american atheist magazine aug 1983

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AMERICAN ATHEISTAugust, 1983 A Journal of Atheist News and Thought $2.50


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1963 1983of

AMERICAN ATHEIST SIn 1959, th e Murray familystarted a legal case which was destined to reach the Un ited States Supreme Court

to be decided there on June 17, 1963just twenty years ago. The name of the case was Murray u . Curlett and thedecisi on of that august body was that bible reading and unison prayer recitation in the public schools o f the landwere both unconstitutional exercises vis-a-vis the First Amendment to the Constitution of the Un ited States.

The road from 1959 to 1963 was hard and long. Scores of attorneys were contacted to handle the case andeach and a ll were afraid of it . Indeed the attorney who drafted the origina l complaint which was filedw ith thecourt quit the case a week thereafter . The Murray family insisted from the beginning that it should be knownthat th ey were opposed to the exercise of bible reading and prayer rec itation because they we re Atheists , andno attorney wanted to mention that in the case . But, Madalyn Murray insisted, and fina llyone attorney askedher to draw up a short statement (about 250 words) on what an Atheist was that would be put into their petitionfor relief. That statement was written - and became famous as the media across the land reproduced iteverywhere . Now, these twenty years later, we reproduce it here for you:

Your petitioners are Atheists and they define their lifestyle as follows . An Atheist loveshimself and hisfellow man instead of a god. An Atheist accepts that heaven something forwhich we should work now - here on earth - for all men together to enjoy. An Atheistaccepts that he can get no help through prayer but that he must find in himself the innerconviction and strength to meet life , to grapple with it , to subdue itand to en joy it. An Atheistaccepts that only in a knowledge of himself and a knowledge of his fellow man can he findthe understanding that will help to a life of fulfillment.

Therefore, he seeks to know himself and hisfellow man rather than to 'know' a god. AnAtheist accepts that a hospital should be built instead of a church . An Atheist accepts that adeed must be done instead of a prayer said. An Atheist strives for involvement in lifeand notescape into death. He wants disease conquered, poverty vanquished , war eliminated. Hewants man to understand and love man . He wants an ethical wa y of life. He accepts that wecannot rely on a god nor channel action into praye r nor hope for an end of tr oubles in ahereafter. He accepts that we are - in a sense - our brothers ' keepers in that we are, first,keepers of our own lives; that we are responsible persons, that the job is here and the time is

ow.

AMERICAN ATHEISTS AUST IN, TX 787 68 -211 7.O.BOX 2117

Send $40 for one year 's membe rship. You will receive our Insider's New sletter monthly,your membership certificate and card, and a one year subscr iption to this magazine .


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Vol. 25, No.8 Aug., 1983

ON THE COVERREGULAR FEATURES

Editorial ' 2American Atheist Radio Series 24Dial -an-Atheist 26Roots of Atheism : 29

Robert Ingersoll sat on a walldebunking gods, large and small .All the lord's preachers

and all the lord' s mencouldn't put religion together again.

Clayton PowersARTICLES

Ingersoll the Atheist - Clara Johnson .4Gems Concerning the H oly Bible - Joseph Lewis 8Ingersoll on W omen, Heresy and Witchcraft

- Clara Johnson 27

The American Atheist magazine is pub-lishedmonthly at the Gustav Broukal Ameri-can Atheist Press, 2210Hancock Dr ., Aus-tin, TX 78756, and 1982 by Society ofSeparationists , Inc ., anon -profit, non-politi-cal, educational organization dedicated tothe complete and absolute separation ofstate and church. Mailing address:P.O. Box

2117 /Austin, TX 78768-2117. A free sub-scription isprovided asan incident of mem-bership in the American Atheists organiza-tion. Subscriptions are available at $25.00for one year terms only. Manuscripts sub-mitted must be typed, double-spaced andaccompanied by a stamped, self-addressedenvelope. The editors assume n o responsi-bility for unsolicited manuscripts .

As is indicated bythis month sAmer-ican Atheist cover, we have dedicateda large portion of this issueto a remem-brance of Robert Ingersoll . August11th, 1983 commemorates the 150thanniversary of his birth date.

In a sense, Ingersoll represented a

lovable American Atheist rebel . Yet,on the other hand, his eloquent oratori-cal delivery, while vastly superior tocontemporary speakers, was similarin style to that of politicians andpreachers of the time. History hasproven that his greatest contributionto human intellectual advancementlay in his unabating view, Nothingbut education - scientific education- can benefit mankind. We must findout the laws of nature and conform tothem .... Science, the great Icono-clast, has been busy since 1809, andby the highway of Progress are thebroken images of the past.

In his noble efforts to wrest theminds of people from their dismalcatacombs of ignorance he failed onlyto realize that treaty cannot be struckwith bigots. Hindsight will now assurethat his position of power and influ-ence could have been pressed tobetter use had he initiated and moti-vated judicial and legislative action toassure more solid recognition of theprinciple of strict constitutionality.Such an effort would have added digni-ty to subsequent petitioners for hu-man rights and state/church separa-tion.

Unfortunately, had he done so, hewould have earned for himself a mea-sure of public hatred equal to or great-er than the admiration his image nowenjoys. Klan-like mentality has deeproots that cannot be easily tilled fromthe garden of liberty . Still , we mustrecognize that, without this atheisticchampion's oratorical achievements,our garden might well be weed patchof despicable religiosity .

Gerald Tholen

EditorRobin Murray-O'Hair

Editor EmeritusMadalyn Murray O'Hair

Managing EditorJon G . Murray

Assistant EditorRichard M. Smith

PoetryAngeline Bennett

Gerald Tholen

Production StaffArt Brenner

Bill KightGerald TholenGloria Tholen

Alexander Stevens

Non-Resident StaffG . Stanley Brown

Jeff FrankelMerrill Holste

Margaret BhattyFred Woodworth

Clayton Powers

Cover ArtClayton Powers

COMMEMORATIVE ARTICLES AND EVENTSColonel Ingersoll's Death - Eva A . Ingersoll 7Sketch of Ingersoll's Birthplace - Clayton Powers 15An Orat ion on Thomas Paine - Robert Ingersoll 16

Austin, Texas

WSReligious Affiliations of Members of Congress 33

The American Atheist magazineis indexed in

Monthly Periodical IndexISSN: 0332-4310

August, 1983 Page1


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teacher works with each student on an individual basismostly to answer questions about the material in thepackets . The entire course of study assumes the bible isgod's word and is accurate, but teaches every subject fromthe viewpoint of eternal values, according to a.c.e. litera-ture. Presentations in every subject center around whatgod would have us know to live rightly 'in his world.P.a.c.e.'s quote scripture at every opportunityto reinforcethe difference between what god would have us know asdistinguished from what we may desire to know. All thep.a.c .e.'s are keyed to glorify god and /or jesus christ .

A.c.e. curriculum recommends pastors as the bestchristian school administrators because of their preknowl-edge of the word of god . The a.c.e. program is alsospecifically designed to use in church facilities.

Each subject in the a.c .e. curriculum is divided into 12p.a.c .e.'s. What else? Twelve disciples and twelve p.a .c.e.'s.A p.a.c .e. looks like a workbook but it is a combination oftext, learning activities, unit tests or checkups, a self .test,and a p.a.c .e. test . The self-test isone that the student takesand scores himself and studies to prepare for the p.a .c.e.test. The p .a.c.e. test is taken under supervision and scored

by the teacher which provides the grade for the p.a .c.e. as awhole . ,There are a .c.e. coordinators in Washington, Califor-

nia, Alaska , Colorado, Texas, Kansas, Tennessee , Geor-gia, Florida , Illinois, Virginia, Ind iana, Ohio , Pennsylvania,New York and Minnesota already , and the idea isspreadingfast. One of the a.c.e . national spokespersons says, Thegreat revivals of history were a direct result of christianeducation, and the depth and duration of the revival was indirect relation to the depth and duration of that christianeducation ... and allgreat revivals inhistory had incommon... a rebirth of fundamentalism .... Fundamentalism isbasically beliefin the fundamental truths ofthe word ofgod.... Fundamentalism teaches that man is by nature sinful,that he is born a lost sinner . ... No revival in history evercame as a result of liberalism or modernism .

This sort of distorted view of h istory isalready a very realpart of textbooks unde r consideration to become part ofthe public school curriculum here inthe state ofTexas . Thestaff of the American Atheist Center discovered this fact totheir chagrin during their investigations of wo rld historytextbooks up for adoption in Texas public schools duringJune of this year while preparing for hearings of the statetextbook commission.

Allof the curriculum materials put out by the a .c.e. boysoperate on two basic principles : 1)The basic fundamentalsofthe faith as expressed intraditional biblicalorthodoxy ; 2)

The practice ofbeing separated from the world, to influencethe world, but not to be influenced by the world . A christianis called to be separated from the world and to abstain fromquestionable practices.

There is a new christian school opening in this countryabout every seven hours. I don't know about all of you, butthat scares me. It scares me badly. The mission of theseschools is made abundantly clear by all of their l iterature : Nothing isdoing more damage to America than Americanpublic schools . State government education is bankrupteconomically, academically , spiritually; abolish it , and inone decade, private education under free enterprise willproduce superior education for half the cost .

What is even more frightening is that more groups thanAustin, Texas

just fundamentalists share this opinion of public educationinAmerica. Libertarians share this view as wellas a numberof mainline denominations.

We can only hope to continue the geometrical pro-gression ofour modern lifestyle by basing education on onething, and this isthe scientific method . Schools must teach astudent how to teach themselves and not just teach them tobe a living receptacle to be filled with religious directives .Organized religious groups know that a system of educa -tion that works the same way that our brains work willnotproduce followers but doubters . With good scientific educa-tion religion can only continue for so long, with an in -creasing number of alleged adherents becoming merehypocrites. Religion must have true, convinced, unques-tioning believers. The churches have limped along withcongregations of essentially hypocrites for too long, andthey are now beginning to realize that such an army of thelord willnot cut the mustard.

Unfortunately, we have a President and entire administra-tion now who back the disenfranchisement of universalpublic education. We also have teachers and administratorswho are willingto go along with being disenfranchised. After

all, from their point of view, it is better to be a christianschool teacher than to be no school teacher at all , isn't thatright?

Another part of the problem is the individual Athe ist oragnostic who approaches his or her position apologetically.Allthat most freethinkers can concentrate on ishow to bethe most apologetic and least offensive while attempting tostand up for education. In the meantime, on the other sideof the fence, fundamentalists are not the least bit shy abouttheir motives or what they desire to accomplish. They comeout and say exactly what they plan to do to their children aswellas to the children of the timid freethinker - and theyproceed to do it .

What do we suggest to do about a.c .e.? I am glad youasked . I think we need to begin by informing parents aboutthe goals of christian education for their children. A greatnumber of parents get in over their heads with christianschools before they realize exactly what they are teachi ng.Some parents get involved with christian schools for otherthan religious concerns , concerns like racism , or misinfor-mation as to what and how things are being taught in theirpublic school .

We also need to monitor the public schools to make surethat they remain secular . In most subjects there is not toomuch misinformation to worry about once the subject isfree from religious propaganda or misinterpretation . Mostfacts - h istorical , scientific, mathematical - speak for

themselves. In review of the history textbooks here inTexas we found that the vast majority of what was in eachvolume was good information . The religious bias was a smallpart of the overall material presented. There was no secular human ism or any Atheism included in the textsat all . Many parents are not aware of this and simply takethe word of the fundamentalists that lack of religiouspropaganda constitutes the promotion of secular human -ism and Atheism .

We must teach our children at home to be objective andto apply the scienti fic method to everyth ing they learn . Testitout, don't take someone else 's word that something is trueor not true. Christian schools a re most certainly not going

to tolerate that type of critical analytical approach toAugust, 1983 Page 3


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learning. Eclecticism is an essential part of a balancedlearning approach and must be emphasized.

We must be prepared to come right out and say that thebible and biblical teachings are absurd without fear ofoffending someone's sensibilities . I could care less aboutoffending some fundamentalist religionist . They need to beoffended. A good hard slap in the face with reality is justwhat the doctor ordered for them. '

The christian educational scheme of learning by rotefrom a finite set of god -given imperatives is simply absurd

and needs to be labelled as such and denigrated at everyopportunity.

Atheism and education are inextricably intertwined andboth are very simple. Rationalism goes easy; it is natural .Religion is convoluted and often very difficult to cope withsince it does not follow the patterns by which the brainoperates. I prefer to just do what comes naturally - tothink, instead of just standing around like a sponge waitingto absorb a bunch of bunk, as Thomas Edison put it .

INGERSOLL THE ATHEIST

The agnostic is an Atheist and the Atheist is anagnostic. Th at was the answer col . Robert Green Inger -soli gave to a Philadelphia Times reporter who had askedthe question, Don't you think the belief of the agnostic ismore satisfactory to the believer than that of the Atheist?

Ingersoll inadvertently started on the path toward Athe -ism at the direction of his father, a presbyterian minister,who instructed him to read the bible. Years later, Ingersollwas to relate a familiar story of an overdose of religion: Thelord's day seemed endless. There were both morning andafternoon serm ons, children were punished for laughing orplaying and the sickest child was deemed the most pious.. , . The minis ter asked us (the boys in the front row) ifweknew that we all deserved to go to hell and we allanswered'yes .' Then we were asked ifwe would be willingto go to hellifit was god's will,and every little liar shouted 'yes .'

Ingersoll was only 20 years old when he opened a schoolin Greenville, Illinois . The community must have had somemisgivings about his devotion to christianity. Several baptistpreachers pressed him for his opinion on baptism. Aftersome hesitation he said, Well, I'll give you my opinion; with

soap, baptism is a good thing .. This witticism cost him hisPage 4 August, 1983

by Clara Johnsonlivelihood . Thereafter, the patrons of the school refused topay him for his services.

Ingersoll opposed the church as the enemy of humansociety. He hated its cruel and oppressive doctrines andwas con temptuous of its ignorant philosophies and its

biblical absurdities. In his lectures, he told people that nogod could supply them with the necessities oflife,findcuresfor their diseases, or invent the machines which would easetheir labor . He advised them to rely upon themselves toimprove their lives. Science, he said, is the real re-deemer . It will put honesty above faith, destroy bigotry,and give us philosophers, thinkers, and servants instead ofpriests, theologians, and saints, .. and nobler than all else- it willmake the whole world free . Allof his life, Ingersollwould praise the virtues of freedom, freedom for the bodyand, especially, freedom for the mind - freedom from theoppressive doctrines of christianity ,

Ingersoll gave his first lecture when he was only 23 yearsold. He was already a lawyer . He was to become a greatlawyer, an even greater orator, and a celebrated free-thinker . He enjoyed great popularity with the people. Theycrowded his lecture halls, usually paying $1 admittance(never less than 5 0 < 1 =laughed at his wit, and applauded hisattacks on gods, religion, the bible, devils and theologians:

GODS - Each nation has created a god and thegod has always resembled his creators; Somepeople like the christians have borrowed anothernation's god; The deities have always been partial tothe people who created them; Nothing has beenconsidered so pleasing to the deity as a total denial ofthe authority of your own mind; It is related of one(god) that he came amid thundering and lightning inorder to tellthe people that they should not cook a kidin its mother's milk; According to the christiansystem, the blood of jesus softened the heart of god alittle and rendered possible the salvation ofa fortunatefew. Nothing is so pleasing to the gods as thebutchery of unbelievers .

RELIGION - In every creed, man is the slave ofgod, woman the slave of man, and the sweet childrenare the slaves of all; The makers of creeds wereignorant and brutal . Every dogma that we have hasupon it the mark of the whip, the rust of chain, and theashes of fagot; Over every fortress of tyranny haswaved and still waves, the banner of the church .

Wherever brave blood has been shed, the sword ofThe American Atheist


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the church has been wet, on every chain has been thesign of the cross; Christianity simply transferred thebrutality of the colosseum to the inquisition; Thealtar and throne have leaned against and supportedeach other; Through all the years, those whoplowed divided with those who prayed. 'Wicked'industry supported pious idleness, the hut gave way tothe cathedral and frightened poverty gave even itsrags to buy a robe for hypocrisy; Slavery has been

upheld by all religions. From the profits derived fromthe slave trade, churches have been built, cathedralsreared and priests paid; The trinity is incomprehen-sible - and that is the reason we know so much aboutthe thing; Religion has not civilized man, man hascivilized religion.

THE BIBLE- Somebody ought to tell the truthabout the bible. The preachers dare not ... politiciansdare not ... editors dare not ... and so I thought Iwould do it myself; Is it possible that the writer orwriters of first and second kings were inspired andthat Gibbon wrote The Decline and Fallof the RomanEmpire without supernatural assistance? ... can webelieve that the author of genesis had to be inspiredwhile Darwin experimented, ascertained, andreached conclusions for himself? Who on earth atthis day would pretend to settle scientific questions bya text from the bible? If the bible is really true, theclaim of inspiration need not be urged; and ifit is nottrue, its inspiration can hardly be established; Unin-spired men chose the 'inspired' books from a largecollection of books. The protestants did not agree onwhat books were inspired unt il 1647 ; Ifwe had beeninhabitants of some primitive part of the wo rld, wewould probably have believed in other 'sacred scrip-tures;' We might have believed in a god with threeheads instead of three gods with one head as we do

ow.DEVILS AND THE OLOGIANS- In nearly all the

theologies, mythologies , and religions, the devils havebeen much more humane and merciful than thegods; The religious people have always regarded thetestimony ofthe devilsas perfectly conclusive, and thewriters ofthe new testament quote the words of theseimps of darkness with great satisfaction; Shouldjesus have been tempted by the devil? ... Think of itThe devil - the prince of sharpers - the king ofcunning - the master off inesse - trying to bribe godwith a grain of sand that belongs to god. The devils... were of various kind - some could speak and

hear, others were deaf and dumb like the one whichpossessed a boy. Jesus said unto this spirit 'thou deat 'and dumb spirit, Icharge thee to come out of him andenter no more into him .' The deaf spirit (having heardwhat was said) cried out (being dumb) and immediate-lyvacated the premises; Certain people took itu ponthemselves to appease the gods, and to instruc t thepeople intheir duties to these unseen powe rs; this wasthe origin of the priesthood; The principal b usinessof these pr iests has been to boast about their god andto insist that he could easily vanqu ish all the othergods put together; Pope julius iiinstituted a brothelin Rome which was regulated by strict rules after themodel of religious houses . None but good christians

Austin, Texas

were admitted; Slavery has been blessed by bishop,by cardinal, and by pope; Priests have invented acrime called 'blasphemy' and behind that crime hypo-crisy has crouched for thousands of years; Minis-ters ask: 'Is it possible for god to forgive Man?' Andwhen Ithink of the centuries of agony and tears, Iask :'Is it possible for man to forgive god?' I do not askthe clergy to forgive me, but I do request that they soact that Iwillnot have to forgive them . (Said after the

clergy had made cruel and heartless remarks on theoccasion of his brother's death.)

The clergy hated Ingersoll . They could not ignore him,nor could they rationally defend their faith. They attacke dhim from the pulpit and spread lies about him in thei rreligious journals. He was accused of being a drunkard , acriminal, a coward, a family abuser, and a plagiari st.Ingersoll refuted these lies in factual and often humorousletters and press interviews. Ingersoll drank temperately .His criminal career consisted ofcelebrating an event wit hhis friends by building a bonfire on a Peoria street with drygoods boxes belonging to neighboring stores. For this crime the young men were required to appear in police

court and receive a reprimand. Years later, the clergybranded one of the miscreants (ingersoll) a criminal aridrevered another one (who had become a famous evan-gelist) .

Ingersoll earned the reputation of being a cowardwhen, during the Civil War, he surrendered his unit of 800men after they had been surrounded by a force of 10,000men. The clergy invented the liethat Ingersoll had r un awayto a farm yard and given his gun to a 16-year-old boy .

Instead of being a plagiarist, Ingersoll became the victimof plagiarism when the rev. BillySunday appropriated forone of his sermons a paragraph from one of the colone l'slectures.

But, Ingersoll was to learn that lies only die to be rebo rnelsewhere and that nothing can layand hatch so many eggsas a good healthy religious lie . .. these lies are a part of thestock in trade, the valuable assets, of superstition. Nochurch can afford to throw its property away.

The two Peoria newspapers ... oftenreceived letters . . . asking them to con-firm malicious lies about Ingersoll. Bothpapers, repeatedly, denied such storiesand confirmed the colonel s good charac-ter and reputation.

The two Peoria newspapers, the Transcript and the Star,often received letters from priests, ministers, and editorsasking them to confirm malicious lies about Ingersoll. Bothpapers, repeatedly , denied s uch stories and confirmed thecolonel's good character and reputation .

On his tightly scheduled lecture tours, Ingersoll was oftenharassed by local preachers who challenged him todebate them . When he ignored them, they would writeletters to their local papers declaring that the grea tagnostic had run away from them through fear of beingworsted indebate. I n truth, he did debate with some of themost able ministers, men such as the rev. He nry Ward

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Beecher (who once created a sensation by publicly praisingInge rsoll and shaking his hand).

One minister accused Ingersoll of robbing christians o fthe crutches they need to travel the highway of l ife. Thecolonel answered that by saying nothing could be moreidiotic than the idea that men who are destroying supersti-tion are taking crutches from christian cripple 'S. Will thechristians admit that they are cripples? And w illthey admitthat their creeds are crutches? ... it would be exceedingly

philanthropic and humane to cure the cripple so that hewould throwaway the crutches himself . Other clergymen said that Ingersoll's excesses had

driven his daughters into the arms of the church and hisson insane. Ingersoll's daughters never joined a church . Hehad no son .

A rev. Isaac Lansing once called Ingersoll a wolfcomingwith fangs sharpened by $300 a night (from his lectures) totear the lambs ofhis (Lansing's) flock . Ingersoll responded, I often get three times that amount .. . Iguess his lambs cantake care of themselves. I am not fond of mutton anyway.

Mrs. Van Cott, an evangelist, once called the colonel abarking dog . He wrote her, My dear madam: Were you

constrained by the love of christ to calla man who has neverinjured you 'a poor barking dog.' Did you make this remarkas a christian or as a lady? Did you say those words toillustrate in some faint degree the refining influence uponwoman of the religion you preach? What would you think ofme ifIshould retort using your language, changing only thesex of the lasf word?

Ministers often p rophesied that Ingersoll, like two otherprominent Atheists, Voltaire and Paine, would recant andembrace the church on his deathbed, or that he would die ahorrible death. Ingersoll, knowing that neither Voltaire norPaine had ever recanted or embraced the church, offered alarge sum of money to anyone who could prove that theyhad. No one ever claimed the money . Ingersoll, himself,died ofa heart attack at the age of66. He died as he had lived- an Atheist .

Other Ingersoll remarks abut christian creeds and theirdefenders, clerics and their allies included :

Catholics have an infallibleman - an old Italian .Protestants have an infallible book written by He-brews before they were civilized . The infallibleman isgenerally wrong and the infallible book is f illed withmistakes and contradictions.

That (catholic) church went into partnership withthe tyrants of the throne and between those twovultures, the altar and the throne, the heart of manwas devoured.

Monks wrote the history of many countries . They traced the order of st . michael inFrance to thearchangel himself, and alleged that he was the founderof a chivalric order in heaven itself.

They declared that Scotland was so named afterScot a, a daughter of pharaoh, who landed in Ireland,invaded Scotland and took it by force of arms . Thisstatement was made in a letter addressed to the popeinthe 14thcentury and was alluded to as a well-knownfact. The letter was written by some of the highestdignitaries and by the direction of the king himself .

Matthew ofParis, an 'eminent' historian ofthe 14thcentury gave the world the following piece ofinforma-

tion: 'It is well known that mohammed was once aPage 6 August, 1983

cardinal, and became a heretic because he failed in h iseffort to be elected pope ;' and that 'having drank toexcess, he fell by the roadside' and while 'in thiscondition, was killed by swine .' And, 'for that reason,his followers abhor pork even unto this day .'

Monks accounted fo r the red on the breasts ofrobins from the fact that these birds carried wate r tounbaptized infants in hell .

The religious historian, Eusebius, ingeniously re-

marks that, in his h istory, he carefully omitted what-ever tended to discredit the church and that hepiously magnified all that conduced to her glory .

Martin Luther thought that deformed children hadbeen begotten by an evil spirit . On one occasion hetold a mother that, in his judgment, she had betterdrown her child - that he had no doubt that the dev ilwas its father.

John Knox started this (presbyterian) doctrine inScotland, and there isthis peculiarity about presbyte ri-anism - it grows best where the soil is poorest . I readthe other day an account of a meeting between JohnKnox and John Calvin. Imagine a dialogue between a

pestilence and a famine Imag ine a conversa tionbetween a block and an ax As I read their conve rsa-tion, it seemed to me as though John Kn ox and J ohnCalv in were made fo r each other, that they fitted eachother like the upper and lower jaws of a w ild be ast.

John Calvin inaugurated human tortu re. Vo ltaireabolished torture in France. The man who abo lishedtorture, if the christian religion be true , god is nowtorturing in hell, and the man who inaugu ratedtorture, is now a glorified angel in heaven.

John Wesley preached a sermon entitled : 'TheCause and Cure ofEarthquakes ' inwh ich he took theground that earthquakes are caused by sin , and theonly way to stop them was to believe in the lord jesuschrist .

Christians will only assoc iate with those whobelieve that god so loved the world that he made up h ismind to damn the most of us .

If you believe somethi ng that is improbable a ndunreasonable, you are a christian; if you bel ievesomething that you know is not so, then - you are asaint . ,Ingersoll developed h is own creed . He believed and

practi ced the Gospel of Good Living, which includedcheerfulness , good health, good clothing, good ho uses,soap and water , intelligence, education, and, above all,freedom . He adopted the universe as his bible and decla red

that Humanity isthe grand religion . He believed tha t Thehonest man, the good woman, the happy child have noth ingto fear either in this world or any world to come . In one o fhis lectures, he said, I have made up my mind that ifthe re isa god, he wi llbe merciful; that every man should be true tohimself, and that there isno wo rld, no star, inwhich honestyis a crime. Upon that rock I stand .

The American Atheist


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COLONEL INGERSOLL S DEATHFrom the New York Truth Seeker

It is a sad commentary on the regard f.ortruth entertained by christians - for only christians would seek tolibel eminent Freethinkers - that Ingersoll's family found it necessary to prepare and to have printed forcirculation a sworn statement or affidavit detailing the exact circumstances of his death. The perversion of fact

by the followers of christ almost passes belief . The catholic church adopted the policy of spreading the storythat Ingersoll sent for a catholic priest, who was introduced by a back way. Ignorant catholics believe this. Thestatement of the members of the family who were present is as follows:

State of New York)County of New York)

ROBERT G. INGERSOLLTHE TRUE STORY OF HIS ILLNESS AND DEATH

On November 16 , 1896, while on a lecture trip at Janesville , Wis. , colonel Ingersoll had a cerebral hemorrhage.He continued to lecture for a few day s, but at the solicitation of his family went to Chicago and consulted Dr .Frank Billings who advised him to return home and rest for two months, which he did . He then, January 24 ,1897, resumed lecturing, which he continued up to the time of his death. It was at this time, early in 1897, that hedeveloped angina pectoris, from which he suffered greatly and which was the cause of his death. Since his deathwe ha ve learned that he knew exactly his condition. In other words, his physicians had told him that he was likelyto die at any moment , but acceding to his earnest entreaties they did not tell his family. In spite of the fact thatdeath was ever beside him he was always very cheerful, and when asked as to his health invariably replied, Allright . During the night of July 20, 1899, he had an attack of acute indigestion and slept very little; but he came tobreakfast the next morning , and afterwards sat on the piazza, as he was wont to do, reading and talking with hisfamily. At about ten-thirty he said he would lie down and rest a little, and would then come down and play poolwith his son-in-law . Mrs. Ingersoll accompanied him to their bedroom and remained with him while he slept . Atabout II :45 he arose and sat in his chair to put on his shoes. Miss Sue Sharkey came into the room, followed byMrs. Sue M . Farrell . Mrs. Ingersoll said , Do not dress, Papa, until after luncheon; I will eat upstairs with you . He replied , Oh, no. I do not want to trouble you. Mrs. Farrell then said, How absurd , after the hundreds oftimes you have eaten upstairs with her . He looked up laughingly at Mrs. Farrell, as she turned to leave the room ,and then Mrs. Ingersoll said , Why, Papa your tongue is coated; I must give you some medicine. He looked upat her with a smile, and as he did so closed his eyes and passed away without a struggle, a pang, oreven a sigh. Noone else wa s present . It is said that he recanted. This is a cruel and malicious falsehood, without the slightestfoundation in fact . His convictions on the subject of religion remained absolutely unchanged . He died as he hadlived, an agnostic .

EVA A . INGERSOLLSUE SHARKEYSUE M. FARRELL

Severally affirmed to before me this 17th day of March, 1906.

John H. Hazelton, Notary PublicNew York County, No. 59

Duplicates of this document have been executed and their safety and preservation provided for futurehistorians will need them, for it is not to be supposed that pious christians have told their last lie about the manwhom they cannot truthfully answer or asperse . Of the makers of the affidavit Eva A . Ingersoll is the widow ofRobert G. Ingersoll, Sue M. Farrell is her sister, and Sue Sharkey is a member of the family and of the Romancatholic faith.

The above statement is absolutely correct .Sgd. EVA A . INGERSOLL

Austin, Texas August , 1983 Page 7


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GEMS CONCERNING THE HOLY BIBLEFrom Ingerso ll the Mag nificent by Joseph Lewis

Ministers wonder how I can be wicked enough toattack the bible .

I willte ll them:This book, the bible, has persecuted, even unto deat h,the wisest and the best . This book stayed and stopped t heonward movement of the human race. This book poisone dthe founta ins of learning and misdirected the energies ofman.

This book is the enemy of freedom, the support ' ofslavery. This book sowed the seeds ofhatred infamil ies andnations, fed the flames of war, and impoverished the world.This book is the breastwork of kings and tyrants - theenslaver of women and children. This book has cor ruptedparliaments and courts . This book has made colle ges andunive rsities the teachers of error and the haters of science.This book has filled christendom with hateful , cruel, igno -rant and warring sects . This boo k taught men to kill theirfellows for rel igion 's sake. This book founded the inquisi-tion, invented the instr uments of tortu re, built the dungeonsin which the good a nd loving languished, forg ed the chainsthat rusted in their fles h, erected t he scaffolds whereon theydied. This book p iled fagots abo ut the feet of t he just. Thisbook drove reason from the minds o f millions a nd filledtheasylums with the insane .

'Ml~ ,r7m~ This book has caused fathers and mot hers to shed theblood o f their babes . This book was the auct ion block onwhich the slave -mother stood when she was s old from herchild. This book filledthe sails of the slave-trade r and mademerchandise of human f lesh. This book lighted the fires that

burned witches and w izards. T his bo ok filled thedarkness with ghouls and ghosts, and t he bodies of men a ndwomen with dev ils. This book po lluted the so uls of men withthe infamous dogma of ete rnal pain. T his book madecredulity the greatest of virtues, and investigation thegreatest of cr imes. This book f illed nations w ith hermits,monks and nuns - with the pious and th e useless. Thisbook placed the ignorant and unclean saint above thephilosopher and philanthropis t. This book taught man todespis e the joys of this life, that he might be ha ppy inanother - to waste th is wor ld for the sake of the next.

Iattack th is book because it is the enemy of h uman l iberty- the greatest obstruc tion ac ross the highway of hu man

progress.Let me ask t he ministers one question: How can you bewicked enough to defend this boo k?

Somebody oug ht to tell the truth about the bible . Thepreachers dare not, because the y would be driv en fromtheir pulpits. Professors in college da re not, becau se theywould lose their salar ies. Politicians dare not . They wouldbe defeated . Editors dare not . They would lose subscribers .Merchants dare not, because they might lose customers.Men of fashion dare not, fearing that they would lose caste.Even clerks dare not, because they might be discharged.And so I thought I would do it myse lf.

... tell the t r uth about the bible .

There are many millionsofpeople who believe the bible tobe the inspired word of god - millions who think that th isbook is staff and guide, counselor and consoler; that it fillsthe present with peace and the future with hppe - millions

who believe that it isthe fountain of law, justice and mercy,and that to its wise and benign teachings the world isindebted for its liberty, wealth and civilization - millionswho imagine that this book is a revelat ion from the w isdomand love of god to the brain and heart of man - millionswhoregard this book as a torch that conquers the darkness ofdeath, and pours its radiance on another world - a worldwithout a tear .

They forget its ignorance and savagery, its hatred ofliberty, its religious persecution ; they remember heave n,but they forget the dungeon of eternal pa in.

They forget that it imprisons the brain and corrupts theheart . They forget that it is the enemy of inte llectualfreedom .

Page 8 August, 1983

The bible has been the fortress and defence of nea rlyevery cr ime.

Acros s the open bible lay the sword and fagot .

Let us free ourselves from the ty ranny of a book, from theslavery of dead ignorance, from t he aristocracy of the air.

The Ame rican Athei st


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* * * * *

One of the first things Iwish to do, is to free the orthodoxclergy. I am a great friend of theirs, and in spite of all theymay say against me, I am going to do them a great andlasting service. Upon their necks are visible the marks ofthecollar, and upon their backs those of the lash. They are notallowed to read and think for themselves. They are taughtlike parrots, and the best are those who repeat, with thefewest mistakes, the sentences .they have been taught .They sit like owls upon some dead limb of the tree ofknowledge, and hoot the same old hoots that have beenhooted for eighteen hundred years.

How can ministers be wicked enoughto defend such a book .

* * * * *

Nobody ever saw anybody who had seen anybody whohad heard of anybody that had ever seen anybody that hadever seen one of the original Hebrew manuscripts.

* * * * *

A surgeon once called upon a poor cripple and kindlyoffered to render him any assistance in his power. Thesurgeon began to discourse very learnedly upon the natureand origin of disease; of the curative properties of certainmedicines; of the advantages of exercise, air and light, andof the various ways in which health and strength could berestored . These remarks were so full of good sense, anddiscovered so much profound thought and accurate knowl-edge, that the cripple, becoming thoroughly alarmed, criedout, Do not, Ipray you, take away my crutches. They are

my only support, and without them I should be miserableindeed I am not going, said the surgeon, to take awayyour crutches. I am going to cure you, and then you willthrow the crutches away yourself.

* * * * *

What can I be expected to give as a substitute forperdition? It is enough to show that it does not exist . Whatdoes a man want in place of a disease? Health.

* * * * *

Notwithstanding the fact that infidels in all ages havebattled for the rights of man, and have at all times been the

fearless advocates of liberty and justice, we are constantlyAustin, Texas

charged by the church with tearing down without buildingagain .

* * * * *

Now let me make myself plain upon one subject, perfect lyplain. For instance, I hate presbyterianism, but I kno whundreds of splendid presbyterians. Understand me. I ha temethodism, and yet I know hundreds of splendid metho-dists. I hate catholicism, and like catholics. I hate insanitybut not the insane.

I do not war against men. I do not war against persons , Iwar against certain doctrines that I believe to be wrong .

* * * * *

There is no necessity of attacking people - we shouldcombat error . We should hate hypocrisy, but not thehypocrite -larceny, but not the thief - superstition, butnot its victim. We should do all within our power to inform,to educate, and to benefit our fellow-men.

* * * * *

I do not know what takes place in the invisible world

called the brain, inhabited by the invisible something we callthe mind. All that takes place there is invisible, andsoundless. This mind, hidden inthis brain, masked by flesh,remains forever unseen, and the only evidence we canpossibly have as to what occurs in that world, we obtainfrom the actions of the man, of the woman. By these actionswe judge of the character, ofthe soul . So Imake up my mindas to whether a man is good or bad, not by his theories, butby his actions.

August, 1983 Page 9


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Under no circumstances can the expression of an honestopinion, couched in becoming language, amount to blas-phemy. And right here it may be well enough to inquire:What is blasphemy?

A man who knowingly assaults the true, who knowinglyendeavors to stain the pure, who knowingly maligns thegood and noble, is a blasphemer. A man who deserts thetruth because it is unpopular is a blasphemer . He who runswith the hounds knowing that the hare is in the right is ablasphemer.

The believers inthe bible are loud intheir denunciation ofwhat they are pl eased to call th e immoral literature of theworld; and yet few books have been published containingmore moral filth than this inspir ed word of god. Thesestories are not redeemed by a sing le flash of wit or humor .They never rise above the dull details of stupid vice. Forone, I cannot afford to soil-my pages with extracts fromthem; and all such portions of the scriptures I leave to beexamined, written upon, and expl ained by the clergy.Clergymen may know some way by which they can extracthoney from these flowers . Until these passages are ex-punged from the old tes tament, it isnot a fit book to be readby either old or young . It contains pages that no minister inthe Uni ted States would read to his congr egation for anyreward whatever . There are chapters that no gentlemanwould read in th e presence of a lady. There ar e chaptersthat no father wou ld read to his child. There are narrativesutterly unfit to be told; and the time will come whenmankind will wonder that such a book was ever calledinspired.

We are continually told that the bible is the veryfoundation ofmodesty and morality; while many ofits pagesare so immodest and immoral that a minister, for reading

them in the pulpit, would be instant ly denounced as anunclean wretch. Every woman would leave the church, andifthe men stayed, it would be for the purpose of chastisingthe minister .

Isthere any saving grace in hypocrisy? Willmen becomeclean in speech by believing that god is unclean? Would itnot be far better to admit that the bible was written bybarbarians ina barbarous, coarse and vulgar age? Would itnot be safer to charge moses with vulgarity, instead of god?Is it not altogether more probable that some ignorantHebrew would write the vulgar words? The christians tellme that god is the author of these vile and stupid things. Ihave examined the question to the best of my ability, and asto god my verdict is: - Not guilty. Faith should not rest infilth. .

Every foolish and immodest thing should be expungedfrom the biblf . Let us keep the good. Let us preserve everygreat and splendid thought, every wise and prudent maxim,every just law, every elevated idea, and every wordcalculated to make man nobler and purer, and let us havethe courage to throw the rest away . The souls of childrenshould not be stained and soiled. The charming instincts ofyouth should not be corrupted and defiled. The girls andboys should not be taught that unclean words were utteredby inspired lips. Teach them that these words were bornof savagery and lust . Teach them that the unclean is theunholy, and that only the pure is sacred .

Page 10 Augus t, 1983

Hands that help are better than lips that pray .

The fact is that good th ings in a book do not prove that itis inspired, but the presence of bad things does prove that itis not .

After all, the real question is not whether the bible isinspired, but whether itis true . Ifit is true, it does not ne ed tobe inspired. Ifit istrue, it makes no difference whethe r itwaswritten by a man or a god. The multipl ication table is just asuseful, just as true as though god had ar ranged the figureshimself . If the bible is really true, the claim of inspirationneed not be urged ; and if it is not true, its insp iration canhardly be established. As a matter of fact, the truth does notneed to be inspired. Nothing needs inspiration e xcept afalsehood or a mistake . Where truth ends, where p robabili-ty stops, inspiration begins. A fact never went into partner-ship with a miracle. Truth does not need the assistance ofmiracle. A fact will fit every other fact in the Unive rse,because it is the product of all other facts. A lie will fitnothing except another liemade for the express purpose offitting it .

Ifthe bible is really the work of god, it should contain thegrandest and sublimest truths. It should, in all respects,excel the works of man . Within that book should be foundthe best and loftiest definitions of justice; the truestconceptions of human liberty ; the clearest outlines of duty;the tenderest, the highest, and the noblest thoughts, - notthat the human mind has produced, but that the human



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mind is capable of receiving . Upon every page should befound the luminous evidence of its divine origin. Unless itcontains grander and more wonderful things than man haswritten, we are not only justified in saying, but we arecompelled to say , that itwas written by no being superior toman. Itmay be said that itis unfair to callattention to certainbad things in the bible, while the good are not -so much asmentioned . To this it may be replied that a divine beingwould not put bad things in a book . Certainly a being of

infinite intelligence, power and goodness could never fallbelow the ideal of depraved and barbarous man . It willnotdo, after we find that the bible upholds what we now callcrimes, to say that it is not verbally inspired.

If there isone uninspired word, - that is, one word inthewrong place, or a word that ought not to be there, - to thatextent the bible is an uninspired book.

Either god should have written a book to fitmy brain, orshould have made my brain to fit his book . The inspirationof the bible depends on the credulity of him who reads.There was a time when its geology, its astronomy, itsnatural history, were thought to be inspired; that time haspassed. There was a time when its morality satisfied themen who ruled the world of thought; that time has passed.

It cannot be too often repeated, that truth scorns theassistance of miracle .

~~s I fauto da fes had been for roasting of meat

other than human , for a festival ...

Why should men inthe name ofreligion try to harmonizethe contradictions that exist between Nature and a book?Why should philosophers be denounced for placing morereliance upon what they know than upon what they havebeen told?

Austin, Texas

... stopped the onward movement of the human race .

Is there an intelligent man or woman now in the worldwho believes in the garden of eden story? If you f ind anyman who believes it, strike his forehead and you willhear anecho. Something is for rent . Does any intelligent man nowbelieve that god made man of dust, and woman of a rib, andput them in a garden, and put a tree in the midst of it? Wasthere not room outside of the garden to put his tree, ifhe d idnot want people to eat his apples?

If Id id not want a man to eat my fruit, Iwould not put him

in my orchard.Does anybody now believe in the. story of the serpent? Ipity any man or woman who, in this nineteenth century ,believes in that childish fable . Why did adam and evedisobey? Why, they were tempted. By whom? The devil .Who made the devil? God . What did god make him for?Why did he not tell adam and eve about this serpent? Whydid he not watch the devil, instead of watching adam andeve? Instead of turning them out , why did he not keep himfrom getting in? Why did he not have his flood f irst, anddrown the devil, before he made a man and woman .

And yet, people who call themselves intelligent -professors in colleges and presidents of venerable institu-tions - teach children and young men that the garden ofeden story is an absolute historical fact . I defy any man tothink of a more childish thing . This god, waiting aroundeden - knowing all the while what would happen - havingmade them on purpose so that it would happen, then doeswhat? Holds all of us responsible , and we were not there .Here is a representation before the consti tuency had beenborn. Before Iam bound bya representative Iwant a chanceto vote for or against him ; and if I had been there, andknown all the circumstances, I should have voted NoAnd yet, I am held responsible .

We are told by the bible and by the churches that throughthis fallof man

Sin and death entered the world.

August, 1983 Page 11


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According to this, Just as soon as ad am and eve hadpartaken of the forbidden fruit, god began to contrive waysby which he could destroy the lives of his children. Heinvented all the diseases - all the fevers and coughs andcolds - all the pains and plagues and pestilences - all theaches and agonies, the malaria and spores; so that when wetake a breath of air we admit into our lungs unseenassassins; and, fearing that some might live too long, evenunder such circumstances, god invented the earthquakeand volcano, the cyclone and lightning, animalcules to infestthe heart and brain, so small that no eye can detect - noinstrument reach. This was allowing to the disobedience ofadam and eve

In his infinite goodness, god invented rheumatism andgout and dyspepsia, cancers and neuralgia, and is stillinventing new diseases. Not only this, but he decreed thepangs of mothers, and that by the gates of love and lifeshould crouch the dragons of death and pain. Fearing thatsome might, by accident, live too long, he planted poison-ous vines and herbs that looked like food. He caught theserpents he had made and gave them fangs and curiousorgans, ingeniously devised to distill and deposit the deadly

drop. He changed the nature of the beasts, that they mightfeed on human flesh. He cursed .a world, and -tainted everyspring and source of joy . He poisoned every breath of air;corrupted even light , that itmight bear disease on every ray;tainted every drop of blood in human veins; touched everynerve, that it might bear the double fruit of pain and joy ;decreed all accidents and mistakes that maim and hurt andkill, and set the snares of life-longgrief , baited with presentpleasure, - with a moment 's joy . Then and there heforeknew and foreordained all human tears. And yet allthisisbut the prelude , the introduction, to the infiniterevenge ofthe good god . Increase and multiply all human griefs untilthe mind has reached imagination's farthest verge, then addeternity to time, and you may faintly tell, but never canconceive, the infinite horrors of this doctrine called TheFall of Man .

... sowed hatred of nations, fed flames of war.

Page 12 August, 1983

* * * * *

According to the bible, god selected the jewish peoplethrough whom to make known the great fact, that he wasthe only true and living god . For this purpose, he appearedon several occasions to moses - came down to Sinai 's topclothed in cloud and fire, and wrought a thousand miraclesfor the preservation and education of the jewish people . Intheir presence he opened the waters of the sea . For them hecaused bread to rain from heaven . To quench their thirst ,water leaped from the dry and barren rock . Their enemieswere miraculously destroyed; and for forty years, at least ,this god took upon himself the government of the jews. But ,after all this, many of the people had less confidence in himthan in gods of wood and stone. In moments of trouble, inperiods of disaster, in the darkness of doubt, in the hungerand thirst of famine, instead of asking this god for aid, theyturned and sought the help of senselesss things. This god,with all his power and wisdom, could not even convince afew wandering and wretched savages that he was morepotent than the idols of Egypt . This god was not willingtha tthe jews should think and investigate for themselves . For

heresy, the penalty was death. Where this god re igned,intellectual liberty was unknown. He appealed only to bru teforce ; he collected taxes by threatening plagues ; he de-manded worship on pain of sword and fire ; acting as spy ,inquisitor , judge and executioner .

* * * * *

When reading the history of the jewish people , of the irflight from slavery to death , of their exchange of tyrants, Imust confess that my sympathies are all aroused in theirbehalf . They were cheated, deceived and abused . Their godwas quick-tempered, unreasonable, cruel, revengeful anddishonest . He was always promising but never performed .He wasted time in ceremony and childish detail , and in theexaggeration of what he had done. Itisimpossible for me toconceive of a character more utterly detestable than that ofthe Hebrew god. He had solemnly promised the jews that hewould take them from Egypt to a land flowing with milk andhoney. He had led them to believe that in a little whi le theirtroubles would be over, and that they would soon be in theland of Canaan, surrounded by their wives and little ones,forget the stripes and tears of Egyp t. After prom ising thepoor wanderers again and again that he would lead them insafety to the promised land of joy and plenty, this god,forgetting every promise, said to the wretches inhis power: Your carcasses shall fall in this wilderness and yourchildren shall wander until your carcasses be wasted . Thiscurse was the conclusion ofthe whole matter . Into this dustof death and night faded all the promises of god. Into thisrottenness ofwandering despair fellallthe dreams oflibertyand home. Millions of corpses were left to rot in the desert,and each one certified to the dishonesty ofjehovah . Icannotbelieve these things . They are so cruel and heartless , thatmy blood ischilled and my sense ofjustice shocked . A bookthat is equally abhorrent to my head and heart, cannot beaccepted as a revelation from god.

When we think of the poor jews, destroyed, murdered,bitten by serpents, visited by plagues, decimated by famine,butchered by each other, swallowed by the earth, fright-ened, cursed, starved, deceived, robbed and outraged, how

thankful we should be that we are not the chosen people ofThe American Atheist


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property. We cannot destroy the money of the world tokeep people from stealing some of it . In other words, wecannot afford to make the world valueless to preventlarceny. Allstrength by which temptation is resisted mustcome from the inside. Virtue does not depend upon theobstacles to be overcome; virtue depends upon what isinside of the man. A man is not honest because the safe ofthe bank is perfectly secure. Upon the honestrnan thecondition of the safe has no effect . We willnever succeed in

raising great and splendid people by keeping them out oftemptation. Great people withstand \ temptation. Greatpeople have what may be called moral muscle, moral force.They are poised within themselves. They understand theirrelations to the world. The best possible foundation forhonesty is the intellectual perception that dishonesty can,under no circumstances, be a good investment - thatlarceny is not only wicked, but foolish - not only criminal,but stupid - that crimes are committed only by fools.

.

... impoverished the world.

You can prevent a man from stealing by tying his handsbehind him, but you cannot make him honest .

To my mind it seems clear that you had better injure

yourself than another. Better be a spendthrift than a thief ..Better throwaway your own money than steal the money ofanother - better killyourself ifyou wish to die than murderone whose lifeis fullof joy.

Better be an honest bankrupt than a rich thief.

There isbut one blasphemy, and that isinjustice. There isbut one worship, and that is justice

You need not fear the anger of a god that you cannotinjure. Rather fear to injure your fellow-men. Do not beafraid ofa crime you cannot commit . Rather be afraid of the


one that you may commit .

Many contend that without a belief inthe existence of godmorality isimpossible and that virtue would perish from theearth.

Right and wrong are not revelations from some supposed

god, but have been discovered through the experience andintelligence of man. There is nothing miraculous or super-natural about morality. Neither has morality anything to dowith another world, or with an infinite being. It applies toconduct here, and the effect of that conduct on ourselvesand others determines its nature.

In this world people are obliged to supply their wants bylabor . Industry is a necessity, and those who work are thenatural enemies of those who steal .

It required no revelation from god to make larcenyunpopular. Human beings naturally object to being injured,maimed, or killed, and so everywhere, and at all times, theyhave tried to protect themselves.

Men did not require a revelation from god to put in theirminds the thought of self-preservation. To defend yourselfwhen attacked is as natural as to eat when you are hungry .

According to the catholic church, eating meat on Fridayis a sin that deserves eternal punishment . And yet, in thenature of things, the consequences of eating meat on thatday must be exactly the same as eating meat on any other .So, allthe churches teach that unbelief is a crime, not in thenature of things, but by reason of the willof god .

Of course this is absurd and idiotic. Ifthere be an infinitegod he cannot make that wrong which in the nature ofthings is right . Neither can he make an action good thenatural consequences of which are evil . Even an infinite godcannot change a fact .

Surely, the light of experience is enough to tell us thatslavery is wrong, that polygamy is infamous, and thatmurder is not a virtue.

.

There is no world, no star, no heaven, no hell, in which

gratitude is not a virtue and where slavery is not a crime .

Every virtuous deed is a star in the moral firmament .There is in the moral world, as in the physical, the absoluteand perfect relation of cause and effect . For this reason , theatonement becomes an impossibility . Others may suffer byyour crime, but their suffering cannot discharge you; itsimply increases your guilt and adds to your burden . Forthis reason happiness is not a reward - it is a consequence ..Suffering is not a punishment - it is a result .

The civillawwas produced without the assistance of god.



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No one willobject to the preaching of kindness, honestyand justice . To preach less is a crime, and to practice moreis impossible.

Evil is not good because found in good company, andtruth is still truth, even when surrounded by falsehood.

. . . Man can only commit crimes against sentient beingswho, to some extent at least, are within his power, and thata crime by a finite being against an infinite being isan infiniteimpossibility.

An infinite god could not make ingratitude a virtue anyeasier than he could make a square triangle .

. . . The foundations of the moral and the immoral are inthe nature of things - in the necessary relation betweenconduct and well-being, and an infinite god cannot change

these foundations, and cannot increase or diminish thenatural consequences of actions. ,In this world there is neither chance nor 'caprice, neither

magic nor miracle. Behind every event, every thought anddream, is the efficient, the natural and necessary cause.

The idea of right and wrong is born of man's capacity toenjoy and suffer. If man could not suffer, if he could notinflictinjury upon his fellow, ifhe could neither feelnor inflictpain, the idea of right and wrong never would have enteredhis brain. But for this, the word conscience never wouldhave passed the lips of man.

There is no recorded instance where the uplifted hand ofmurder has been paralyzed - no truthful account in all the

literature of the world of the innocent child being shieldedby god. Thousands of crimes are being committed everyday - men are at this moment lying in wait for their humanprey - wives are whipped and crushed, driven to insanityand death - little children begging for mercy, liftingimploring, tear-filled eyes to the brutal faces of fathers andmothers - sweet girls are deceived, lured and outraged,but god has no time to prevent these things - no time todefend the good and protect the pure. He is too busynumbering hairs and watching sparrows .

... fillednations with pious and useless hermits, monks andnuns.

Shall we not become charitable and just, when we knowthat every act isbut condition's fruit; that Nature, with hercountless hands, scatters the seeds of tears and crimes -of every virtue and of every joy; that all the base and vilearevictims of the Blind, and that the good and great have, inthelottery of life, by chance or fate, drawn heart and brain?

I am exceedingly gratifiedthat you and I have demon-

strated that it is possible fora presbyterian and an Atheist to discuss theologicalquestions.

R.G. Ingersoll(letter to rev. Field)

Austin, Texas

The Ingersoll birthplace in Dresden, New York, dedicatedas a memorial site by the townspeople of Dresden.



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AN ORATION ON THOMAS PAINEby Robert G. Ingersoll

To speak the praises of the brave and thoughtful deed, isto me a labor of gratitude and love.

Through allthe centuries gone, the mind ofman has beenbeleaguered by the mailed hosts ofsuperstition. Slowly and

painfully has advanced the army of deliverance. Hated bythose they wished to rescue, despised by those they weredying to save, these grand soldiers, these immortal deliver-ers, have fought without thanks, labored without applause,suffered without pity, and they have died execrated andabhorred. For the good ofmankind they accepted isolation,poverty, and calumny. They gave up all,sacrificed all,lost allbut truth and self-respect .

One of the bravest soldiers in this army was ThomasPaine; and for one, I feel indebted to him for the liberty weare enjoying this day. Born among the poor, where childrenare burdens; in a country where real liberty was unknown;where the privileges of class were guarded . with infinitejealousy, and the rights of the individual trampled beneaththe feet ofpriests and nobles; where to advocate justice wastreason; where intellectual freedom was Infidelity, it iswonderful that the idea oftrue liberty ever entered his brain.

Poverty was his mother - Necessity his master.He had more brains than books; more sense than

education; more courage than politeness ; more strengththan polish. He had no veneration for old mistakes - noadmiration for ancient lies. He loved the truth for truth'ssake, and for man's sake. He saw oppression on everyhand; injustice everywhere ; hypocrisy at the altar , venal ityon the bench, tyranny on the throne ; and with a splendidcourage he espoused the cause of the weak against thestrong - of the enslaved against the tit led few.


In England he was nothing. He belonged to the lowerclasses. There was no avenue open for him . The peoplehugged their chains, and the whole power of the govern-

ment was ready to crush any man who endeavored to strikea blow for the right .At the age of thirty-seven , Thomas Paine left England for

America with the high hope of being instrumental in theestablishment of a free government . In his own country hecould accomplish nothing. Those two vultures - churchand state - were ready to tear in pieces and devour theheart ofanyone who might deny their divine right to enslavethe world.

Upon his arrival in this country, he found himse lfposessed of a letter of introduction, signed by anothe rInfidel, the illustrious Franklin. This, and his native genius ,constituted his entire capital; and he needed no more . Hefound the colon ies clamoring for justice ; whining abou t theirgrievances; upon their knees at the foot of the t hrone,imploring that mixture of idiocy and insanity , George I II,bythe grace of god, for a restoration of their anc ient pri vileges.They were not endeavoring to become free men b ut weretrying to to soften the heart of their master . They wereperfectly willingto make brick ifpharaoh would furnish thestraw. The colonists wished for, hoped for, and prayed forreconciliation. They did not dream of independence .

Paine gave to the world his Common Sense . It was thefirst argument for separation, the first assault upon theBritish/orm ofgovernment, the first blow for a republic, andit aroused our fathers like a trumpet 's blast .

He was the first to perceive the destiny of the New World.

No other pamphlet ever accomplished such wonderfulresults . It was filledwith argument , reason, persuasion, andunanswerable logic . It opened a new world. It filled thepresent with hope and the future w ith honor. Everywherethe people responded, and ina few months the ContinentalCongress declared the colonies free and independentstates .

A new nation was born.It is simple justice to say that Paine did more to cause the

Declaration of Independence than any other man. Neithershould it be forgotten that his attacks upon Great Britainwere also attacks upon monarchy; and while he convi ncedthe people that the colonies ought to separate fro m themother country, he also proved to them that a freegovernment is the best that can be instituted among men.

In my judgment Thomas Paine was the best pol iticalwriter that ever lived. What he wrote was pure nature , andhis soul and his pen ever went together. Ceremony ,pageantry , and a ll the paraphernalia ofpower , had no effectupon him . He examined into the why and wherefore ofthings . He was perfectly radical in his mode of thought .Nothing short of the bedrock satisfied him. His enthusiasmfor what he believed to be right knew no bounds. During a llthe dark scenes of the Revolution , never for one mome ntdid he despa ir. Yea r after year his brave words were ringingthrough the land, and by the bivouac fires the wea ry sold iersread the inspir ing words of Common Sense , filledwith ideas

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sharper than their swords, and consecrated themselvesanew to the cause of Freedom .

Paine was not content with having aroused the spirit ofindependence, but he gave every energy of his soul to keepthat spirit alive. He was with the army. He shared its defeats,its dangers, and its glory. When the situation becamedesperate, when gloom settled upon all, he gave them theCrisis. Itwas a cloud by day and a pillarby nighf, leading theway to freedom, honor, and glory. He shouted to them, These are the times that try men's souls. The summersoldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrinkfrom the service of his country; but he that stands it nowdeserves the love and thanks of man and woman.

To those who wished to put the war off to some futureday, with a lofty and touching spirit of self-sacrifice he said: Every generous parent should say, 'If there must be war letit be in my day, that my child may have peace .''' To the crythat Americans were rebels, he replied: He that rebelsagainst reason is a real rebel; but he that in defense ofreason rebels against tyranny, has a better title to 'Defenderof the Faith' than George the Third .

At the close of the Revolution, no one stood higher inAmerica than Thomas Paine . The best, the wisest, the mostpatriotic, were his friends and admirers; and had he beenthinking only of his own good he might have rested from histoils and spent the remainder of his life in comfort and inease. He could have been what the world is pleased to call respectable. He could have died surrounded by clergy-men, warriors and statesmen . At his death there wouldhave been an imposing funeral, miles of carriages, civicsocieties, salvos of artillery, a nation in mourning, and ,above all , a splendid monument covered with lies.

He chose rather to benefit mankind.At that time the seeds sown by the great Infidels were

beginning to bear fruit in France. The people were be-ginning to think .

The Eighteenth Century was crowning its gray hairs withthe wreath of Progress.

On every hand Science was bearing testimony againstthe church. Voltaire had filledEurope with light; D'Holbachwas givingto the elite ofParis the principles contained inhisSystem of Nature. The Encyclopedists had attacked super-

Ceremony, pageantry, and all the paraphernalia of power had no effect upon him. Heexamined into the why and wherefore of things. He was perfectly radical in his modeof thought. Nothing short of the bedrock satisfied him.

Some said it was not to the interest of the colonies to befree. Paine answered this by saying, To know whether itbethe interest of the continent to be independent, we need askonly this simple, easy question : 'Is it the interest of a man tobe a boy all his life?' He found many who would listen tonothing, and to them he said, That to argue with a man whohas renounced his reason is like giving medicine to thedead. This sentiment ought to adorn the walls of everyorthodox church.

There is a world of political wisdom in this: England losther liberty in a long chain of right reasoning from wrongprinciples.; and there is real discrimination in saying, TheGreeks and Romans were strongly possessed ofthe spirit ofliberty, but not the principles, for at the time that they weredetermined not to be slaves themselves, they employedtheir power to enslave the rest of mankind .

In his letter to the British people, in which he tried toconvince them that war was not to their interest, occurs thefollowing passage brimful of common sense: War nevercan be the interest of a trading nation any more thanquarreling can be profitable to a man in business. But to

make war with those who trade with us is like settling . abulldog upon a customer at the shop-door . The writings of Paine fairly glitter with simple, compact,

logical statements that carry conviction to the dullest andmost prejudiced. He had the happiest possible way ofputting the case, in asking questions in such a way that theyanswer themselves, and in stating his premises so clearlythat the deduction could not be avoided .

Day and night he labored for Amer ica; month aftermonth, year after year, he gave himself to the Great Cause ,until there was a government of the people and for thepeople, and until the banner of the stars floated over acontinent redeemed, and consecrated to the happiness ofmankind.

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stition with information for the masses . The foundation ofthings began to be examined . A few had the courage to keeptheir shoes on and let the bush burn. Miracles began to getscarce. Everywhere the people began to inquire. Americahad set an example to the world . The word Liberty was inthe mouths of men, and they began to wipe the dust fromtheir knees.

The dawn of a new day had appeared.Thomas Paine went to France. Into the new movement

he threw allhis energies. His fame had gone before him, andhe was welcomed as a friend of the human race and as achampion of free government .

He had never relinquished his intention ofpointing out tohis countrymen the defects, absurdities and abuses of theEnglish government . For this purpose he composed andpublished his greatest political work, The Rights of Man .This work should be read by every man and woman. It isconcise, accurate, natural, convincing, and unanswerable .It shows great thought; an intimate knowledge of thevarious forms of government; deep insight into the verysprings of human action, and a courage that compels

respect and admiration. The most difficult political prob-lems are solved in a few sentences. The venerable argu-ments in favor of wrong are refuted with a questioneranswered with a word . For forcible illustration, apt compari-son, accuracy and clearness of statement, and absolutethoroughness, i t has never been exce lled.

The fears of the administration were aroused, and Painewas prosecuted for libel and found guilty; and yet there isnot a sentiment inthe entire work that willnot challenge theadmiration ofevery civilized man . It isa magazine of politicalwisdom, an arsenal of ideas, and an honor, not only toThomas Paine, but to human nature itself. It co uld havebeen written only by the man who had the generosity , theexalted patriotism, the goodness to say, The world is my



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country, and to do good my religion.There is in all the utterances of the world no grander, no

sublimer sentiment . There is no creed that can be com-pared with it for a moment . It should be wrought in gold,adorned with jewels, and impressed upon every humanheart: The world is my country, and to do good myreligion.

In 1792, Paine was elected by the department ofCalais astheir representative inthe National Assembly. So great was

his popularity in France that he was selected about thesame time by the people of no less than four departments .Upon taking his place inthe Assembly he was appointed

as one of a committee to draft a constitution for France.Had the French people taken the advice of Thomas Paine,there would have been no reign of terror. The streets ofParis would not have been filledwith blood. The Revolutionwould have been the grandest success of the world. Thetruth isthat Paine was too conservative to suit the leaders ofthe French Revolution. They, to a great extent, werecarried along by hatred, and a desire to destroy. They hadsuffered so long, and had borne so much, that it wasimpossible for them to be moderate in the hour of victory .

recognition of his services, but had ever been content tolabor as a common soldier in the army of Progress.Confining his efforts to no country, looking upon the worldas his field of action, filledwith a genuine love for the right,he found himself imprisoned by the very people he hadstriven to save.

Had his enemies succeeded in bringing him to the block ,he would have escaped the calumnies and the hatred of thechristian world . In this country , at least, he would have

ranked with the proudest names . On the anniversary of theDeclaration his name would have been upon the lips of allthe orators, and his memory in the hearts of all the people .

Thomas Paine had not finished his career .He had spent his life thus far in destroying the power of

kings, and now he turned his attention to the priests . Heknew that every abuse had been embalmed in scripture -that every outrage was in partnership with some holy text .He knew that the throne skulked behind the altar, and bothbehind a pretended revelation from god . By this time he hadfound that it was of little use to free the body and leave themind in chains. He had explored the foundations ofdespotism, and had found them infinitelyrotten. He had dug

. At the close of the Revolution, no one stood higher in America than ThomasPaine. ,

Besides allthis, the French people had been so robbed bythe government, so degraded by the church, that they werenever given a base with which to construct a republic. Manyof the leaders longed to establish a beneficent and justgovernment, but the people asked for revenge.

Paine was filled with a real love for mankind. Hisphilanthropy was boundless . He wished to destroy monar-chy - not the monarch. He voted for the destruction oftyranny, and against the death of the king. He wished to

establish a government on a new basis; one that wouldforget the past; one that would give privileges to none, andprotection to all.

under the throne, and it occurred to him that he would takea look behind the altar .

The result of his investigations was given to the world inthe Age of Reason. From the moment of its publication hebecame infamous. He was calumniated beyond measure .To slander him was to secure the thanks of the church. Allhis services were instantly forgotten, disparaged or denied .He was shunned as though he had been a pestilence . Mostof his old friends forsook him. He was regarded as a moral

plague, and at the bare mention of his name the bloodyhands of the church were raised in horror. He wasdenounced as the most despicable of men.

By this time he had found that it was of little use to free the body and leave the mindin chains .... He had dug under the throne, and it occurred to him that he would take alook under the altar.

In the Assembly, where nearly all were demanding theexecution ofthe king - where to differfrom the nobility wasto be suspected, and, where to be suspected was almostcertain death, Thomas Paine had the courage, the good-

ness and the justice to vote against death . To vote againstthe execution of the king was a vote against his own life .This was the sublimity of devotion to principle. For this hewas arrested, imprisoned, and doomed to death .

Search the records of the world and you will find but fewsublimer acts than that of Thomas Paine voting against theking's death . He, the hater of despotism , the abhorrer ofmonarchy, the champion of the rights of man, the republi-can, accepting death to save the lifeof a deposed tyrant -of a throneless king. This was the last grand act of hispolitical life- the sublime conclusion of his political career .

Allhis lifehe had been the disinterested friend ofman. Hehad labored - not for money, not for fame, but for thegeneral good. He had aspired to no office; had asked no


Not content with following him to his grave, they pursuedhim after death with redoubled fury, and recounted withinfinite gusto and satisfaction the supposed horrors of hisdeath-bed; gloried in the fact that he was forlorn and

friendless, and gloated like fiends over what they supposedto be the agonizing remorse of his lonely death.It is wonderful that all his services were thus forgotten . It

is amazing that one kind word did not fallfrom some pulpit ;that some one did not accord to him , at least - honesty .Strange, that in the general denunciation some one d id notremember his labor for liberty , his devotion to principles , hiszeal for the rights of his fellow-men . He had, by brave andsplendid effort, associated his name with the cause ofProgress . He had made it impossible to write the history ofpolitical freedom with his name left out . He was one of thecreators of light; one of the heralds of the dawn. He hatedtyranny in the name of kings, and in the name of god, withevery drop of his noble blood . He believed in liberty and



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justice, and inthe sacred doctrine ofhuman equality. Underthese divine banners he fought the battle of his life.In bothworlds he offered his blood for the good of man. In thewilderness of America, in the French Assembly, in thesombre cell waiting for death, he was the same unflinching,unwavering friend of his race; the same undaunted cham-pion of universal freedom. And for this he has been hated;for this the church has violated even his grave ,

sentiment No wonder the church began to hate him. Hebelieved inone god, and no more. After this lifehe hoped forhappiness. He believed that true religion consisted indoingjustice, loving mercy, in endeavoring to make our fellowcreatures happy, and inoffering to god the fruit ofthe heart .He denied the inspiration of the scriptures. This was hiscrime.

He contended that it is a contradiction in terms to call

ANY SYSTEM OF RELIGION THAT SHOCKS THE MIND OF A CHILDCANNOT BE A TRUE SYSTEM.

This is enough to make one believe that nothing is morenatural than for men to devour their benefactors. Thepeople in all ages have crucified and glorified. Whoever liftshis voice against abuses, whoever arraigns the past at thebar of the present, whoever asks the king to show hiscommission, or questions the authority ofthe priests, willbedenounced as the enemy of man and god. Inallages reasonhas been regarded as the enemy of religion. Nothing hasbeen considered so pleasing to the deity as a total denial ofthe authority of your own mind. Self-reliance has beenthought a deadly sin; and the idea oflivingand dying withoutthe aid and consolation of superstition has 'always horrifiedthe church. By some unaccountable infatuation, belief hasbeen based upon the idea that god will forever reward thetrue believer, and eternally damn the man who doubts ordenies. Belief is regarded as the one essential thing. Topractice justice, to love mercy, is not enough . You mustbelieve in some incomprehensible creed. You must say, Once one is three, and three times one is one. The man'who practiced every virtue, but failed to believe, wasexecrated . Nothing so outrages the feelingsofthe church asa moral unbeliever - nothing so horrible as a charitableAtheist .

When Paine was born, the world was religious, the pulpitwas the real throne, and the churches were making everyeffort to crush out of the brain the idea that it had the right tothink.

anything a revelation that comes to us second-hand, eitherverbally or in writing. He asserted that revelation isnecessarily limited to the first communication, and thatafter that it is only an account of something which anotherperson says was a revelation to him. We have only his wordfor it, as it was never made to us. This argument never hasbeen and probably never willbe answered . He denied thedivine origin of christ, and showed conclusively that thepretended prophecies of the old testament had no refer-ence to him whatever; and yet he believed that christ was avirtuous and amiable man; that the morality he taught andpracticed was of the most benevolent and elevated charac-ter, and that it had not been exceeded by any. Upon thispoint he entertained the same sentiments now held by theunitarians, and in fact by all the most enlightened christians .

In his time the church believed and taught that everyword in the bible was absolutely true . Since his day it hasbeen proven false in its cosmogony, false in its astronomy,false in its chronology, false in its history, and so far as theold testament is concerned, false in almost everything.There are but few,ifany, scientific men who apprehend thatthe bible is literally true. Who on earth at this day wouldpretend to settle any scientific question by a text from the

bible? The old beliefis confined to the ignorant and zealous .The church itself willbefore long be driven to occupy theposition of Thomas Paine. The best minds of the orthodoxworld, today, are endeavoring to prove the existence of a

He denied the divine origin of christ, and showed conclusively that the pretendedprophecies of the old testament had no reference to him whatever.

The splendid saying of lord Bacon that the inquiry oftruth, which is the love-making or wooing of it, theknowledge of truth, which is the presence of it, and thebelief of truth, which is the enjoying of it, are the sovereigngood ofhuman nature, has been, and ever 'will be, rejectedby religionists . Intellectual liberty , as a matter of necessity,forever destroys the idea that belief is either praise- orblame-worthy and iswholly inconsistent with every creed inchristendom . Paine recognized this truth. He also saw thatas long as the bible was considered inspired, this infamousdoctrine of the virtue of belief would be believed andpreached. He examined the scriptures for himself andfound them filledwith cruelty , absurdity and immorality .

He again made up his mind to sacrifice h imself for thegood of his fellow-man .

He commenced with the assertion, That any system ofreligionthat has anything initthat shocks the mind ofa childcannot be a true system. What a beautiful, what a tender

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personal deity . All other questions occupy a minor place .You are no longer asked to swallow the bible whole -whale, jonah and all; you are simply required to believe ingod and pay your pew-rent . There isnot now an enlightenedminister in the world who will seriously contend thatsamson's strength was inhis hair, or that the necromancersof Egypt could turn water into blood, and pieces of woodinto serpents. These follies have passed away, and the onlyreason that the religious world can now have for dislikingPaine is that they have been forced to adopt so many of hisopinions .

Paine thought the barbarities of the old testament 'inconsistent with what he deemed the real character ofgod.He believed that murder, massacre and ind iscriminateslaughter had never been commanded by the deity. Heregarded much of the bible as childish, unimportant andfoolish . The scientific world entertains the same opinion .Paine attacked the bible precisely in the same spirit in which



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he had attacked the pretensions of kings. He used the sameweapons. All the pomp in the world could not make himcower. His reason knew no holy of holies, except in theabode of Truth. The sciences were then in their infancy.The attention of the really learned had not been directed toan impartial examination ofour pretended revelation. Itwasaccepted by most as a matter of course. The church wasall-powerful, and no one, unless thoroughl

american atheist magazine aug 1983

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