Quotes from Robert G. Ingersoll

Following are a few thought-provoking quotes on religion by someone little known today, but one of the most fascinating men in the history of the United States: TGO

“If the Bible and my brain are both the work of the same infinite God, whose fault is it that the book and my brain do not agree?”

“Who can overestimate the progress of the world if all the money wasted in superstition could be used to enlighten, elevate and civilize mankind” ?

“It may be that ministers really think that their prayers do good and it may be that frogs imagine that their croaking brings spring.”

“Strange but true; those who have loved God most have loved man least.”

“They knew no better, but I do not propose to follow the example of a barbarian because he was honestly a barbarian.”

“Why should I allow that same God to tell me how to raise my kids who had to drown his own” ?

“If a man would follow, today, the teachings of the Old Testament, he would be a criminal. If he would follow strictly the teachings of the New, he would be insane.”

“Take from the Church the miraculous, the supernatural, the incomprehensible, the unreasonable, the impossible, the absurd and nothing but a vacuum remains.”

“I have little confidence in any enterprise or business or investment that promises dividends only after the death of the stockholders.”

“Ministers say that they teach charity. That is natural. They live on hand-outs. All beggars teach that others should give.”

“Science built the Academy, superstition the Inquisition.”

“If Christ, in fact, said: I came not to bring peace but a sword, it is the only prophecy in the New Testament that has been literally fulfilled.”

“I cannot see why we should expect an infinite God to do better in another world than he does in this.”

“Hands that help are far better than lips that pray.”

“I have always noticed that the people who have the smallest souls make the most fuss about getting them saved.”

“All the professors in all the religious colleges in this country rolled into one, would not equal Charles Darwin.”

“…If all the bones of all the victims of the Catholic Church could be gathered together, a monument higher than all the pyramids would rise…”

“A miracle is the badge and brand of fraud… No intelligent, honest man ever pretended to perform a miracle, and never will.”

“Do away with the miracles, and the superhuman character of Christ is destroyed. He becomes what he truly was, a man.”

“Either God should have written a book to fit my brain, or he should have made my brain to fit his book.”

“To succeed the theologian invades the cradle. In the minds of the innocent they plant the seeds of superstition. Save children from the pollution of this horror.”

“With soap, baptism is a good thing.”

“If a man would follow, today, the teachings of the Old Testament, he would be a criminal. If he would follow strictly the teachings of the New, he would be insane.”

“Give the Church a place in the Constitution, let her touch once more the sword of power, and the priceless fruit of all ages will turn to ashes on the lips of men.”

“Should I not give the real transcript of my mind? Or should I turn hypocrite and pretend what I do not feel, and hate myself forever after for being a cringing coward.”

“We do not want creeds; we do not want idols; we want knowledge; we want happiness.”

“Reason, observation, and experience; the Holy Trinity of science.”

“Religion can never reform mankind because religion is slavery.”

“If Christ was good enough to die for me, he certainly will not be bad enough to damn me for honestly failing to believe in his divinity.”

Robert G. Ingersoll: “God”

According to the theologians, God prepared this globe expressly for the habitation of his loved children, and yet he filled the forests with ferocious beasts; placed serpents in every path; stuffed the world with earthquakes, and adorned its surface with mountains of flame. Notwithstanding all this, we are told that the world is perfect; that it was created by a perfect being, and is therefore necessarily perfect. The next moment, these same persons will tell us that the world was cursed; covered with brambles, thistles and thorns, and that man was doomed to disease and death, simply because our poor, dear mother ate an apple contrary to the command of an arbitrary God.

Robert G. Ingersoll: “Improved Man”

The ‘improved man’ will be in favor of universal liberty – that is to say, he will be opposed to all kings and nobles, to all privileged classes. He will give to all others the rights he claims for himself. He will neither bow nor cringe, nor accept bowing and cringing from others. He will be neither master nor slave, neither prince nor peasant – simply man.

He will be the enemy of all caste, no matter whether its foundation is wealth, title or power, and of him it will be said: “Blessed is that man who is afraid of no man and of whom no man is afraid.”

The ‘improved man’ will be in favor of universal education. He will believe it the duty of every person to shed all the light he can, to the end that no child may be reared in darkness. By education he will mean the gaining of useful knowledge, the development of the mind along the natural paths that lead to human happiness.

He will not waste his time in ascertaining the foolish theories of extinct people or in studying the dead languages for the sake of understanding the theologies of ignorance and fear, but he will turn his attention to the affairs of life, and will do his utmost to see to it that every child has an opportunity to learn the demonstrated facts of science, the true history of the world, the great principles of right and wrong applicable to human conduct – the things necessary to the preservation of the individual and of the state, and such arts and industries as are essential to the preservation of all.

He will also endeavor to develop the mind in the direction of the beautiful – of the highest art – so that the palace in which the mind dwells may be enriched and rendered beautiful, to the end that these stones, called facts, may be changed into statues.

The ‘improved man’ will believe only in the religion of this world. He will have nothing to do with the miraculous and supernatural. He will find that there is no room in the universe for these things. He will know that happiness is the only good, and that everything that tends to the happiness of sentient beings is good, and that to do the things – and no other – that add to the happiness of man is to practice the highest possible religion. His motto will be: “Sufficient unto each world is the evil thereof.” He will know that each man should be his own priest, and that the brain is the real cathedral. He will know that in the realm of maid there is no authority – that majorities in this mental world can settle nothing – that each soul is the sovereign of its own world, and that it cannot abdicate without degrading itself. He will not bow to numbers or force; to antiquity or custom. He, standing under the flag of nature, under the blue and stars, will decide for himself. He will not endeavor by prayers and supplication, by fastings and genuflections, to change the mind of the “Infinite” or alter the course of nature; neither will he employ others to do those things in his place. He will have no confidence in the religion of idleness, and will give no part of what he earns to support parson or priest, archbishop or Pope. He will know that honest labor is the highest form of prayer. He will spend no time in ringing bells of swinging sensors, or in chanting the litanies of barbarism, but he will appreciate all that is artistic – that is beautiful – that tends to refine and ennoble the human race. He will not live a life of fear. He will stand in awe neither of man nor ghosts. He will enjoy not only the sunshine of life, but will bear with fortitude the darkest days. He will have no fear of death. About the grave, there will be no terrors, and his life will end as serenely as the sun rises.

The ‘improved man’ will be satisfied that the supernatural does not exist – that behind every fact, every thought and dream is an efficient cause.

He will know that every human action is a necessary product, and he will also know that men cannot be reformed by punishment, by degradation or by revenge. He will regard those who violate the laws of nature and the laws of states as victims of conditions, of circumstances, and he will do what he can for the well-being of his fellow-men.

The ‘improved man’ will not give his life to the accumulation of wealth. He will find no happiness in exciting the envy of his neighbors. He will not care to live in a palace while others who are good, industrious and kind are compelled to huddle in huts and dens.

He will know that great wealth is a great burden, and that to accumulate beyond the actual needs of a reasonable human being is to increase not wealth, but responsibility and trouble.

The ‘improved man’ will find his greatest joy in the happiness of others and he will know that the home is the real temple. He will believe in the democracy of the fire-side, and will reap his greatest reward in being loved by those whose lives he has enriched.

The ‘improved man’ will be self-poised, independent, candid and free. He will be a scientist. He will observe, investigate, experiment and demonstrate. He will use his sense and his senses. He will keep his mind open as the day to the hints and suggestions of nature. He will always be a student, a learner and a listener – a believer in intellectual hospitality. In the world of his brain there will be continuous summer, perpetual seed-time and harvest. Facts will be the foundation of his faith. In one hand he will carry the torch of truth, and with the other raise the fallen.

Robert G. Ingersoll: “The Religion of Reason”

To love justice, to long for the right, to love mercy, to pity the suffering, to assist the weak, to forget wrongs and remember benefits, to love the truth, to be sincere, to utter honest words, to love liberty, to wage relentless war against slavery in all its forms, to love wife and child and friend, to make a happy home, to love the beautiful in art, in nature, to cultivate the mind, to be familiar with the mighty thoughts that genius has expressed, the noble deeds of all the world, to cultivate courage and cheerfulness, to make others happy, to fill life with the splendor of generous acts, the warmth of loving words, to discard error, to destroy prejudice, to receive new truths with gladness, to cultivate hope, to see the calm beyond the storm, the dawn beyond the night, to do the best that can be done and then to be resigned;  this is the religion of reason, the creed of science. This satisfies the brain and heart.

Robert G. Ingersoll: “Hell”

I am told that I am in danger of hell; that for me to express my honest convictions is to excite the wrath of God. They inform me that unless I believe in a certain way, meaning their way, I am in danger of everlasting fire. There was a time when these threats whitened the faces of men with fear. That time has substantially passed away. For a hundred years hell has been gradually growing cool, the flames have been slowly dying out, the brimstone is nearly exhausted, the fires have been burning lower and lower, and the climate gradually changing. To such an extent has the change already been effected that if I were going there tonight I would take an overcoat and a box of matches. They say that the eternal future of man depends upon his belief. I deny it. A conclusion honestly arrived at by the brain cannot possibly be a crime; and the man who says it is, does not think so. The God who punishes it as a crime is simply an infamous tyrant. As for me, I would a thousand times rather go to perdition and suffer its torments with the brave, grand thinkers of the world, than go to heaven and keep the company of a God who would damn his children for an honest belief.

Robert G. Ingersoll: “The Bible, Facts and Miracles”

We have heard talk enough. We have listened to all the drowsy, idea-less, vapid sermons that we wish to hear. We have read your Bible and the works of your best minds. We have heard your prayers, your solemn groans and your reverential amens. All these amount to less than nothing. We want one fact. We beg at the doors of your churches for just one little fact. We pass our hats along your pews and under your pulpits and implore you for just one fact. We know all about your moldy wonders and your stale miracles. We want ‘this year’s fact.’ We ask only one. Give us one fact for charity. Your miracles are too ancient. The witnesses have been dead for two thousand years. Their reputation for ‘truth and veracity’ in the neighborhood where they resided is wholly unknown to us. Give us a new miracle, and substantiate it by witnesses who still have the cheerful habit of living in this world. Do not send us to Jericho to hear the winding horns, nor put us in the fire with Shadrach, Meshech and Abednego. Do not compel us to navigate the sea with Captain Jonah, nor dine with Mr. Ezekiel. There is no sort of use in sending us foxhunting with Samson. We have positively lost all interest in that little speech so eloquently delivered by Balaam’s inspired donkey. It is worse than useless to show us fishes with money in their mouths, and call our attention to vast multitudes stuffing themselves with five crackers and two sardines. We demand a new miracle, and we demand it now. Let the Church furnish at least one, or forever hold her peace.

Robert G. Ingersoll: “Jesus Christ”

For many centuries and by many millions of people, Christ has been worshiped as God. Millions and millions of eulogies on his character have been pronounced by priest and layman, in all of which his praises were measured only by the limitations of language – words were regarded as insufficient to paint his perfections.

In his praise it was impossible to be extravagant. Sculptor, poet and painter exhausted their genius in the portrayal of the peasant, who was in fact the creator of all worlds.

His wisdom excited the wonder, his sufferings the pity and his “resurrection” and “ascension” the astonishment of the world.

He was regarded as perfect man and infinite God. It was believed that in the Gospels was found the perfect history of his life, his words and works, his death, his triumph over the grave, and his return to heaven. For many centuries his perfection, his divinity – have been defended by sword and fire.

By the altar was the scaffold – in the cathedral, the dungeon – the chamber of torture.

The story of Christ was told by mothers to their babes. For the most part his story was the beginning and end of education. It was wicked to doubt – infamous to deny.

Heaven was the reward for belief and hell the destination of the denier.

All the forces of what we call society were directed against investigation. Every avenue to the mind was closed. On all the highways of thought, Christians placed posts and boards, and on the boards were the words ‘no thoroughfare,’ ‘no crossing.’ The windows of the soul were darkened – the doors were barred. Light was regarded as the enemy of mankind.

During these Christian years faith was rewarded with position, wealth and power. Faith was the path to fame and honor. The man who investigated was the enemy, the assassin of souls. The creed was barricaded on every side, above it were the glories of heaven – below were the agonies of hell. The soldiers of the cross were strangers to pity. Only traitors to God were shocked by the murder of an unbeliever. The true Christian was a savage. His virtues were ferocious, and compared with his vices were beneficent. The drunkard was a better citizen than the saint. The libertine and prostitute were far nearer human, nearer moral, than those who pleased God by persecuting their fellows.

The man who thought, and expressed his thoughts, died in a dungeon – on the scaffold or in flames.

The sincere Christian was insane. His one object was to save his soul. He despised all the pleasures of sense. He believed that his nature was depraved and that his desires were wicked.

He fasted and prayed – deserted his wife and children – inflicted tortures on himself and sought by pain endured to gain the crown.

Robert G. Ingersoll: “Two Men”

Here are two men. One is industrious, frugal, honest, and generous. He has a happy home – loves his wife and children – fills their lives with sunshine. He enjoys study, thought, music, and all the subtleties of art – but he does not believe the creed – cares nothing for sacred books, worships no God and fears no devil. The other is ignorant, coarse, brutal, beats his wife and children – but he believes – regards the Bible as inspired – bows to the priests, counts his beads, says his prayers, confesses and contributes, and the Catholic Church and the Protestant churches declare that he is the better man. The ignorant believer, coarse and brutal as he is, is going to heaven. He will be washed in the blood of the lamb. He will have wings – a harp and a halo. The intelligent and generous man who loves his fellow men – who develops his brain, who enjoys the beautiful, is going to hell – to the eternal prison. Such is the justice of God – the mercy of Christ.

Robert G. Ingersoll: “Ingersoll’s Vow”

When I became convinced that the Universe is natural – that all the ghosts and gods are myths, there entered into my brain, into my soul, into every drop of my blood, the sense, the feeling, the joy of freedom. The walls of my prison crumbled and fell, the dungeon was flooded with light, and all the bolts, and bars, and manacles became dust. I was no longer a servant, a serf, or a slave. There was for me no master in all the wide world – not even in infinite space. I was free – free to think, to express my thoughts – free to live to my own ideal – free to live for myself and those I loved – free to use all my faculties, all my senses – free to spread imagination’s wings – free to investigate, to guess and dream and hope – free to judge and determine for myself – free to reject all ignorant and cruel creeds, all the “inspired” books that savages have produced, and all the barbarous legends of the past – free from popes and priests – free from all the “called” and “set apart” – free from sanctified mistakes and holy lies – free from the fear of eternal pain – free from the winged monsters of the night – free from devils, ghosts, and gods. For the first time I was free. There were no prohibited places in all the realms of thought – no air, no space, where fancy could not spread her painted wings – no chains for my limbs – no lashes for my back – no fires for my flesh – no master’s frown or threat – no following another’s steps – no need to bow, or cringe, or crawl, or utter lying words. I was free. I stood erect and fearlessly, joyously, faced all worlds.

And then my heart was filled with gratitude, with thankfulness, and went out in love to all the heroes, the thinkers who gave their lives for the liberty of hand and brain – for the freedom of labor and thought – to those who fell in the fierce fields of war, to those who died in dungeons bound with chains – to those who proudly mounted scaffold’s stairs – to those whose bones were crushed, whose flesh was scarred and torn – to those by fire consumed – to all the wise, the good, the brave of every land, whose thoughts and deeds have given freedom to the sons of men. And then I vowed to grasp the torch that they had held, and hold it high, that light might conquer darkness still.

Robert G. Ingersoll: “The Bible”

What follows are excerpts taken from the various books of the Bible. This is just a brief collection of the kind of filth that the “holy book” contains. This should demonstrate to Jews and Christians alike that what they hear in churches and synagogues is hand-picked by priests and rabbis in an effort to “demonstrate” what a loving, peaceful being God is.  However, I urge you to pick up the Bible and read it for yourself.  Then and only then will you actually be able to determine how absolutely absurd and ridiculous the book really is.

From the start, in the book of Genesis, you will notice that the authors of the “holy book” had no knowledge of our world. Yet certainly, a book that is supposed to be the word of God (omniscient as we are told he is) should be accurate in every detail. But you will soon see that there are actually two creation stories in the book of Genesis,  with a completely different order of creation events. You will also notice that Eve was tempted by a snake, who actually spoke to her; that people lived hundreds of years; that the all-knowing God apparently didn’t know that man was going to “sin,” so he had his children drowned by a great flood; that Noah, father of all of earth’s inhabitants following the flood, was six hundred years old when he supposedly constructed  a wooden arc; that he presumably carried a male and female of every species of animal to safety after 40 days and nights of unrelenting rain which covered the peaks of the highest mountains… ! Need I continue?

I know what many of you would say right about now… These are just stories, they are not to be taken literally. Certainly we know that people don’t live to be hundreds of years old, that animals do not speak, etc. I agree, but then what about the rest of the  stories in the Bible, are these also make-believe? Was Jesus born of a virgin, did he walk on water, resurrect the dead, and did he himself come back to life after being dead for three days? Certainly if one concludes that the Bible is filled with fairy tales (which it is)  one would also need to conclude that we cannot believe ANY of its content? Isn’t it illogical to dismiss many of the absurd stories contained in the Bible as absolutely false while accepting other equally absurd stories as true? Of course it is.

So now we come to arguably the most spent word in religious discussions: FAITH. It all comes down to faith; belief in something for which there is no evidence. One might as well believe in (and worship) flying elephants, after all, no one can prove that they don’t exist.

I hope that you do read the Bible excerpts below as well as the entire Bible, although I don’t believe most of you will have the stomach for it.  Bear in mind that the excerpts below are taken from the New American version of the Catholic Bible, so there is a good chance that the words will not match verbatim the Bible you may have at home. Nonetheless, they will match well enough that you will be able to confirm the veracity of the statements.

By the way, I am not only picking on the Bible. The Koran, being that it took a great deal of material from the Bible since Islam is a much more recent faith, is full of the same kinds of ridiculous fairy tales, as well as the filth and hatred that the Bible advocates. In short, all three of the world’s major religions are equally bogus.

Make sure you also read the opinion of an atheist, by Robert G. Ingersoll, at the end of this post. TGO

A Sampling of God’s Love and Compassion

Old Testament -

Genesis 3:16 –

I will intensify the pangs of your childbearing; in pain shall you bring forth children. Yet your urge shall be for your husband, and he shall be your master.

Genesis 38:9, 38:10 –

… So whenever he had relations with his brother’s widow, he wasted his seed on the ground, to avoid contributing offspring for his brother. What he did greatly offended the Lord, and the Lord took his life too.

Exodus 21:20, 21:21 –

When a man strikes his male or female slave with a rod so hard that the slave dies under the hand, he shall be punished. If, however, the slave survives for a day or two, he is not to be punished, since the slave is his own property.

Leviticus 21:9 –

A priest’s daughter who loses her honor by committing fornication and thereby dishonors her father also, shall be burned to death.

Leviticus 25:44, 25:45, 25:46 –

Slaves, male and female, you may indeed possess, provided you buy them from among the neighboring nations. You may also buy them from among the aliens who reside with you and from their children who are reared in your land. Such slaves you may own as chattels, and leave to your sons as their hereditary property, making them perpetual slaves…

Deuteronomy 21:18, 21:19, 21:20, 21:21 –

If a man has a stubborn and unruly son who will not listen to his father or mother, and will not obey them even though they chastise him, his father and mother shall have him apprehended and brought out to the elders at the gate of his home city, where they shall say to those city elders, “this son of ours is a stubborn and unruly fellow who will not listen to us; he is a glutton and a drunkard.” Then all his fellow citizens shall stone him to death. Thus shall you purge the evil from your midst, and all Israel, on hearing of it, shall fear.

Deuteronomy 22:20, 22:21 –

… But if this charge is true, and evidence of the girl’s virginity is not found, they shall bring the girl to the entrance of her father’s house and there her townsmen shall stone her to death.

Deuteronomy 25:11, 25:12 –

When two men are fighting and the wife of one intervenes to save her husband from the blows of his opponent, if she stretches out her hand and seizes the latter by his private parts, you shall chop off her hand without pity.

2 Samuel 5:13 –

David took more concubines and wives in Jerusalem.

2 Samuel 12:11 –

Thus says the Lord: “I will bring evil upon you out of your own house. I will take your wives while you live to see it, and will give them to your neighbor. He shall lie with your wives in broad daylight.

2 Kings 2:23, 2: 24 –

From there Elisha went up to Bethel. While he was on the way, some small boys came out of the city and jeered at him. “Go up, baldhead,” they shouted, “go up, baldhead!” The prophet turned and saw them, and he cursed them in the name of the Lord. Then two she-bears came out of the woods and tore forty-two of the children to pieces.

Psalm 137:9 –

Happy are those who seize your children and smash them against a rock.

Isaiah 3:17 –

The Lord shall cover the scalps of Zion’s daughters with scabs, and the Lord shall bare their heads.

Isaiah 13:9, 13:15, 13:16 –

Lo’, the day of the Lord comes, cruel, with wrath and burning anger; to lay waste the land and destroy the sinners within it! Everyone who is caught shall be run through; to a man, they shall fall by the sword. Their infants shall be dashed to pieces in their sight; their houses shall be plundered and their wives ravished.

Isaiah 45:7 –

I form the light and create the darkness, I make well-being and create woe; I, the Lord, do all these things.

Jeremiah 8:9, 8:10 –

The wise are confounded, dismayed and ensnared; since they have rejected the word of the Lord, of what avail is their wisdom? Therefore, I will give their wives to strangers, their fields to spoilers.

Ezekiel 5:9, 5:10 –

Because of all your abominations I will do with you what I have never done before, the like of which I will never do again. This means that fathers within you shall eat sons, and sons shall eat fathers. I will inflict punishments upon you and scatter all that remain of your people in every direction.

Ezekiel 5:17 –

I will send famine against you, and wild beasts that shall rob you of your children. Pestilence and bloodshed shall stalk through you, and I will bring the sword upon you. I, the Lord, have spoken!

Ezekiel 9:5, 9:6 –

… Pass through the city after him and strike! Do not look on them with pity or show mercy! Old men, youths and maidens, women and children – wipe them out!

Ezekiel 32:5, 32:6 –

I will leave your flesh on the mountains, and fill the valleys with your carcass. I will water the land with what flows from you, and the river beds shall be filled with your blood.

Ezekiel 35:8, 35:9 –

With the slain I will fill your hills, your valleys, and your ravines (in them the slain shall fall by the sword) – Desolate I will make you forever, and leave your cities without inhabitants; then you shall know that I am the Lord.

Hosea 13:8 –

I will attack them like a bear robbed of its young, and tear their hearts from their breasts; I will devour them on the spot like a lion, as though a wild beast were to rend them.

Zechariah 14:1, 14:2 –

‘Lo, a day shall come for the Lord when the spoils shall be divided in your midst, and I will gather all the nations against Jerusalem for battle: the city shall be taken, houses plundered, women ravished; half of the city shall go into exile, but the rest of the people shall not be removed from the city.

Malachi 2:3 –

… I will strew dung on your faces, the dung of your feasts, and you will be carried off with it.

New Testament -

Mathew 10:34, 10:35, 10:36, 10:37, 10:38 –

Do not think that I have come to bring peace on earth. I have come to bring not peace but the sword. For I have come to set a man ‘against his father, a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law; and one’s enemies will be those of his household.’ Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me, and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me; and whoever does not take up his cross and follow me is not worthy of me.

Mathew 13:49, 13:50 –

Thus it will be at the end of the age. The angels will go out and separate the wicked from the righteous and throw them into the fiery furnace, where there will be wailing and grinding of teeth.

Luke 12:47, 12:48 –

That servant who knew his master’s will but did not make preparations nor act in accord with his will shall be beaten severely; and the servant who was ignorant of his master’s will but acted in a way deserving of a severe beating shall be beaten only lightly…

Luke 14:26 –

If any one comes to me without hating his father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple.

Luke 19:27 –

Now as for those enemies of mine who did not want me as their king, bring them here and slay them before me.

John 3:36 –

Whoever beliefs in the Son has eternal life, but whoever disobeys the Son will not see life, but the wrath of God remains upon him.

1 Corinthians14:34, 14:35 –

… Women should keep silent in the churches, for they are not allowed to speak, but should be subordinate, as even the law says. But if they want to learn anything, they should ask their husbands at home. For it is improper for a woman to speak in the church.

Ephesians 5:22 –

Wives should be subordinate to their husbands as to the Lord.

1 Timothy 2:11, 2:12 –

A woman must receive instruction silently and under complete control. I do not permit a woman to teach or to have authority over a man. She must be quiet.

Titus 2:9, 2:10 –

Slaves are to be under the control of their masters in all respects, giving them satisfaction, not talking back to them or stealing from them, but exhibiting complete good faith, so as to adorn the doctrine of God our savior in every way.

1 Peter 3:1, 3:2–

Likewise, you wives should be subordinate to your husbands so that, even if some disobey the word, they may be won over without a word by their wives’ conduct when they observe your reverent and chaste behavior.

Robert G. Ingersoll: The opinion of an atheist –

… Ministers wonder how I can be wicked enough to attack the Bible.

I will tell them: This book, the Bible, has persecuted, even unto death, the wisest and the best. This book stayed and stopped the onward movement of the human race. This book poisoned the fountains of learning and misdirected the energies of man.

This book is the enemy of freedom, the support of slavery. This book sowed the seeds of hatred in families and nations, fed the flames of war, and impoverished the world. This book is the breastwork of kings and tyrants – the enslaver of women and children. This book has corrupted parliaments and courts. This book has made colleges and universities the teachers of error and the haters of science. This book has filled Christendom with hateful, cruel, ignorant and warring sects. This book taught men to kill their fellows for religion’s sake.

This book funded the Inquisition, invented the instruments of torture, built the dungeons in which the good and loving languished, forged the chains that rusted in their flesh, erected the scaffolds whereon they died. This book piled fagots about the feet of the just. This book drove reason from the minds of millions and filled the asylums with the insane.

This book has caused fathers and mothers to shed the blood of their babes. This book was the auction block on which the slave-mother stood when she was sold from her child.

This book filled the sails of the slave-trader and made merchandise of human flesh. This book lighted the fires that burned “witches” and “wizards.” This book filled the darkness with ghouls and ghosts, and the bodies of men and women with devils.

This book polluted the souls of men with the infamous dogma of eternal pain. This book made credulity the greatest of virtues, and investigation the greatest of crimes. This book filled nations with hermits, monks and nuns – with the pious and the useless. This book placed the ignorant and unclean saint above the philosopher and philanthropist. This book taught man to despise the joys of this life, so that he might be happy in another – to waste this world for the sake of the next.

I attack this book because it is the enemy of human liberty – the greatest obstruction across the highway of human progress.

Let me ask the ministers one question: How can you be wicked enough to defend this book?

Robert G. Ingersoll: “The Civilization of Man…”

The civilization of man has increased just to the same extent that religious power has decreased. The intellectual advancement of man depends upon how often he can exchange an old superstition for a new truth. The Church never enabled a human being to make even one of these exchanges; on the contrary, all her power has been used to prevent them. In spite, however, of the Church, man found that some of his religious conceptions were wrong. By reading his Bible, he found that the ideas of his God were more cruel and brutal than those of the most depraved savage. He also discovered that his holy book was filled with ignorance, and that it must have been written by persons wholly unacquainted with the phenomena by which we are surrounded; and now and then, some man had the goodness and courage to speak his honest thoughts. In every age some thinker, some doubter, some investigator, some hater of hypocrisy, some despiser of sham, some brave lover of the right, has gladly, proudly, and heroically braved the ignorant fury of superstition for the sake of man and truth. These divine men were generally torn in pieces by the worshippers of the gods. Socrates was poisoned because he lacked reverence for some of the deities. Christ was crucified by a religious rabble for the crime of blasphemy. Nothing is more gratifying to a religionist than to destroy his enemies at the command of God. Religious persecution springs from a due admixture of love towards God and hatred towards man.

Robert G. Ingersoll: “Secularism”

Several people have asked me the meaning of this term.

Secularism is the religion of humanity; it embraces the affairs of this world; it is interested in everything that touches the welfare of a sentient being; it advocates attention to the particular planet in which we happen to live; it means that each individual counts for something; it is a declaration of intellectual independence; it means that the pew is superior to the pulpit, that those who bear the burdens shall have the profits and that they who fill the purse shall hold the strings. It is a protest against theological oppression, against ecclesiastical tyranny, against being the serf, subject or slave of any phantom, or of the priest of any phantom. It is a protest against wasting this life for the sake of one that we know not of. It proposes to let the gods take care of themselves. It is another name for common sense; that is to say, the adaptation of means to such ends as are desired and understood.

Secularism believes in building a home here, in this world. It trusts to individual effort, to energy, to intelligence, to observation and experience rather than to the unknown and the supernatural. It desires to be happy on this side of the grave.

Secularism means food and fireside, roof and raiment, reasonable work and reasonable leisure, the cultivation of the tastes, the acquisition of knowledge, the enjoyment of the arts, and it promises for the human race comfort, independence, intelligence, and above all liberty. It means the abolition of sectarian feuds, of theological hatreds. It means the cultivation of friendship and intellectual hospitality. It means the living for ourselves and each other; for the present instead of the past, for this world rather than for another. It means the right to express your thoughts in spite of popes, priests, and gods.

It means that impudent idleness shall no longer live upon the labor of honest men. It means the destruction of the business of those who trade in fear. It proposes to give serenity and content to the human soul. It will put out the fires of eternal pain. It is striving to do away with violence and vice, with ignorance, poverty and disease. It lives for the ever-present today, and the ever-coming tomorrow. It does not believe in praying and receiving, but in earning and deserving. It regards work as worship, labor as prayer, and wisdom as the savior of mankind. It says to every human being: take care of yourself so that you may be able to help others; adorn your life with the gems called good deeds; illuminate your path with the sunlight called friendship and love.

Secularism is a religion, a religion that is understood. It has no mysteries, no mumblings, no priests, no ceremonies, no falsehoods, no miracles, and no persecutions. It considers the lilies of the field, and takes thought for the ‘morrow. It says to the whole world: work so that you may eat, drink, and be clothed; work so that you may enjoy; work so that you may not want; work so that you may give and never need.