Part 1

Produced by David Widger

NEED TO REDO ALL THE "REMOVE" LINES:

THE WORKS OF ROBERT G. INGERSOLL

"ARGUMENTS CANNOT BE ANSWERED WITH INSULTS. KINDNESS IS STRENGTH; ANGER BLOWS OUT THE LAMP OF THE MIND. IN THE EXAMINATION OF A GREAT AND IMPORTANT QUESTION, EVERY ONE SHOULD BE SERENE, SLOW-PULSED AND CALM."

IN TWELVE VOLUMES VOLUME VI.

DISCUSSIONS

1900

Dresden Edition

CONTENTS.

THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION.

(1881.)

I. Col. Ingersoll's Opening Paper--Statement of the Fundamental Truths of Christianity--Reasons for Thinking that Portions of the Old Testament are the Product of a Barbarous People--Passages upholding Slavery, Polygamy, War, and Religious Persecution not Evidences of Inspiration--If the Words are not Inspired, What Is?--Commands of Jehovah compared with the Precepts of Pagans and Stoics--Epictetus, Cicero, Zeno, Seneca, Brahma--II. The New Testament--Why were Four Gospels Necessary?--Salvation by Belief--The Doctrine of the Atonement--The Jewish System Culminating in the Sacrifice of Christ--Except for the Crucifixion of her Son, the Virgin Mary would be among the Lost--What Christ must have Known would Follow the Acceptance of His Teachings--The Wars of Sects, the Inquisition, the Fields of Death--Why did he not Forbid it All?--The Little that he Revealed--The Dogma of Eternal Punishment--Upon Love's Breast the Church has Placed the Eternal Asp--III. The "Inspired" Writers--Why did not God furnish Every Nation with a Bible?

II. Judge Black's Reply--His Duty that of a Policeman--The Church not in Danger--Classes who Break out into Articulate Blasphemy--The Sciolist--Personal Remarks about Col. Ingersoll--Chief-Justice Gibson of Pennsylvania Quoted--We have no Jurisdiction or Capacity to Rejudge the Justice of God--The Moral Code of the Bible--Civil Government of the Jews--No Standard of Justice without Belief in a God--Punishments for Blasphemy and Idolatry Defended--Wars of Conquest--Allusion to Col. Ingersoll's War Record--Slavery among the Jews--Polygamy Discouraged by the Mosaic Constitution--Jesus of Nazareth and the Establishment of his Religion--Acceptance of Christianity and Adjudication upon its Divinity--The Evangelists and their Depositions--The Fundamental Truths of Christianity--Persecution and Triumph of the Church--Ingersoll's Propositions Compressed and the Compressions Answered--Salvation as a Reward of Belief--Punishment of Unbelief--The Second Birth, Atonement, Redemption, Non-resistance, Excessive Punishment of Sinners, Christ and Persecution, Christianity and Freedom of Thought, Sufficiency of the Gospel, Miracles, Moral Effect of Christianity.

III. Col. Ingersoll's Rejoinder--How this Discussion Came About--Natural Law--The Design Argument--The Right to Rejudge the Justice even of a God--Violation of the Commandments by Jehovah--Religious Intolerance of the Old Testament--Judge Black's Justification of Wars of Extermination--His Defence of Slavery--Polygamy not "Discouraged" by the Old Testament--Position of Woman under the Jewish System and under that of the Ancients--a "Policeman's" View of God--Slavery under Jehovah and in Egypt--The Admission that Jehovah gave no Commandment against Polygamy--The Learned and Wise Crawl back in Cribs--Alleged Harmony of Old and New Testaments--On the Assertion that the Spread of Christianity Proves the Supernatural Origin of the Gospel--The Argument applicable to All Religions--Communications from Angels ana Gods--Authenticity of the Statements of the Evangelists--Three Important Manuscripts--Rise of Mormonism--Ascension of Christ--The Great Public Events alleged as Fundamental Truths of Christianity--Judge Black's System of "Compression"--"A Metaphysical Question"--Right and Wrong--Justice--Christianity and Freedom of Thought--Heaven and Hell--Production of God and the Devil--Inspiration of the Bible dependent on the Credulity of the Reader--Doubt of Miracles--The World before Christ's Advent--Respect for the Man Christ--The Dark Ages--Institutions of Mercy--Civil Law.

THE FIELD-INGERSOLL DISCUSSION.

(1887.)

An Open Letter to Robert G. Ingersoll--Superstitions--Basis of Religion--Napoleon's Question about the Stars--The Idea of God--Crushing out Hope--Atonement, Regeneration, and Future Retribution--Socrates and Jesus--The Language of Col. Ingersoll characterized as too Sweeping--The Sabbath--But a Step from Sneering at Religion to Sneering at Morality.

A Reply to the Rev. Henry M. Field, D. D.--Honest Differences of Opinion--Charles Darwin--Dr. Field's Distinction between Superstition and Religion--The Presbyterian God an Infinite Torquemada--Napoleon's Sensitiveness to the Divine Influence--The Preference of Agassiz--The Mysterious as an Explanation--The Certainty that God is not what he is Thought to Be--Self-preservation the Fibre of Society--Did the Assassination of Lincoln Illustrate the Justice of God's Judgments?--Immortality--Hope and the Presbyterian Creed--To a Mother at the Grave of Her Son--Theological Teaching of Forgiveness--On Eternal Retribution--Jesus and Mohammed--Attacking the Religion of Others--Ananias and Sapphira--The Pilgrims and Freedom to Worship--The Orthodox Sabbath--Natural Restraints on Conduct--Religion and Morality--The Efficacy of Prayer--Respect for Belief of Father and Mother--The "Power behind Nature"--Survival of the Fittest--The Saddest Fact--"Sober Second Thought."

A Last Word to Robert G. Ingersoll, by Dr. Field--God not a Presbyterian--Why Col. Ingersoll's Attacks on Religion are Resented--God is more Merciful than Man--Theories about the Future Life--Retribution a Necessary Part of the Divine Law--The Case of Robinson Crusoe--Irresistible Proof of Design--Col. Ingersoll's View of Immortality--An Almighty Friend.

Letter to Dr. Field--The Presbyterian God--What the Presbyterians Claim--The "Incurably Bad"--Responsibility for not seeing Things Clearly--Good Deeds should Follow even Atheists--No Credit in Belief--Design Argument that Devours Itself--Belief as a Foundation of Social Order--No Consolation in Orthodox Religion--The "Almighty Friend" and the Slave Mother--a Hindu Prayer--Calvinism--Christ not the Supreme Benefactor of the Race.

COLONEL INGERSOLL ON CHRISTIANITY.

(1888.)

Some Remarks on his Reply to Dr. Field by the Hon. Wm. E. Gladstone--External Triumph and Prosperity of the Church--A Truth Half Stated--Col. Ingersoll's Tumultuous Method and lack of Reverential Calm--Jephthah's Sacrifice--Hebrews xii Expounded--The Case of Abraham--Darwinism and the Scriptures--Why God demands Sacrifices of Man--Problems admitted to be Insoluble--Relation of human Genius to Human Greatness--Shakespeare and Others--Christ and the Family Relation--Inaccuracy of Reference in the Reply--Ananias and Sapphira--The Idea of Immortality--Immunity of Error in Belief from Moral Responsibility--On Dishonesty in the Formation of Opinion--A Plausibility of the Shallowest kind--The System of Thuggism--Persecution for Opinion's Sake--Riding an Unbroken Horse.

Col. Ingersoll to Mr. Gladstone--On the "Impaired" State of the human Constitution--Unbelief not Due to Degeneracy--Objections to the Scheme of Redemption--Does Man Deserve only Punishment?--"Reverential Calm"--The Deity of the Ancient Jews--Jephthah and Abraham--Relation between Darwinism and the Inspiration of the Scriptures--Sacrifices to the Infinite--What is Common Sense?--An Argument that will Defend every Superstition--The Greatness of Shakespeare--The Absolute Indissolubility of Marriage--Is the Religion of Christ for this Age?--As to Ananias and Sapphira--Immortality and People of Low Intellectual Development--Can we Control our Thought?--Dishonest Opinions Cannot be Formed--Some Compensations for Riding an "Unbroken Horse."

ROME OR REASON?

(1888.)

"The Church Its Own Witness," by Cardinal Manning--Evidence that Christianity is of Divine Origin--The Universality of the Church--Natural Causes not Sufficient to Account for the Catholic Church---The World in which Christianity Arose--Birth of Christ--From St Peter to Leo XIII.--The First Effect of Christianity--Domestic Life's Second Visible Effect--Redemption of Woman from traditional Degradation--Change Wrought by Christianity upon the Social, Political and International Relations of the World--Proof that Christianity is of Divine Origin and Presence--St. John and the Christian Fathers--Sanctity of the Church not Affected by Human Sins.

A Reply to Cardinal Manning--I. Success not a Demonstration of either Divine Origin or Supernatural Aid--Cardinal Manning's Argument More Forcible in the Mouth of a Mohammedan--Why Churches Rise and Flourish--Mormonism--Alleged Universality of the Catholic Church--Its "inexhaustible Fruitfulness" in Good Things--The Inquisition and Persecution--Not Invincible--Its Sword used by Spain--Its Unity not Unbroken--The State of the World when Christianity was Established--The Vicar of Christ--A Selection from Draper's "History of the Intellectual Development of Europe"--Some infamous Popes--Part II. How the Pope Speaks--Religions Older than Catholicism and having the Same Rites and Sacraments--Is Intellectual Stagnation a Demonstration of Divine Origin?--Integration and Disintegration--The Condition of the World 300 Years Ago--The Creed of Catholicism--The "One true God" with a Knowledge of whom Catholicism has "filled the World"--Did the Catholic Church overthrow Idolatry?--Marriage--Celibacy--Human Passions--The Cardinal's Explanation of Jehovah's abandonment of the Children of Men for four thousand Years--Catholicism tested by Paganism--Canon Law and Convictions had Under It--Rival Popes--Importance of a Greek "Inflection"--The Cardinal Witnesses.

IS DIVORCE WRONG?

(1889.)

Preface by the Editor of the North American Review--Introduction, by the Rev. S. W. Dike, LL. D.--A Catholic View by Cardinal Gibbons--Divorce as Regarded by the Episcopal Church, by Bishop, Henry C. Potter--Four Questions Answered, by Robert G. Ingersoll.

DIVORCE.

Reply to Cardinal Gibbons--Indissolubility of Marriage a Reaction from Polygamy--Biblical Marriage--Polygamy Simultaneous and Successive--Marriage and Divorce in the Light of Experience--Reply to Bishop Potter--Reply to Mr. Gladstone--Justice Bradley--Senator Dolph--The argument Continued in Colloquial Form--Dialogue between Cardinal Gibbons and a Maltreated Wife--She Asks the Advice of Mr. Gladstone--The Priest who Violated his Vow--Absurdity of the Divorce laws of Some States.

REPLY TO DR. LYMAN ABBOTT.

(1890)

Dr. Abbott's Equivocations--Crimes Punishable by Death under Mosaic and English Law--Severity of Moses Accounted for by Dr. Abbott--The Necessity for the Acceptance of Christianity--Christians should be Glad to Know that the Bible is only the Work of Man and that the New Testament Life of Christ is Untrue--All the Good Commandments, Known to the World thousands of Years before Moses--Human Happiness of More Consequence than the Truth about God--The Appeal to Great Names--Gladstone not the Greatest Statesman--What the Agnostic Says--The Magnificent Mistakes of Genesis--The Story of Joseph--Abraham as a "self-Exile for Conscience's Sake."

REPLY TO ARCHDEACON FARRAR.

(1890.)

Revelation as an Appeal to Man's "Spirit"--What is Spirit and what is "Spiritual Intuition"?--The Archdeacon in Conflict with St. Paul--II. The Obligation to Believe without Evidence--III. Ignorant Credulity--IV. A Definition of Orthodoxy--V. Fear not necessarily Cowardice--Prejudice is Honest--The Ola has the Advantage in an Argument--St. Augustine--Jerome--the Appeal to Charlemagne--Roger Bacon--Lord Bacon a Defender of the Copernican System--The Difficulty of finding out what Great Men Believed--Names Irrelevantly Cited--Bancroft on the Hessians--Original Manuscripts of the Bible--VI. An Infinite Personality a Contradiction in Terms--VII. A Beginningless Being--VIII. The Cruelties of Nature not to be Harmonized with the Goodness of a Deity--Sayings from the Indian--Origen, St. Augustine, Dante, Aquinas.

IS CORPORAL PUNISHMENT DEGRADING?

(1890.)

A Reply to the Dean of St. Paul--Growing Confidence in the Power of Kindness--Crimes against Soldiers and Sailors--Misfortunes Punished as Crimes--The Dean's Voice Raised in Favor of the Brutalities of the Past--Beating of Children--Of Wives--Dictum of Solomon.

THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION; INGERSOLL'S OPENING PAPER

[Ingersoll-Black]

By Robert G. Ingersoll

In the presence of eternity the mountains are as transient as the clouds.

A PROFOUND change has taken place in the world of thought. The pews are trying to set themselves somewhat above the pulpit. The layman discusses theology with the minister, and smiles. Christians excuse themselves for belonging to the church, by denying a part of the creed. The idea is abroad that they who know the most of nature believe the least about theology. The sciences are regarded as infidels, and facts as scoffers. Thousands of most excellent people avoid churches, and, with few exceptions, only those attend prayer-meetings who wish to be alone. The pulpit is losing because the people are growing.

Of course it is still claimed that we are a Christian people, indebted to something called Christianity for all the progress we have made. There is still a vast difference of opinion as to what Christianity really is, although many warring sects have been discussing that question, with fire and sword, through centuries of creed and crime. Every new sect has been denounced at its birth as illegitimate, as a something born out of orthodox wedlock, and that should have been allowed to perish on the steps where it was found. Of the relative merits of the various denominations, it is sufficient to say that each claims to be right. Among the evangelical churches there is a substantial agreement upon what they consider the fundamental truths of the gospel. These fundamental truths, as I understand them, are:

That there is a personal God, the creator of the material universe; that he made man of the dust, and woman from part of the man; that the man and woman were tempted by the devil; that they were turned out of the Garden of Eden; that, about fifteen hundred years afterward, God's patience having been exhausted by the wickedness of mankind, he drowned his children with the exception of eight persons; that afterward he selected from their descendants Abraham, and through him the Jewish people; that he gave laws to these people, and tried to govern them in all things; that he made known his will in many ways; that he wrought a vast number of miracles; that he inspired men to write the Bible; that, in the fullness of time, it having been found impossible to reform mankind, this God came upon earth as a child born of the Virgin Mary; that he lived in Palestine; that he preached for about three years, going from place to place, occasionally raising the dead, curing the blind and the halt; that he was crucified--for the crime of blasphemy, as the Jews supposed, but that, as a matter of fact, he was offered as a sacrifice for the sins of all who might have faith in him; that he was raised from the dead and ascended into heaven, where he now is, making intercession for his followers; that he will forgive the sins of all who believe on him, and that those who do not believe will be consigned to the dungeons of eternal pain. These--it may be with the addition of the sacraments of Baptism and the Last Supper--constitute what is generally known as the Christian religion.

It is most cheerfully admitted that a vast number of people not only believe these things, but hold them in exceeding reverence, and imagine them to be of the utmost importance to mankind. They regard the Bible as the only light that God has given for the guidance of his children; that it is the one star in nature's sky--the foundation of all morality, of all law, of all order, and of all individual and national progress. They regard it as the only means we have for ascertaining the will of God, the origin of man, and the destiny of the soul.

It is needless to inquire into the causes that have led so many people to believe in the inspiration of the Scriptures. In my opinion, they were and are mistaken, and the mistake has hindered, in countless ways, the civilization of man. The Bible has been the fortress and defence of nearly every crime. No civilized country could re-enact its laws, and in many respects its moral code is abhorrent to every good and tender man. It is admitted that many of its precepts are pure, that many of its laws are wise and just, and that many of its statements are absolutely true.

Without desiring to hurt the feeling? of anybody, I propose to give a few reasons for thinking that a few passages, at least, in the Old Testament are the product of a barbarous people.

In all civilized countries it is not only admitted, but it is passionately asserted, that slavery is and always was a hideous crime; that a war of conquest is simply murder; that polygamy is the enslavement of woman, the degradation of man, and the destruction of home; that nothing is more infamous than the slaughter of decrepit men, of helpless women, and of prattling babes; that captured maidens should not be given to soldiers; that wives should not be stoned to death on account of their religious opinions, and that the death penalty ought not to be inflicted for a violation of the Sabbath. We know that there was a time, in the history of almost every nation, when slavery, polygamy, and wars of extermination were regarded as divine institutions; when women were looked upon as beasts of burden, and when, among some people, it was considered the duty of the husband to murder the wife for differing with him on the subject of religion. Nations that entertain these views to-day are regarded as savage, and, probably, with the exception of the South Sea Islanders, the Feejees, some citizens of Delaware, and a few tribes in Central Africa, no human beings can be found degraded enough to agree upon these subjects with the Jehovah of the ancient Jews. The only evidence we have, or can have, that a nation has ceased to be savage is the fact that it has abandoned these doctrines. To every one, except the theologian, it is perfectly easy to account for the mistakes, atrocities, and crimes of the past, by saying that civilization is a slow and painful growth; that the moral perceptions are cultivated through ages of tyranny, of want, of crime, and of heroism; that it requires centuries for man to put out the eyes of self and hold in lofty and in equal poise the scales of justice; that conscience is born of suffering; that mercy is the child of the imagination--of the power to put oneself in the sufferer's place, and that man advances only as he becomes acquainted with his surroundings, with the mutual obligations of life, and learns to take advantage of the forces of nature.

But the believer in the inspiration of the Bible is compelled to declare that there was a time when slavery was right--when men could buy, and women could sell, their babes. He is compelled to insist that there was a time when polygamy was the highest form of virtue; when wars of extermination were waged with the sword of mercy; when religious toleration was a crime, and when death was the just penalty for having expressed an honest thought. He must maintain that Jehovah is just as bad now as he was four thousand years ago, or that he was just as good then as he is now, but that human conditions have so changed that slavery, polygamy, religious persecutions, and wars of conquest are now perfectly devilish. Once they were right--once they were commanded by God himself; now, they are prohibited. There has been such a change in the conditions of man that, at the present time, the devil is in favor of slavery, polygamy, religious persecution, and wars of conquest. That is to say, the devil entertains the same opinion to-day that Jehovah held four thousand years ago, but in the meantime Jehovah has remained exactly the same--changeless and incapable of change.

We find that other nations beside the Jews had similar laws and ideas; that they believed in and practiced slavery and polygamy, murdered women and children, and exterminated their neighbors to the extent of their power. It is not claimed that they received a revelation. It is admitted that they had no knowledge of the true God. And yet, by a strange coincidence, they practised the same crimes, of their own motion, that the Jews did by the command of Jehovah. From this it would seem that man can do wrong without a special revelation.

It will hardly be claimed, at this day, that the passages in the Bible upholding slavery, polygamy, war and religious persecution are evidences of the inspiration of that book. Suppose that there had been nothing in the Old Testament upholding these crimes, would any modern Christian suspect that it was not inspired, on account of the omission? Suppose that there had been nothing in the Old Testament but laws in favor of these crimes, would any intelligent Christian now contend that it was the work of the true God? If the devil had inspired a book, will some believer in the doctrine of inspiration tell us in what respect, on the subjects of slavery, polygamy, war, and liberty, it would have differed from some parts of the Old Testament? Suppose that we should now discover a Hindu book of equal antiquity with the Old Testament, containing a defence of slavery, polygamy, wars of extermination, and religious persecution, would we regard it as evidence that the writers were inspired by an infinitely wise and merciful God? As most other nations at that time practiced these crimes, and as the Jews would have practiced them all, even if left to themselves, one can hardly see the necessity of any inspired commands upon these subjects. Is there a believer in the Bible who does not wish that God, amid the thunders and lightnings of Sinai, had distinctly said to Moses that man should not own his fellow-man; that women should not sell their babes; that men should be allowed to think and investigate for themselves, and that the sword should never be unsheathed to shed the blood of honest men? Is there a believer in the world, who would not be delighted to find that every one of these infamous passages are interpolations, and that the skirts of God were never reddened by the blood of maiden, wife, or babe? Is there a believer who does not regret that God commanded a husband to stone his wife to death for suggesting the worship of the sun or moon? Surely, the light of experience is enough to tell us that slavery is wrong, that polygamy is infamous, and that murder is not a virtue. No one will now contend that it was worth God's while to impart the information to Moses, or to Joshua, or to anybody else, that the Jewish people might purchase slaves of the heathen, or that it was their duty to exterminate the natives of the Holy Land. The deists have contended that the Old Testament is too cruel and barbarous to be the work of a wise and loving God. To this, the theologians have replied, that nature is just as cruel; that the earthquake, the volcano, the pestilence and storm, are just as savage as the Jewish God; and to my mind this is a perfect answer.

Suppose that we knew that after "inspired" men had finished the Bible, the devil got possession of it, and wrote a few passages; what part of the sacred Scriptures would Christians now pick out as being probably his work? Which of the following passages would naturally be selected as having been written by the devil--"Love thy neighbor as thyself," or "Kill all the males among the little ones, and kill every woman; but all the women children keep alive for yourselves."?