John Lothrop Motley - "The Life of John of Barneveld, 1614 17"

Sir Walter Scott - "The Monastery"

J.G. Austin - "Outpost"

James De Mille - "The Living Link"

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Books: Lectures of Col. R.G. Ingersoll Latest

C >> Col. Robert Green Ingersoll >> Lectures of Col. R.G. Ingersoll Latest




Third. With having spoken disparagingly of the doctrine of
predestination.

If there is any dogma that ought to be protected by law, predestination
is that doctrine. Surely it is a cheerful, joyous thing to one who is
laboring, struggling and suffering in this weary world, to think that
before he existed, before the earth was, before a star had glittered in
the heavens, before a ray of light had left the quiver of the sun, his
destiny had been irrevocably fixed, and that for an eternity before his
birth he had been doomed to bear eternal pain!

Fourth. With having failed to preach the efficacy of vicarious
sacrifice.

Suppose a man had been convicted of murder, and was about to be hanged--
the Governor acting as the executioner. And suppose just as the doomed
man was to suffer death, some one in the crowd should step forward and
say, "I am willing to die in the place of that murderer. He has a
family, and I have none." And suppose further that the Governor should
reply, "Come forward, young man, your offer is accepted. A murder has
been committed, and somebody must be hung, and your death will satisfy
the law just as well as the death of the murderer." What would you then
think of the doctrine of vicarious sacrifice?"

This doctrine is the consummation of two outrages--forgiving one crime
and committing another.

Fifth. With having inculcated a phase of the doctrine commonly known as
"Evolution" or "Development." The church believes and teaches the exact
opposite of this doctrine. According to the philosophy of theology, man
has continued to degenerate for six thousand years. To teach that there
is that in Nature which impels to higher forms and grander ends, is
heresy of course. The Deity will damn Spencer and his "Evolution,"
Darwin and his "Origin of Species," Bastin and his "Spontaneous
Generation," Huxley and his "Protoplasm," Tyndall and his "Prayer
Guage," and will save those, and those only who declare that the
universe has been cursed from the smallest atom to the grandest star;
that everything tends to evil, and to that only; and that the only
perfect thing in Nature is the Presbyterian confession of faith.

Sixth. With having intimated that the reception of Socrates and
Penelope at heaven's gate was, to say the least, a trifle more cordial
than that of Catherine II.

Penelope waiting patiently and trustfully for her lord's return,
delaying her suitors, while sadly weaving and un-weaving the shroud of
Laertes, is the most perfect type of wife and woman produced by the
civilization of Greece.

Socrates, whose life was above reproach, and whose death was beyond all
praise, stands today, in the estimation of every thoughtful man, at
least the peer of Christ.

Catharine II assassinated her husband. Stepping upon his corpse, she
mounted the throne. She was the murderess of Prince Ivan, the grand-
nephew of Peter the Great, who was imprisoned for eighteen years, and
who, during all that time, saw the sky but once. Taken all in all,
Catharine was probably one of the most intellectual beasts that ever
wore a crown.

Catharine, however, was the head of the Greek Church, Socrates was a
heretic, and Penelope lived and died without having once heard of
"particular redemption," or "irresistible grace."

Seventh. With repudiating the idea of a "call" to ministry, and
pretending that men were "called," to preach as they were to the other
avocations of life.

If this doctrine is true, God, to say the least of it, is an exceedingly
poor judge of human nature. It is more than a century since a man of
true genius has been found in an orthodox pulpit. Every minister is
heretical just to the extent that his intellect is above the average.
The Lord seems to be satisfied with mediocrity; but the people are not.

An old deacon, wishing to get rid of an unpopular preacher, advised him
to give up the ministry, and turn his attention to something else. The
preacher replied that he could not conscientiously desert the pulpit, as
he had a "call" to the ministry. To which the deacon replied, "That
may be so, but it's mighty unfortunate for you that when God called you
to preach, He forgot to call anybody to hear you."

There is nothing more stupidly egotistic than the claim of the clergy
that they are, in some divine sense, set apart to the service of the
Lord; that they have been chosen and sanctified; that there is an
infinite difference between them and persons employed in secular
affairs. They teach us that all other professions must take care of
themselves; that God allows anybody to be a doctor, a lawyer,
statesman, soldier, or artist; that the Motts and Coopers--the
Mansfields and Marshalls--the Wilberforces and Sumners--the Angelos and
Raphaels--were never honored by a "call." These chose their professions
and won their laurels without the assistance of the Lord. All these men
were left free to follow their own inclinations while God was busily
engaged selecting and "calling" priests, rectors, elders, ministers and
exhorters.

Eighth. With having doubted that God was the author of the 109th Psalm.

The portion of that Psalm which carries with it the clearest and most
satisfactory evidences of inspiration, and which has afforded almost
unspeakable consolation to the Presbyterian church, is as follows:

"Set thou a wicked man over him; and let Satan stand at his right hand.

"When he shall be judged, let him be condemned; and let his prayer
become sin.

"Let his days be few; and let another take his office.

"Let his children be fatherless, and his wife a widow.

"Let his children be continually vagabonds, and beg; let them seek
their bread also out of their desolate places.

"Let the extortioner catch all that he hated; and let the strangers
spoil his labor.

"Let there be none to extend mercy unto him; neither let there be none
to favor his fatherless children.

"Let his posterity be cut off; and in the generation following let
their name be blotted out.

"But do thou for me, O God the Lord, for Thy name's sake; because Thy
mercy is good, deliver thou me.... I will greatly praise the Lord with
my mouth."

Think of a God wicked and malicious enough to inspire this prayer.
Think of one infamous enough to answer it. Had this inspired Psalm been
found in some temple erected for the worship of snakes, or in the
possession of some cannibal king, written with blood upon the dried
skins of babes, there would have been a perfect harmony between its
surroundings and its sentiments.

No wonder that the author of this inspired Psalm coldly received
Socrates and Penelope, and reserved his sweetest smiles for Catharine
the Second!

Ninth. With having said that the battles in which the Israelites
engaged with the approval and command of Jehovah surpassed in cruelty
those of Julius Caesar.

Was it Julius Caesar who said, "And the Lord our God delivered him
before us; and we smote him, and his sons, and all his people. And we
took all his cities, and utterly destroyed the men, and the women and
the little ones, of every city, we left none to remain?"

Did Julius Caesar send the following report to the Roman Senate? "And
we took all his cities at that time, there was not a city which we took
not from them, three-score city, all the region of Argob, the kingdom of
Og, in Bashan. All these cities were fenced with high walls, gates and
bars; besides unwalled towns a great many. And we utterly destroyed
them, as we did unto Sihon, king of Heshbon, utterly destroying the men,
women, and children of every city."

Did Caesar take the city of Jericho "and utterly destroy all that was in
the city, both man and woman, young and old?" Did he smite "all the
country of the hills, and of the south, and of the vale, and of the
springs, and all their kings, and leave none remaining that breathed, as
the Lord God had commanded?"

Search the records of the whole world, find out the history of every
barbarous tribe, and you can find no crime that touched a lower depth of
infamy than those the bible's God commanded and approved. For such a
God I have no words to express my loathing and contempt, and all the
words in all the languages of man would scarcely be sufficient. Away
with such a God! Give me Jupiter rather, with Io and Europa, or even
Siva with his skulls and snakes, or give me none.

Tenth. With having repudiated the doctrines of total depravity.

What a precious doctrine is that of the total depravity of the human
heart! How sweet it is to believe that the lives of all the good and
great were continual sins and perpetual crimes; that the love a mother
bears her child is, in the sight of God, a sin; that the gratitude of
the natural heart is simple meanness; that the tears of pity are impure;
that for the unconverted to live and labor for others is an offense to
heaven; that the noblest aspirations of the soul are low and groveling
in the sight of God; that man should fall upon his knees and ask
forgiveness, simply for loving his wife and child, and that even the act
of asking forgiveness is in fact a crime.

Surely it is a kind of bliss to feel that every woman and child in the
wide world, with the exception of those who believe the five points, or
some other equally cruel creed, and such children as have been baptized,
ought at this very moment to be dashed down to the lowest glowing gulf
of the hell!

Take from the Christian the history of his own church; leave that
entirely out of the question, and he has no argument left with which to
substantiate the total depravity of man.

A minister once asked an old lady, a member of his church, what she
thought of the doctrine of total depravity, and the dear old soul
replied that she thought it a mighty good doctrine if the Lord would
only give the people grace enough to live up to it?

Eleventh. With having doubted the "perseverance of the saints."

I suppose the real meaning of this doctrine is that Presbyterians are
just as sure of going to heaven as all other folks are of going to hell.
The real idea being, that it all depends upon the will of God, and not
upon the character of the person to be damned or saved; that God has
the weakness to send Presbyterians to Paradise, and the justice to doom
the rest of mankind to eternal fire.

It is admitted that no unconverted brain can see the least of sense in
this doctrine; that it is abhorrent to all who have not been the
recipients of a "new heart;" that only the perfectly good can justify
the perfectly infamous.

It is contended that the saints do not persevere of their own free will
--that they are entitled to no credit for persevering; but that God
forces them to persevere; while on the other hand, every crime is
committed in accordance with the secret will of God, who does all things
for His own glory. Compared with this doctrine, there is no other idea,
that has ever been believed by man, that can properly be called absurd.

As to the doctrine of the perseverance of the saints, I wish with all my
heart that it may prove to be a fact, I really hope that every saint, no
matter how badly he may break on the first quarter, nor how many shoes
he may cast at the half-mile pole, will foot it bravely down the long
home-stretch, and win eternal heaven by at least a neck.

Twelfth. With having spoken and written somewhat lightly of the idea of
converting the heathen with doctrinal sermons.

Of all the failures of which we have any history or knowledge the
missionary effort is the most conspicuous. The whole question has been
decided here, in our own country, and conclusively settled. We have
nearly exterminated the Indians; but we have converted none. From the
days of John Eliot to the execution of the last Modoc, not one Indian
has been the subject of irresistible grace or particular redemption.
The few red men who roam the Western wilderness have no thought or care
concerning the five points of Calvin. They are utterly oblivious to the
great and vital truths contained in the Thirty-nine articles, the
Saybrook platform, and the resolutions of the Evangelical Alliance. No
Indian has ever scalped another on account of his religious belief.
This of itself shows conclusively that the missionaries have had no
effect.

Why should we convert the heathen of China and kill our own? Why should
we send missionaries across the seas, and soldiers over the plains? Why
should we send bibles to the East and muskets to the West? If it is
impossible to convert Indians who have no religion of their own; no
prejudice for or against the "eternal procession of the Holy Ghost," how
can we expect to convert a heathen who has a religion; who has plenty
of gods and bibles and prophets and Christs, and who has a religious
literature far grander than our own? Can we hope, with the story of
Daniel in the lion's den, to rival the stupendous miracles of India? Is
there anything in our bible as lofty and loving as the prayer of the
Buddhist? Compare your "Confession of Faith" with the following:

"Never will I seek nor receive private individual salvation--never enter
into final peace alone; but forever and everywhere will I live and
strive for the universal redemption of every creature throughout all
worlds. Until all are delivered, never will I leave the world of sin,
sorrow and struggle, but will remain where I am."

Think of sending an average Presbyterian to convert a man who daily
offers this tender, this infinitely generous and incomparable prayer!
Think of reading the 109th Psalm to a heathen who has a bible of his
own, in which is found this passage: "Blessed is that man, and beloved
of all the gods, who is afraid of no man, and of whom no man is afraid!"

Why should you read even the new testament to a Hindoo, when his own
Chrishna has said: "If a man strike thee, and in striking drop his
staff, pick it up and hand it to him again?" Why send a Presbyterian to
a Sufi, who says: "Better one moment of silent contemplation and inward
love, than seventy thousand years of outward worship?" "Whosoever would
carelessly tread one worm that crawls on earth, that heartless one is
darkly alienate from God; but he that, living, embraceth all things in
his love, to live with him God bursts all bounds above, below."

Why should we endeavor to thrust our cruel and heartless theology upon
one who prays this prayer: "O God, show pity toward the wicked; for on
the good thou hast already bestowed thy mercy by having created them
virtuous?"

Compare this prayer with the curses and cruelties of the old testament--
with the infamies commanded and approved by the being whom the are
taught to worship as a God, and with the following tender product of
Presbyterianism: "It may seem absurd to human wisdom that God should
harden, blind, and deliver up some men to a reprobate sense; that He
should first deliver them over to evil, and then condemn them for that
evil; but the believing spiritual man sees no absurdity in all this,
knowing that God would never be a whit less good, even though He should
destroy all men."

Of all the religions that have been produced by the egotism, the malice,
the ignorance and ambition of man, Presbyterianism is the most hideous.

But what shall I say more? for the time would fail me to tell of
Sabellianism, of a "Model trinity" and the "eternal procession of the
Holy Ghost."

Upon these charges a minister is to be tried, here in Chicago; in this
city of pluck and progress--this marvel of energy, and this miracle of
nerve. The cry of "heresy" here, sounds like a wail from the Dark Ages
--a shriek from the Inquisition, or a groan from the grave of Calvin.

Another effort is being made to enslave a man. It is claimed that every
member of the church has solemnly agreed never to outgrow the creed;
that he has pledged himself to remain an intellectual dwarf. Upon this
condition the church agrees to save his soul, and he hands over his
brains to bind the bargain. Should a fact be found inconsistent with the
creed, he binds himself to deny the fact and curse the finder. With
scraps of dogmas and crumbs of doctrine, he agrees that his soul shall
be satisfied forever. What an intellectual feast the confession of
faith must be! It reminds one of the dinner described by Sidney Smith,
where everything was cold except the water, and everything sour except
the vinegar.

Every member of a church promises to remain orthodox, that is to say--
stationary. Growth is heresy. Orthodox ideas are the feathers that
have been molted by the eagle of progress. They are the dead leaves
under the majestic palm; while heresy is the bud and blossom at the
top.

Imagine a vine that grows at one end and decays at the other. The end
that grows is heresy; the end that rots is orthodox. The dead are
orthodox, and your cemetery is the most perfect type of a well regulated
church. No thought, no progress, no heresy there. Slowly and silently,
side by side, the satisfied members peacefully decay. There is only
this difference--the dead do not persecute.

And what does a trial for heresy mean? It means that the church says to
a heretic, "Believe as I do, or I will withdraw my support; I will not
employ you; I will pursue you until your garments are rags; until your
children cry for bread; until your cheeks are furrowed with tears. I
will hunt you to the very portals of the tomb, and then my God will do
the rest. I will not imprison you. I will not burn you. The law
prevents my doing that. I helped make the law, not, however, to protect
you, nor deprive me of the right to exterminate you, but in order to
keep other churches from exterminating me."

A trial for heresy means that the spirit of persecution still lingers in
the church; that it still denies the right of private judgment; that
it still thinks more of creed than truth; that it is still determined
to prevent the intellectual growth of man. It means that churches are
shambles in which are bought and sold the souls of men. It means that
the church is still guilty of the barbarity of opposing thought with
force. It means that if it had the power, the mental horizon would be
bounded by a creed, that it would bring again the whips, and chains, and
dungeon keys, the rack and fagot of the past.

But let me tell the church it lacks the power. There has been, and
still are, too many men who own themselves--too much thought, too much
knowledge for the church to grasp again the sword of power. The church
must abdicate. For the Eglon of superstition, science has a message
from truth.

The heretics have not thought and suffered and died in vain. Every
heretic has been, and is, a ray of light. Not in vain did Voltaire,
that great man, point from the foot of the Alps, the finger of scorn at
every hypocrite in Europe. Not in vain were the splendid utterances of
the infidels, while beyond all price are the discoveries of science.
The church has impeded, but it has not and it cannot stop the onward
march of the human race. Heresy can not be burned, nor imprisoned, nor
starved. It laughs at presbyteries and synods, at Ecumenical councils
and the impotent thunders of Sinai. Heresy is the eternal dawn, the
morning star, the glittering herald of the day. Heresy is the last and
best thought. It is the perpetual new world; the unknown sea, toward
which the brave all sail. It is the eternal horizon of progress.
Heresy extends the hospitalities of the brain to new thoughts. Heresy
is a cradle; orthodoxy a coffin.

Why should a man be afraid to think, and why should he fear to express
his thoughts?

Is it possible that an infinite Deity is unwilling that man should
investigate the phenomena by which he is surrounded?

Is it possible that a God delights in threatening and terrifying men?
What glory, what honor and renown a God must win in such a field! The
ocean raving at a drop; a star envious of a candle; the sun jealous of
a firefly!

Go on, presbyteries and synods, go on! Thrust the heretics out of the
church. That is to say, throw away your brains--put out your eyes. The
Infidels will thank you. They are willing to adopt your exiles. Every
deserter from your camp is a recruit for the army of progress. Cling to
the ignorant dogmas of the past; read the 109th Psalm; gloat over the
slaughter of mothers and babes; thank God for total depravity; shower
your honors upon hypocrites, and silence every minister who is touched
with that heresy called genius.

Be true to your history. Turn out the astronomers, the geologists, the
naturalists, the chemists, and all the honest scientists. With a whip
of scorpions, drive them all out. We want them all. Keep the ignorant,
the superstitious, the bigoted, and the writers of charges and
specifications. Keep them, and keep them all. Repeat your pious
platitudes in the drowsy ears of the faithful, and read your bible to
heretics, as kings read some forgotten riot-act to stop and stay the
waves of revolution. You are too weak to excite anger. We forgive your
efforts as the sun forgives a cloud--as the air forgives the breath you
waste.

How long, O how long will man listen to the threats of God, and shut his
ears to the splendid promises of Nature? How long, O how long will man
remain the cringing slave of a false and cruel creed.

By this time the whole world should know that the real bible has not yet
been written; but is being written, and that it will never be finished
until the race begins its downward march or ceases to exist. The real
bible is not the work of inspired men, nor prophets, nor apostles, nor
evangelists, nor of Christ. Every man who finds a fact, adds, as it
were, a word to this great book. It is not attested by prophecy, by
miracles or by signs. It makes no appeal to faith, to ignorance, to
credulity of fear. It has no punishment for unbelief, and no reward for
hypocrisy. It appears to men in the name of demonstration. It has
nothing to conceal. It has no fear of being read, of being investigated
and understood. It does not pretend to be holy or sacred; it simply
claims to be true. It challenges the scrutiny of all, and implores
every reader to verify every line for himself. It is incapable of being
blasphemed. This book appeals to all the surroundings of man. Each
thing that exists testifies of its perfection. The earth with its heart
of fire and crowns of snow; with its forests and plains, its rocks and
seas; with its every wave and cloud; with its every leaf, and bud, and
flower, confirms its every word, and the solemn stars, shining in the
infinite abysses, are the eternal witnesses of its truth.






Ingersoll's Lecture on The Bible



The true bible appeals to man in the name of demonstration. It has
nothing to conceal. It has no fear of being read, of being
contradicted, of being investigated and understood. It does not pretend
to be holy or sacred, it simply claims to be true. It challenges the
scrutiny of all, and implores every reader to verify every line for
himself. It is incapable of being blasphemed. This book appeals to all
the surroundings of man. Each thing that exists testifies of its
perfection. The earth, with its heart of fire and crowns of snow; with
its forests and plains, its rocks and seas; with its every wave and
cloud; with its every leaf and bud and flower, confirms its every word,
and the solemn stars, shining in the infinite abysses, are the external
witnesses of its truth.

I will tell you what I mean by inspiration. I go and look at the sea,
and the sea says something to me; it makes an impression upon my mind.
That impression depends, first, upon my experience; secondly, upon my
intellectual capacity. Another looks upon the same sea. He has a
different brain, he has had a different experience, he has different
memories and different hopes. The sea may speak to him of joy and to me
of grief and sorrow. The sea cannot tell the same thing to two beings,
because no two human beings have had the same experience. So, when I
look upon a flower, or a star, or a painting, or a statue, the more I
know about sculpture the more that statue speaks to me. The more I have
had of human experience, the more I have read, the greater brain I have,
the more the star says to me. In other words, nature says to me all that
I am capable of understanding.

Think of a God wicked and malicious enough to inspire this prayer in the
109th Psalm! Think of one infamous enough to answer it! Had this
inspired Psalm been found in some temple erected for the worship of
snakes, or in the possession of some cannibal king, written with blood
upon the dried skins of babes, there would have been a perfect harmony
between its surroundings and its sentiments.

Now, I read the bible, and I find that God so loved this world that he
made up his mind to damn the most of us. I have read this book and what
shall I say of it? I believe it is generally better to be honest. Now, I
don't believe the bible. Had I not better say so? They say that if you
do you will regret it when you come to die. If that be true, I know a
great many religious people who will have no cause to regret it--they
don't tell their honest convictions about the bible.