoly--Consecration of Priests--The Crime of Becoming a Mother--The Ten Commandments--Medical Ideas of Jehovah--Character of the God of the Pentateuch--XXIV. Confess and Avoid--XXV. "Inspired" Slavery--XXVI. "Inspired" Marriage-XXVII. "Inspired" War-XXVIII. "Inspired" Religious Liberty--XXIX. Conclusion.

SOME REASONS WHY.

(1881.)

I--Religion makes Enemies--Hatred in the Name of Universal Benevolence--No Respect for the Rights of Barbarians--Literal Fulfillment of a New Testament Prophecy--II. Duties to God--Can we Assist God?--An Infinite Personality an Infinite Impossibility-Ill. Inspiration--What it Really Is--Indication of Clams--Multitudinous Laughter of the Sea--Horace Greeley and the Mammoth Trees--A Landscape Compared to a Table-cloth--The Supernatural is the Deformed--Inspiration in the Man as well as in the Book--Our Inspired Bible--IV. God's Experiment with the Jews--Miracles of One Religion never astonish the Priests of Another--"I am a Liar Myself"--V. Civilized Countries--Crimes once regarded as Divine Institutions--What the Believer in the Inspiration of the Bible is Compelled to Say--Passages apparently written by the Devil--VI. A Comparison of Books--Advancing a Cannibal from Missionary to Mutton--Contrast between the Utterances of Jehovah and those of Reputable Heathen--Epictetus, Cicero, Zeno, Seneca--the Hindu, Antoninus, Marcus Aurelius--The Avesta--VII. Monotheism--Egyptians before Moses taught there was but One God and Married but One Wife--Persians and Hindoos had a Single Supreme Deity--Rights of Roman Women--Marvels of Art achieved without the Assistance of Heaven--Probable Action of the Jewish Jehovah incarnated as Man--VIII. The New Testament--Doctrine of Eternal Pain brought to Light--Discrepancies--Human Weaknesses cannot be Predicated of Divine Wisdom--Why there are Four Gospels according to Irenæus--The Atonement--Remission of Sins under the Mosaic Dispensation--Christians say, "Charge it"--God's Forgiveness does not Repair an Injury--Suffering of Innocence for the Guilty--Salvation made Possible by Jehovah's Failure to Civilize the Jews--Necessity of Belief not taught in the Synoptic Gospels--Non-resistance the Offspring of Weakness--IX. Christ's Mission--All the Virtues had been Taught before his Advent--Perfect and Beautiful Thoughts of his Pagan Predecessors--St. Paul Contrasted with Heathen Writers--"The Quality of Mercy"--X. Eternal Pain--An Illustration of Eternal Punishment--Captain Kreuger of the Barque Tiger--XI. Civilizing Influence of the Bible--Its Effects on the Jews--If Christ was God, Did he not, in his Crucifixion, Reap what he had Sown?--Nothing can add to the Misery of a Nation whose King is Jehovah

ORTHODOXY.

(1884.)

Orthodox Religion Dying Out--Religious Deaths and Births--The Religion of Reciprocity--Every Language has a Cemetery--Orthodox Institutions Survive through the Money invested in them--"Let us tell our Real Names"--The Blows that have Shattered the Shield and Shivered the Lance of Superstition--Mohammed's Successful Defence of the Sepulchre of Christ--The Destruction of Art--The Discovery of America--Although he made it himself, the Holy Ghost was Ignorant of the Form of this Earth--Copernicus and Kepler--Special Providence--The Man and the Ship he did not Take--A Thanksgiving Proclamation Contradicted--Charles Darwin--Henry Ward Beecher--The Creeds--The Latest Creed--God as a Governor--The Love of God--The Fall of Man--We are Bound by Representatives without a Chance to Vote against Them--The Atonement--The Doctrine of Depravity a Libel on the Human Race--The Second Birth--A Unitarian Universalist--Inspiration of the Scriptures--God a Victim of his own Tyranny--In the New Testament Trouble Commences at Death--The Reign of Truth and Love--The Old Spaniard who Died without an Enemy--The Wars it Brought--Consolation should be Denied to Murderers--At the Rate at which Heathen are being Converted, how long will it take to Establish Christ's Kingdom on Earth?--The Resurrection--The Judgment Day--Pious Evasions--"We shall not Die, but we shall all be Hanged"--"No Bible, no Civilization" Miracles of the New Testament--Nothing Written by Christ or his Contemporaries--Genealogy of Jesus--More Miracles--A Master of Death--Improbable that he would be Crucified--The Loaves and Fishes--How did it happen that the Miracles Convinced so Few?--The Resurrection--The Ascension--Was the Body Spiritual--Parting from the Disciples--Casting out Devils--Necessity of Belief--God should be consistent in the Matter of forgiving Enemies--Eternal Punishment--Some Good Men who are Damned--Another Objection--Love the only Bow on Life's dark Cloud--"Now is the accepted Time"--Rather than this Doctrine of Eternal Punishment Should be True--I would rather that every Planet should in its Orbit wheel a barren Star--What I Believe--Immortality--It existed long before Moses--Consolation--The Promises are so Far Away, and the Dead are so Near--Death a Wall or a Door--A Fable--Orpheus and Eurydice.

MYTH AND MIRACLE.

(1885.)

I. Happiness the true End and Aim of Life--Spiritual People and their Literature--Shakespeare's Clowns superior to Inspired Writers--Beethoven's Sixth Symphony Preferred to the Five Books of Moses--Venus of Milo more Pleasing than the Presbyterian Creed--II. Religions Naturally Produced--Poets the Myth-makers--The Sleeping Beauty--Orpheus and Eurydice--Red Riding Hood--The Golden Age--Elysian Fields--The Flood Myth--Myths of the Seasons--III. The Sun-god--Jonah, Buddha, Chrisnna, Horus, Zoroaster--December 25th as a Birthday of Gods--Christ a Sun-God--The Cross a Symbol of the Life to Come--When Nature rocked the Cradle of the Infant World--IV. Difference between a Myth and a Miracle--Raising the Dead, Past and Present--Miracles of Jehovah--Miracles of Christ--Everything Told except the Truth--The Mistake of the World--V. Beginning of Investigation--The Stars as Witnesses against Superstition--Martyrdom of Bruno--Geology--Steam and Electricity--Nature forever the Same--Persistence of Force--Cathedral, Mosque, and Joss House have the same Foundation--Science the Providence of Man--VI. To Soften the Heart of God--Martyrs--The God was Silent--Credulity a Vice--Develop the Imagination--"The Skylark" and "The Daisy"--VII. How are we to Civilize the World?--Put Theology out of Religion--Divorce of Church and State--Secular Education--Godless Schools--VIII. The New Jerusalem--Knowledge of the Supernatural possessed by Savages--Beliefs of Primitive Peoples--Science is Modest--Theology Arrogant--Torque-mada and Bruno on the Day of Judgment--IX. Poison of Superstition in the Mother's Milk--Ability of Mistakes to take Care of Themselves--Longevity of Religious Lies--Mother's religion pleaded by the Cannibal--The Religion of Freedom--O Liberty, thou art the God of my Idolatry

PREFACE.

For many years I have regarded the Pentateuch simply as a record of a barbarous people, in which are found a great number of the ceremonies of savagery, many absurd and unjust laws, and thousands of ideas inconsistent with known and demonstrated facts. To me it seemed almost a crime to teach that this record was written by inspired men; that slavery, polygamy, wars of conquest and extermination were right, and that there was a time when men could win the approbation of infinite Intelligence, Justice, and Mercy, by violating maidens and by butchering babes. To me it seemed more reasonable that savage men had made these laws; and I endeavored in a lecture, entitled "Some Mistakes of Moses," to point out some of the errors, contradictions, and impossibilities contained in the Pentateuch. The lecture was never written and consequently never delivered twice the same. On several occasions it was reported and published without consent, and without revision. All these publications were grossly and glaringly incorrect As published, they have been answered several hundred times, and many of the clergy are still engaged in the great work. To keep these reverend gentlemen from wasting their talents on the mistakes of reporters and printers, I concluded to publish the principal points in all my lectures on this subject. And here, it may be proper for me to say, that arguments cannot be answered by personal abuse; that there is no logic in slander, and that falsehood, in the long run, defeats itself. People who love their enemies should, at least, tell the truth about their friends. Should it turn out that I am the worst man in the whole world, the story of the flood will remain just as improbable as before, and the contradictions of the Pentateuch will still demand an explanation.

There was a time when a falsehood, fulminated from the pulpit, smote like a sword; but, the supply having greatly exceeded the demand, clerical misrepresentation has at last become almost an innocent amusement. Remembering that only a few years ago men, women, and even children, were imprisoned, tortured and burned, for having expressed in an exceedingly mild and gentle way, the ideas entertained by me, I congratulate myself that calumny is now the pulpit's last resort. The old instruments of torture are kept only to gratify curiosity; the chains are rusting away, and the demolition of time has allowed even the dungeons of the Inquisition to be visited by light. The church, impotent and malicious, regrets, not the abuse, but the loss of her power, and seeks to hold by falsehood what she gained by cruelty and force, by fire and fear. Christianity cannot live in peace with any other form of faith. If that religion be true, there is but one savior, one inspired book, and but one little narrow grass-grown path that leads to heaven. Such a religion is necessarily uncompromising, unreasoning, aggressive and insolent. Christianity has held all other creeds and forms in infinite contempt, divided the world into enemies and friends, and verified the awful declaration of its founder--a declaration that wet with blood the sword he came to bring, and made the horizon of a thousand years lurid with the fagots' flames.

Too great praise challenges attention, and often brings to light a thousand faults that otherwise the general eye would never see. Were we allowed to read the Bible as we do all other books, we would admire its beauties, treasure its worthy thoughts, and account for all its absurd, grotesque and cruel things, by saying that its authors lived in rude, barbaric times. But we are told that it was written by inspired men; that it contains the will of God; that it is perfect, pure, and true in all its parts; the source and standard of all moral and religious truth; that it is the star and anchor of all human hope; the only guide for man, the only torch in Nature's night. These claims are so at variance with every known recorded fact, so palpably absurd, that every free unbiased soul is forced to raise the standard of revolt.

We read the pagan sacred books with profit and delight. With myth and fable we are ever charmed, and find a pleasure in the endless repetition of the beautiful, poetic, and absurd. We find, in all these records of the past, philosophies and dreams, and efforts stained with tears, of great and tender souls who tried to pierce the mystery of life and death, to answer the eternal questions of the Whence and Whither, and vainly sought to make, with bits of shattered glass, a mirror that would, in very truth, reflect the face and form of Nature's perfect self.

These myths were born of hopes, and fears, and tears, and smiles, and they were touched and colored by all there is of joy and grief between the rosy dawn of birth, and deaths sad night. They clothed even the stars with passion, and gave to gods the faults and frailties of the sons of men. In them, the winds and waves were music, and all the lakes, and streams, and springs,--the mountains, woods and perfumed dells were haunted by a thousand fairy forms. They thrilled the veins of Spring with tremulous desire; made tawny Summer's billowed breast the throne and home of love; filled Autumn's arms with sun-kissed grapes, and gathered sheaves; and pictured Winter as a weak old king who felt, like Lear upon his withered face, Cordelia's tears. These myths, though false, are beautiful, and have for many ages and in countless ways, enriched the heart and kindled thought. But if the world were taught that all these things are true and all inspired of God, and that eternal punishment will be the lot of him who dares deny or doubt, the sweetest myth of all the Fable World would lose its beauty, and become a scorned and hateful thing to every brave and thoughtful man.

Robert G. Ingersoll.

Washington, D. C., Oct. 7th, 1879.

SOME MISTAKES OF MOSES.

HE WHO ENDEAVORS TO CONTROL THE MIND BY FORCE IS A TYRANT, AND HE WHO SUBMITS IS A SLAVE.

I.

I want to do what little I can to make my country truly free, to broaden the intellectual horizon of our people, to destroy the prejudices born of ignorance and fear, to do away with the blind worship of the ignoble past, with the idea that all the great and good are dead, that the living are totally depraved, that all pleasures are sins, that sighs and groans are alone pleasing to God, that thought is dangerous, that intellectual courage is a crime, that cowardice is a virtue, that a certain belief is necessary to secure salvation, that to carry a cross in this world will give us a palm in the next, and that we must allow some priest to be the pilot of our souls.

Until every soul is freely permitted to investigate every book, and creed, and dogma for itself, the world cannot be free. Mankind will be enslaved until there is mental grandeur enough to allow each man to have his thought and say. This earth will be a paradise when men can, upon all these questions differ, and yet grasp each other's hands as friends. It is amazing to me that a difference of opinion upon subjects that we know nothing with certainty about, should make us hate, persecute, and despise each other. Why a difference of opinion upon predestination, or the Trinity, should make people imprison and burn each other seems beyond the comprehension of man; and yet in all countries where Christians have existed, they have destroyed each other to the exact extent of their power. Why should a believer in God hate an atheist? Surely the atheist has not injured God, and surely he is human, capable of joy and pain, and entitled to all the rights of man. Would it not be far better to treat this atheist, at least, as well as he treats us?

Christians tell me that they love their enemies, and yet all I ask is--not that they love their enemies, not that they love their friends even, but that they treat those who differ from them, with simple fairness.

We do not wish to be forgiven, but we wish Christians to so act that we will not have to forgive them.

If all will admit that all have an equal right to think, then the question is forever solved; but as long as organized and powerful churches, pretending to hold the keys of heaven and hell, denounce every person as an outcast and criminal who thinks for himself and denies their authority, the world will be filled with hatred and suffering. To hate man and worship God seems to be the sum of all the creeds.

That which has happened in most countries has happened in ours. When a religion is founded, the educated, the powerful--that is to say, the priests and nobles, tell the ignorant and superstitious--that is to say, the people, that the religion of their country was given to their fathers by God himself; that it is the only true religion; that all others were conceived in falsehood and brought forth in fraud, and that all who believe in the true religion will be happy forever, while all others will burn in hell. For the purpose of governing the people, that is to say, for the purpose of being supported by the people, the priests and nobles declare this religion to be sacred, and that whoever adds to, or takes from it, will be burned here by man, and hereafter by God. The result of this is, that the priests and nobles will not allow the people to change; and when, after a time, the priests, having intellectually advanced, wish to take a step in the direction of progress, the people will not allow them to change. At first, the rabble are enslaved by the priests, and afterwards the rabble become the masters.

One of the first things I wish to do, is to free the orthodox clergy. I am a great friend of theirs, and in spite of all they may say against me, I am going to do them a great and lasting service. Upon their necks are visible the marks of the collar, and upon their backs those of the lash. They are not allowed to read and think for themselves. They are taught like parrots, and the best are those who repeat, with the fewest mistakes, the sentences they have been taught. They sit like owls upon some dead limb of the tree of knowledge, and hoot the same old hoots that have been hooted for eighteen hundred years. Their congregations are not grand enough, nor sufficiently civilized, to be willing that the poor preachers shall think for themselves. They are not employed for that purpose. Investigation regarded as a dangerous experiment, and the ministers are warned that none of that kind of work will be tolerated. They are notified to stand by the old creed, and to avoid all original thought, as a mortal pestilence. Every minister is employed like an attorney--either for plaintiff or defendant,--and he is expected to be true to his client. If he changes his mind, he is regarded as a deserter, and denounced, hated, and slandered accordingly. Every orthodox clergyman agrees not to change. He contracts not to find new facts, and makes a bargain that he will deny them if he does. Such is the position of a Protestant minister in this nineteenth century. His condition excites my pity; and to better it, I am going to do what little I can.