 Ingersoll's Lecture on Hell, Part 1 This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Lectures of Colonel Robert Green Ingersoll, lecture number 3, Ingersoll's Lecture on Hell. Ladies and gentlemen, the idea of a hell was born of revenge and brutality on the one side and cowardice on the other. In my judgment, the American people are too brave, too charitable, too generous, too magnanimous to believe in the infamous dogma of an eternal hell. I have no respect for any human being who believes in it. I have no respect for the man who will pollute the imagination of childhood with that infamous lie. I have no respect for the man who will add to the sorrows of this world with the frightful dogma. I have no respect for any man who endeavors to put that infinite cloud, that infinite shadow over the heart of humanity. I want to be frank with you. I dislike this doctrine. I hate it. I despise it. I defy this doctrine. For a good many years, the learned intellects of Christendom have been examining into the religions of other countries in the world the religions of the thousands that have passed away. They examined into the religions of Egypt, the religion of Greece, the religion of Rome, and of the Scandinavian countries. In the presence of the ruins of those religions, the learned men of Christendom insisted that those religions were baseless, that they are fraudulent, but they have all passed away. While this was being done, the Christianity of our day applauded, and when the learned men got through with the religions of other countries, they turned their attention to our religion. By the same mode of reasoning, by the same methods, by the same arguments that they used with the old religions, they were overturning the religion of our day. Why? Every religion in this world is the work of man, every one. Every book has been written by man. Men existed before the books. If books had existed before man, I might admit there was such a thing as a sacred volume. In my judgment, man has made every religion and made every book. There is another thing to which I wish to call your attention. Man never had an idea. Man will never have an idea, except those supplied to him by his surroundings. Every idea in the world that man has came to him by nature. Man cannot conceive of anything the hint of which you have not received from your surroundings. You can imagine an animal with the hoof of a bison, with the pouch of the kangaroo, with the wings of an eagle, with the beak of a bird, and with the tail of the lion. And yet every point of this monster you borrowed from nature. Everything you can think of, everything you can dream of, is borrowed from your surroundings. Everything. And there is nothing on this earth coming from any other sphere whatever. Man has produced every religion in the world. And why? Because each generation bodes forth the knowledge and the belief of the people at the time it was made. And in no book is there any knowledge found except that of the people who wrote it. In no book is there found any knowledge except that of the time in which it was written. Barbarians have produced and always will produce barbarian religions. Barbarians have produced and always will produce ideas in harmony with their surroundings. And all the religions of the past were produced by barbarians. Every one of them. We are making religions today. We are making religions tonight. That is to say, we are changing them. And the religion of today is not the religion of one year ago. What changed it? Science has done it. Education and the growing heart of man has done it. We are making these religions every day. And just to the extent that we become civilized ourselves, will we improve the religion of our fathers? If the religion of one hundred years ago compared with the religion of today is so low, what will it be in one thousand years? If we continue making the inroads upon orthodoxy, which we have been making during the last twenty-five years, what will it be fifty years from tonight? It will have to be re-monetized by that time or else it will not be legal tender. In my judgment, every religion that stands by appealing to miracles is dishonor. Every religion in the world has denounced every other religion as a fraud. That proves to me that they all tell the truth about others. Why? Suppose Mr. Smith should tell Mr. Brown that he, Smith, saw a corpse get out of the grave and that when he first saw it, it was covered with the worms of death and that in his presence it was reclothed in healthy, beautiful flesh. And then suppose Mr. Brown should tell Mr. Smith, I saw the same thing myself. I was in a graveyard once and I saw a dead man rise. Suppose then that Smith should say to Brown, you're a liar. And Brown should reply to Smith and you're a liar. What would you think? It would simply be because Smith, never having seen it himself, didn't believe Brown and Brown never having seen it didn't believe Smith had. Now if Smith had really seen it and Brown told him he had seen it too, then Smith would regard it as a corroboration of his story and he would regard Brown as one of his principal witnesses. But on the contrary he says, you never saw it. So when a man says, I was upon Mount Sinai and there I met God and he told me, stand aside and let me drown these people. And another man says to him, I was upon a mountain and there I met the supreme Brahma. And Moses says that's not true and contends that the other man never did see Brahma. And he contends that Moses never did see God. That is in my judgment proof that they both speak truly. Every religion then has charged every other religion with having been an unmitigated fraud. And yet if any man had ever seen the miracle himself his mind would be prepared to believe that another man had seen the same thing. Whenever a man appeals to a miracle he tells what is not true. Truth relies upon reason and the undeviating course of all the laws of nature. Now we have a religion that is some people have. I do not pretend to have religion I believe in living for this world. That's my doctrine in living here now today tonight. That's my doctrine to make everybody happy that you can. Now let the future take care of itself. And if I ever touch the shores of another world I will be just as ready and anxious to get into some remunerative employment as anybody else. Now we have got in this country a religion which men have preached for about 1800 years. And just in proportion as their belief in that religion has grown great men have grown mean and wicked. Just in proportion as they have ceased to believe it men have become just and charitable. And if they believe it tonight as they once believed it I wouldn't be allowed to speak in the city of New York. It is from the coldness and infidelity of the churches that I get my right to preach. And I say it to their credit. Now we have a religion. What is it? They say in the first place that all this vast universe was created by a deity. I don't know whether it was or not. They say too that had it not been for the first sin of Adam there would never have been any devil in this world. And if there had been no devil there would have been no sin. And if there had been no sin there never would have been any death. For my part I am glad there was somebody had to die to give me room. And when my turn comes I'll be willing to let somebody else take my place. But whether there is another life or not if there is any being who gave me this I shall thank him from the bottom of my heart because upon the whole my life has been a joy. Now they say because of this first sin all men were consigned to eternal hell. And this because Adam was our representative. Well I always had an idea that my representative ought to live somewhere about the same time I do. I always had an idea that I should have some voice in choosing my representative. And if I had a voice I never should have voted for the old gentleman called Adam. Now in order to regain man from the frightful hell of eternity Christ himself came to this world and took upon himself flesh. And in order that we might know the road to eternal salvation he gave us a book. And that book is called the Bible. And whenever that Bible has been read men have immediately commenced cutting each other's throats. Wherever that Bible has been circulated they have invented inquisitions and instruments of torture and they commenced hating each other with all their hearts. But I am told now, we are all told, that this Bible is the foundation of civilization. But I say that this Bible is the foundation of hell. And we shall never get rid of the dogma of hell until we get rid of the idea that it is an inspired book. Now what does the Bible teach? I am not going to talk about what this minister or that minister says it teaches. The question is ought a man to be sent to eternal hell for not believing this Bible to be the work of a merciful father. And the only way to find out is to read it. And a very few people do read it now. I will read a few passages. This is a book to be read in the schools in order to make our children charitable and good. This is the book that we must read in order that our children may have ideas of mercy, charity, and justice. Does the Bible teach mercy? Now be honest. I read, I will make mine arrows drunk with blood, and the sword shall devour flesh. Deuteronomy 32, 42. Pretty good start for a merciful God. That thy foot may be dipped in the blood of thine enemies and the tongue of thy dogs in the same. Psalms 98, 23. Again, and the Lord, thy God will put out those nations before thee by little and little. Thou mayest not consume them at once lest the beasts of the field increase upon thee. Deuteronomy 7, 22. But the Lord thy God shall deliver them unto thee, and shall destroy them with a mighty destruction until they be destroyed. And he shall deliver their kings into thine hand, and thou shalt destroy their name from under heaven. There shall no man be able to stand before thee, until thou have destroyed them. Deuteronomy 7, 23 and 24. So Joshua came and all the people of war with him against them by waters of Merom suddenly, and they fell upon them. And the Lord delivered them into the land of Israel, who smote them, and chased them into the great Zidane, and into Misrefothimeum, and unto the valley of Mizpeth eastward. And they smote them until they left them none remaining. And Joshua did unto them as the Lord bade him. He hewed their horses and burnt their chariots with fire. And Joshua at that time turned back and took Hazor, and smote the king thereof with the sword. For Hazor before time was the head of all those kingdoms. And they smote all the souls that were therein with the edge of the sword, utterly destroying them. There was not any left to breathe. And he burnt Hazor with fire. And all the cities of those kings, and all the kings of them, did Joshua take, and smote them with the edge of the sword. And he utterly destroyed them as Moses the servant of the Lord commanded. But as for the cities that stood still in their strength, Israel burnt none of them save Hazor only. That did Joshua burn. And all the spoil of these cities and the cattle, the children of Israel, took for a prey unto themselves. But every man they smote with the edge of the sword, brave, until they had destroyed them. Neither left they any to breathe, as the moral God had commanded them. As the Lord commanded Moses, his servant, so did Moses command Joshua. And so did Joshua. He left nothing undone of all that the Lord commanded Moses. So Joshua took all that land, the hills, and all the South Country, and all the land of Goshen and the valley of the same, even from the Mount Halak that goeth up to Seher, even unto Balgad in the valley of Lebanon under Mount Hermon, and all their kings he took and smote them and slew them. Joshua made war a long time with all those kings. There was not a city that made peace with the children of Israel, save the heavites, the inhabitants of Gideon, all other they took in battle. For it was of the Lord to harden their hearts that they should come against Israel in battle, that he might destroy them utterly, and that they might have no favor, but that he might destroy them as the Lord commanded Moses. And at that time came Joshua and cut off the Anakims from the mountains, from Hebron, from Debit, from Annab, and from all the mountains of Judah, and from all the mountains of Israel. Joshua destroyed them utterly with their cities. There was none of the Anakims left in the land of the children of Israel, only in Gaza, in Gath, and in Ashdod there remained. So Joshua took the whole land according to all that the Lord said unto Moses, and Joshua gave it for an inheritance unto Israel according to their divisions by their tribes, and the land rested from war. Joshua 11, 7 to 23. When thou comest nigh unto a city to fight against it, then proclaim peace unto it, and if it shall be, if it make the answer of peace, and open unto thee, then it shall be that all the people that is found therein shall be tributaries unto thee, and they shall serve thee, and if it will make no peace with thee, but will make war against thee, then thou shalt be siege it, and when the Lord thy God hath delivered it into thine hands, thou shalt smite every male thereof with the edge of the sword. But the women and the little ones, and the cattle, and all that is in the city, even all the spoil thereof, shalt thou take unto thyself, and thou shalt eat the spoil of thine enemies, which the Lord thy God hath given thee. Thus shalt thou do unto all the cities, which are very far off from thee, which are not of the cities of these nations. But of the cities of these people, which the Lord thy God doth give thee for an inheritance, thou shalt save alive nothing that breatheth, but thou shalt utterly destroy them. Deuteronomy 20.10-17. Neither the old men, nor the women, nor the maidens, nor the sweet dimpled babes, smiling upon the lap of his mother, were to be spared. And he said unto them, thus sayeth the Lord God of Israel, a merciful God indeed, put every man his sword by his side, and go in and out from gate to gate, throughout the camp, and slay every man his brother, and every man his companion, and every man his neighbor. Exodus 32.27. Now recollect these instructions were given to an army of invasion, and the people who were slayed were guilty of the crime of fighting for their homes. Oh, most merciful God! The Old Testament is full of curses, vengeance, jealousy, and hatred, and of barbarity and brutality. Now do you not for one moment believe that these words were written by the most merciful God? Don't pluck from the heart the sweet flowers of piety, and crush them by superstition. Do not believe that God ever ordained the murder of innocent women, and helpless babes. Do not let this supposition turn your hearts into stone, when anything is said to have been written by the most merciful God, and the thing is not merciful. Then I deny it, and say he never wrote it. I will live by the standard of reason, and if thinking in accordance with reason takes me to perdition, then I will go to hell with my reason rather than to heaven without it. Now does this Bible teach political freedom, or does it teach political tyranny? Does it teach a man to resist oppression? Does it teach a man to tear from the throne of tyranny the crowned thing and robber called a king? Let us see. Let every soul be subject to the higher powers, for there is no power but of God, the powers that are ordained of God. Romans 12.1. All the kings, and princes, and governors, and thieves, and robbers that happened to be in authority, were placed there by the infinite Father of all. Whosoever therefore resisteth the power resisteth the ordinance of God. And when George Washington resisted the power of George III, he resisted the power of God. And when our fathers said resistance to tyrants is obedience to God, they falsified the Bible itself. For he is the minister of God to thee for good, but if thou do that which is evil be afraid, for he beareth not the sword in vain, for he is the minister of God, revenger, to execute wrath upon him that doeth evil. Wherefore ye must needs be subject not only for wrath, but also for conscience's sake. Romans 13.4 and 5. I deny this wretched doctrine. Wherever the sword of rebellion is drawn to protect the rights of man, I am a rebel. Wherever the sword of rebellion is drawn to give man liberty, to clothe him in all his just rights, I am on the side of that rebellion. I deny that the rulers are crowned by the most high. The rulers are the people, and the presidents and others are but the servants of the people. All authority comes from the people and not from the aristocracy of the air. Upon these texts of Scripture which I have just read rest the thrones of Europe, and these are the voices that are repeated from age to age by brainless kings and heartless kings. Does the Bible give woman her rights? Is this Bible humane? Does it treat woman as she ought to be treated, or is it barbarian? Let us see. Let the woman learn in silence with all subjection. 1 Timothy 2, 11. If a woman would know anything, let her ask her husband. Imagine the ignorance of a lady who had only that source of information. But I suffer not a woman to teach, not to usurp authority over the man, but to be in silence. For Adam was first formed, then Eve. What magnificent reason. And Adam was not deceived, but the woman being deceived was in the transgression. Splendid. But I would have you know that the head of every man is Christ, and the head of the woman is the man, and the head of Christ is God. That is to say, there is as much difference between the woman and man as there is between Christ and man. This is the liberty of woman. For the man is not of the woman, but the woman is of the man. It was the man's cut till that was taken not the woman's. Neither was the man created for the woman. Well, what was he created for? But the woman was created for the man. Wives, submit yourselves unto your husbands as unto the Lord. There's liberty. For the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the church, and he is the savior of the body. Therefore, as the church is subject unto Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands in everything. Good again. Even the savior didn't put man and woman upon an equality. The man could divorce the wife, but the wife could not divorce the husband. And according to the Old Testament, the mother had to ask for forgiveness for being the mother of babes. Splendid. Here is something from the Old Testament. When thou goest forth to war against thine enemies, and the Lord thy God hath delivered them into thine hands, and thou hast taken them captive, and seized among the captives a beautiful woman, and hath a desire unto her that thou wouldst have her to thy wife, then thou shalt bring her to thine house, and she shall shave her head and pair her nails. Deuteronomy 21, 10-12. That is in self-defense, I suppose. This sacred book, this foundation of human liberty, of morality, does it teach concubinage and polygamy? Read the 31st chapter of Numbers. Read the 21st chapter of Deuteronomy. Read the blessed lives of Abraham, of David, or of Solomon. And then tell me that the sacred scripture does not teach polygamy and concubinage. All the language of the world is not sufficient to express the infamy of polygamy. It makes a man a beast, and woman a stone. It destroys the fireside, and makes virtue an outcast. And yet it is the doctrine of the Bible, the doctrine defended by Luther and Melanchthon. It takes from our language those sweetest words, father, husband, wife, and mother, and takes us back to barbarism, and fills our hearts with the crawling, slimy serpents of loathsome lust. Does the Bible teach the existence of devils? Of course it does. Yes, it teaches not only the existence of a good being, but a bad being. This good being had to have a home. That home was heaven. This bad being had to have a home, and that home was hell. This hell is supposed to be nearer to earth than I would care to have it, and to be peopleed with spirits, spooks, hobgoblins, and all the fiery shapes with which the imagination of ignorance and fear could people that horrible place. And the Bible teaches the existence of hell, and this big devil, and all these little devils. The Bible teaches the doctrine of witchcraft, and makes us believe that there are sorcerers and witches, and that the dead could be raised by the power of sorcery. Does anybody believe it now? Then said Saul unto his servants, Seek me a woman that hath a familiar spirit, that I may go to her and inquire of her. And his servants said to him, Behold, there is a woman that hath a familiar spirit at Indor. And Saul disguised himself and put on other raiment, and he went, and two men with him, and they came to the woman by night. And he said, I pray thee, divine unto me by the familiar spirit, and bring me him up, whom I shall name unto thee. That was a pretty good spiritual seance. And the woman said unto him, Behold, thou knowest what Saul hath done, how he hath cut off those that have familiar spirits, and the wizards out of the land. Wherefore then laest thou a snare for my life, to cause me to die? And Saul swear to her by the Lord, saying, As the Lord liveth there shall be no punishment happen to thee for this thing. Then said the woman, Whom shall I bring up unto thee? And he said, Bring me up, Samuel. And when the woman saw Samuel, she cried with a loud voice, and the woman spoke to Saul, saying, Why hast thou deceived me for thou art Saul? And the king said unto her, Be not afraid for what sawest thou? And the woman said unto Saul, I saw gods ascending out of the earth. And he said unto her, What form is he of? And she said, An old man cometh up, And he is covered with a mantle, And Saul perceived that it was Samuel, And he stooped with his face to the ground, And bowed himself one Samuel, twenty-eight, seven through fourteen. In another place he declares that witchcraft is an abomination unto the Lord. He wanted no rivals in this business. Now what does the New Testament teach? Then was Jesus led up of the spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil, and when he had fasted forty days and forty nights, he was afterward unhungered. And when the tempter came to him, he said, If thou be the Son of God, command that these stones be made bread. But he answered and said, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God. Then the devil taketh him up into the holy city, and setteth him on a pinnacle of the temple. And sayeth unto him, If thou be the Son of God, El cast thyself down, for it is written, He shall give his angels charge concerning thee, And in their hands they shall bear the up, Lest at any time thou dash thy foot against a stone. Jesus said unto him, It is written again, Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God. Matthew 4.1-7. Is it possible that anyone can believe that the devil absolutely took God Almighty and put him on the pinnacle of the temple, and endeavored to persuade him to jump down? Is it possible? Again the devil taketh him up into an exceeding high mountain, and showeth him all the kingdoms of the world, and the glory of them, and sayeth unto him, All these things will I give thee, If thou will fall down and worship me. Then sayeth Jesus unto him, Get thee hence, Satan, for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, And him only shalt thou serve. Matthew 4.8-10. Now the devil must have known at that time that he was God, and God at that time must have known that the other was the devil. How could the latter be conceived to have the impudence to promise God a world in which he did not have a tax title to an inch of land? Then the devil leaveeth him, and behold angels came and ministered unto him. Matthew 4.11. And they came over unto the other side of the sea, into the country of the Gadarenes, and when he was come out of the ship immediately there met him out of the tombs, a man with an unclean spirit who had his dwelling among the tombs, and no man could bind him, no not with chains. Because that he had been often bound with fetters and chains, and the chains had been plucked asunder by him, and the fetters broken in pieces, neither could any man tame him. And always night and day he was in the mountains and tombs, crying and cutting himself with stones. But when he saw Jesus afar off, he came and worshiped him, and cried with a loud voice and said, What have I to do with thee, Jesus, thou son of the Most High God? I adjure thee by God that thou torment me not, for he said unto him, Come out of the man, thou unclean spirit. And he asked him, What is thy name? And he answered, saying, My name is Legion, for we are many. And he besought him much that he would not send them away out of the country. Now there was there nigh unto the mountains a great herd of swine feeding, and all the devils besought him, saying, Send us into the swine, that we may enter into them. And forthwith Jesus gave them leave, and the unclean spirits went out and entered into the swine, and the herd ran violently down a steep place into the sea. They were about two thousand, and were choked in the sea. Mark 5, 1-13 Now I will ask a question. Should reasonable men in the 19th century in the United States of America believe that that was an actual occurrence? If my salvation depends upon believing that, I am lost. I have never experienced the signs by which it is said a believer may be known. I deny all the witch stories in this world. These fables of devils have covered the world with blood. They have filled the world with fear, and I am going to do what I can to free the world of these insatiate monsters, small and great. They have filled the world with monsters. They have made the world a synonym of liar and ferocity. And it is this book that ought to be read in all the schools, this book that teaches man to enslave his brother. If it is larceny to steal the result of labor, how much more is it larceny to steal the laborer himself? Moreover, of the children of the strangers that do sojourn among you, of them shall ye buy, and of their families that are with you, which they begat in your land, and they shall be your possession, and ye shall take them as an inheritance for your children after you, to inherit them for a possession. They shall be your bondmen for ever, but over your brethren the children of Israel ye shall not rule one over another with rigor. Leviticus 25, 45, 46. Why? Because they are not as good as you will buy of the heathen roundabout? Now these are the judgments which thou shalt set before them. If thou buy an Hebrew servant, six years shall he serve, and in the seventh he shall go out free for nothing. If he came in by himself, he shall go out by himself. If he were married, then his wife shall go out with him. If his master have given him a wife, and she have borne him sons or daughters, the wife and her children shall be her masters, and he shall go out by himself. If the servant shall plainly say, I love my master, my wife, and my children, I will not go out free, then his master shall bring him unto the judges. He shall also bring him to the door, or unto the doorpost, and his master shall bore his ear through with an all, and he shall serve him for ever. Exodus 21, 1-6. This is the doctrine which has ever lent itself to the chains of slavery, and makes a man imprison himself rather than desert his wife and children. I hate it! Now listen to the New Testament, the tidings of great joy for all people. Servants, be obedient to them that are your masters according to the flesh, with fear and trembling in singleness of your heart, as unto Christ. Not with eye service as men pleases, but as the servants of Christ doing the will of God from the heart. Ephesians 6, 5 and 6. Splendid Doctrine. Servants, be subject to your masters with all fear, not only to the good and gentle, but also to the forward. For this is thankworthy, if a man for conscience towards God endure grief suffering wrongfully. 1 Peter 2, 18 and 19. Servants, obey in all things your masters according to the flesh. He was afraid they might not work all the time, so he adds, not with the eye service as men pleases, but in the singleness of heart, fearing God. Read the 21st chapter of Exodus 7 to 11, and if a man sell his daughter to be a maid servant, she shall not go out as some men servants do. If she please not her master who hath betroth her to himself, then shall he let her be redeemed. To sell her unto a strange nation he shall have no power, seeing he hath dealt deceitfully with her. And if he hath betrothed her unto his son, he shall deal with her after the manner of daughters. If he take him another wife, her food, her raiment, and her duty of marriage shall he not diminish. And if he do not these three unto her, then shall she go out free without money. Servants be obedient to your masters is the salutation of the most merciful God, to one who works for nothing, and who receives upon his naked back the lash, as legal tender for service performed. Servants be obedient to your masters is the salutation of the most merciful God, to the slave mother bending over her infant's grave. Servants be obedient to your masters is the salutation to a man endeavoring to escape pursuit, followed by savage bloodhounds, and with his eye fixed upon the northern star. This book ought to be read in the schools, so that our children will love liberty. What does this same book say of the rights of little children? Let us see how they are treated by the most merciful God. If a man have a stubborn and rebellious son, which will not obey the voice of his father, or the voice of his mother, and that when they have chastened him, will not hearken unto them, then shall his father and his mother lay hold of him, and bring him out unto the elders of his city, and unto the gate of his place. And they shall say unto the elders of his city, this our son is stubborn and rebellious, he will not obey our voice, he is a glutton and a drunkard, and all the men of his city shall stone him with stones that he die, so shall thou put evil away from among you, and all Israel shall hear and fear, Deuteronomy 21, 18 through 21. Abraham was commanded to offer his son Isaac as a sacrifice, and he intended to obey. The boy was not consulted. Did you ever hear the story of Jephthah's daughter? Returning him, Jephthah said, And Jephthah vowed a vow unto the Lord, and said, If thou shalt without fail deliver the children of Ammon into mine hands, then it shall be that whatsoever cometh forth of the doors of my house to meet me, when I return in peace from the children of Ammon, shall surely be the Lord, and I will offer it up for a burnt offering. So Jephthah passed over into the children of Ammon to fight against them, and the Lord delivered them into his hands, and he smote them from our o'er, even till thou come to Minoth, even twenty cities, and unto the plain of the vineyards with a very great slaughter. Thus the children of Ammon were subdued before the children of Israel. And Jephthah came to Mizpah unto his house, and behold, his daughter came out to meet him with timbrels and with dance, and she was his only child. Besides her he had neither son nor daughter, and it came to pass when he saw her that he rent his clothes, and said, Alas, my daughter, thou hast brought me very low, and thou art one of them that trouble me, for I have opened my mouth unto the Lord, and I cannot go back. And she said unto him, My Father, if thou hast opened thy mouth unto the Lord, do to me according to that which hath proceeded out of thy mouth, for as much as the Lord hath taken vengeance for thee of thine enemies, even to the children of Ammon. And she said unto her Father, Let this thing be done for me. Let me alone, two months, that I may go up and down upon the mountains and bewail my virginity, I and my fellows. And he said, Go! And he sent her away for two months, and she went with her companions and bewailed her virginity upon the mountains. And it came to pass at the end of two months that she returned unto her Father, who did with her according to his vow which he had vowed. Is there in the history of the world a sadder story than this? Can a God who would accept such a sacrifice be worthy of the worship of civilized men? I believe in the rights of children. I plead for the Republic of Home for the democracy of the fireside, and for this I am called a heathen and a devil by those who believe in the cheerful and comforting doctrine of eternal damnation. Read the Book of Job. Read that God met the devil and asked him where he had been, and he said, Walking up and down the country, and the Lord said to him, Have you noticed my man Job over there, how good he is? And the devil said, Of course he's good. You give him everything he wants. Just take away his property and he'll curse you. You just try it. And he did try it, and took away his goods. But Job still remained good. The devil laughed and said he had not been tried enough. Then the Lord touched his flesh, but he was still true. Then he took away his children, but he remained faithful, and in the end to show how much Job made by his fidelity, his property was all doubled, and he had more children than ever. If you have a child and you love it, would you be satisfied with a God who would destroy it, and endeavor to make it up by giving you another that was better looking? No, you want that one. You want no other. And yet this is the idea of the love of children taught in the Bible. End of part one of Ingersoll's lecture on hell. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. Ingersoll's lecture on hell part two of two. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Ingersoll's lecture on hell part two from the book Lectures of Colonel R. G. Ingersoll. Does the Bible teach you freedom of religion? Today we say that every man has a right to worship God or not, to worship him as he pleases. Is it the doctrine of the Bible? Let us see. If thy brother, the son of thy mother, or thy son, or thy daughter, or the wife of thy bosom, or thy friend, which is as thine own soul, enticed thee secretly saying, Let us go and serve other gods, which thou hast not known, thou nor thy fathers, namely of the gods of the people which are round about you, nigh unto thee, or far off from thee, from the one end of the earth, even unto the other end of the earth. Thou shalt not consent unto him, nor hearken unto him, neither shall thine eye pity him, neither shalt thou spare, neither shalt thou conceal him, but thou shalt surely kill him, thine hand shall be first upon him to put him to death, and afterwards the hand of all the people. And thou shalt stone him with stones that he die, because he has sought to thrust thee away from the Lord thy God, which brought thee out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage. Deuteronomy 13, 6 through 10. And do you know, according to that, if your wife, your wife that you love as your own soul, if you had lived in Palestine, and your wife had said to you, let us worship a son whose golden beams clothe the world in glory, let us worship the son, let us bow to that great luminary. I love the son because it gave me your face, because it gave me the features of my babe, let us worship the son. It was then your duty to lay your hands upon her, your eye must not pity her, but it was your duty to cast the first stone against that tender and loving breast. I hate such doctrine, I hate such books, I hate gods that will write such books. I tell you that it is infamous. If there be found among you within any of thy gates, which the Lord thy God giveeth thee, man or woman that hath wrought wickedness in the sight of the Lord thy God, in transgressing his covenant, and hath gone and served other gods and worshipped them, either the son or moon or any of the host of heaven, which I have not commanded. And it be told thee, and thou hast heard of it, and inquired diligently, and behold it be true, and the thing certain that such abomination is wrought in Israel, then shalt thou bring forth that man or that woman which hath committed that wicked thing unto thy gates, even that man or that woman, and shalt stone them with stones till they die, Deuteronomy 17.2-5. That is the religious liberty of the Bible. That's it. And this God taught that doctrine to the Jews and said to them, any one that teaches a different religion, kill him. Now let me ask, and I want to do it reverently, if, as is contended, God gave these frightful laws to the flesh and come among the Jews, and taught a different religion, and these Jews, in accordance with the laws which this same God gave them, crucified him. Did he not reap what he had sown? The mercy of all this comes in what is called the plan of salvation. What is that plan? According to this great plan, the innocent suffer for the guilty to satisfy a law. What sort of law must it be that would be satisfied with the suffering of innocence? According to this plan, the salvation of the whole world depends upon the bigotry of the Jews and the treachery of Judas. According to the same plan, we all would have gone to eternal hell. According to the same plan, there would have been no death in the world if there had been no sin, and if there had been no death, you and I would not have been called into existence, and if we did not exist, we could not have been saved. So we owe our salvation to the bigotry of the Jews and the treachery of Judas, and we are indebted to the devil for our existence. I speak this reverently. It strikes me that what they call the atonement is a kind of moral bankruptcy. Under its merciful provisions, man is allowed the privilege of sinning credit, and whenever he is guilty of a mean action, he says, Charge it! In my judgment, this kind of bookkeeping breeds extravagance in sin. Suppose we had a law in New York that every merchant should give credit to every man who asked it under pain and penitentiary, and that every man should take the benefit of the bankruptcy statute any Saturday night. Doesn't the credit system in morals breed extravagance in sin? That's the question. Who's afraid of punishment, which is so far away? Whom does the doctrine of hell stop? The great, the rich, the powerful? No, the poor, the weak, the despised, the mean. Did you ever hear of a man going to hell who died in New York worth a million of dollars, or with an income of twenty-five thousand a year? Did you? Did you ever hear of a man going to hell who rode in a carriage? Never. They are the gentlemen who talk about their assets, and who say hell is not for me. It is for the poor. I have all the luxuries I want. Give that to the poor. Who goes to hell? Tramps. Let me tell you a story. There was once a frightful rain, and all the animals held a convention to see whose fault it was, and the fox nominated the lion for chairman. The wolf seconded the motion, and the hyena said that suits. When the convention was called to order, the fox was called upon to confess his sins. He stated, however, that it would be much more appropriate for the lion to commence first. Thereupon the lion said, I am not conscious of having committed evil. It is true I have devoured a few men, but for what other purpose were men made? And they all cheered and were satisfied. The fox gave his views upon the goose question, and the wolf admitted that he had devoured sheep, and occasionally had killed a shepherd. But all acquainted with the history of my family will bear me out when I say that shepherds have been the enemies of my family from the beginning of the world. Then way in the rear there arose a simple donkey with a kind of Abrahamic countenance. He said, I expect it's me. I had eaten nothing for three days except three thistles. I was passing a monastery. The monks were at mass. The gates were opened leading to a yard full of sweet clover. I knew it was wrong, but I did slip in and took a mouthful. But my conscience smote me and I went out, and all the animals shouted, He's the fellow, and in two minutes they had his hide on the fence. That's the kind of people that go to hell. Now this doctrine of hell that has been such a comfort to my race, which so many ministers are pleading for, has been defended for ages by the fathers of the church. Your preacher says that the sovereignty of God implies that he has an absolute, unlimited and independent right to dispose of his creatures as he will, because he made them. Has he? Suppose I take this book and change it immediately into a servient human being. Would I have a right to torture it because I made it? No. On the contrary, I would say, having brought you into existence, it is my duty to do the best for you I can. They say God has a right to damn me because he made me. I deny it. Another one says God is not obliged to save even those who believe in Christ and that he can either bestow salvation upon his children or retain it without any diminution of his glory. Another one says God may save any sinner whatsoever consistently with his justice. Let a natural person, and I claim to be one, moral or immoral, wise or unwise, let him be as just as he can, no matter what his prayers be, what pains he may have taken to be saved, or whatever circumstances he may be in. God, according to this writer, can deny him salvation without the least disparagement of his glory. His glories will not be in the least obscured. There is no natural man be his character what it may, but God may cast down to hell without being charged with unfair dealing in any respect with regard to that man. Theologians tell us that God's design in the creation was simply to glorify himself magnificent object. The same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God which is poured out without mixture into the cup of his indignation and he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels and in the presence of the Lamb. Revelations 14, 1 through 10. Do you know nobody would have had an idea of hell in this world if it hadn't been for volcanoes. They were looked upon as the chimneys of hell. The idea of eternal fire never would have polluted the imagination of man, but for them. An imminent theologian describing hell says, There is no recounting the millions of ages a damn shall suffer. All arithmetic ends here and all sense too. They shall have nothing to do in passing away this eternity, but to conflict with torments God shall have no other use or employment for them. These words were said by gentlemen who died Christians and who are now in the harp business in the world to come. Another declares there is nothing to keep any man or Christian out of hell except the mere pleasure of God. And their pains never grow any easier by their becoming accustomed to them. It is also declared that the devil goes about like a lion ready to doom the wicked. Did it never occur to you what a contradiction it is to say that the devil will persecute his own friends? He wants all the recruits he can get. Why then should he persecute his friends? In my judgment he should give them the best hell affords. It is in the very nature of things that torments inflicted have no tendency to bring a wicked man to repentance. Then why torment him if it will not do him good? It is simply unadulterated revenge. All the punishment in the world will not reform a man unless he knows that he who inflicts it upon him does it for the sake of reformation and really and truly loves him and has his good at heart. Punishment inflicted for gratifying the appetite makes man afraid but debases him. Various reasons are given for punishing the wicked. First that God will vindicate his injured majesty. Well I am glad of that. Second he will glorify his justice. Think of that. Third he will show and glorify his grace. Every time the saved shall look upon the damned in hell it will cause in them a lively and admiring sense of the grace of God. Every look upon the damned will double the ardor and the joy of the saints in heaven. Can the believing husband in heaven look down upon the torments of the unbelieving wife in hell and then feel a thrill of joy? That's the old doctrine, not of our days. We are too civilized for that. Oh but it is the doctrine that if you saw your wife in hell, the wife you love who in your last sickness nursed you, that perhaps supported you by her needle when you were ill, the wife who watched by your couch night and day and held your corpse in her loving arms when you were dead, the sight would give you great joy. That doctrine is not preached today. They do not preach that the sight would give you joy, but they do preach that it will not diminish your happiness. That is the doctrine of every orthodox minister in New York and I repeat that I have no respect for men who preach such doctrines. The sight of the torments of the damned in hell will increase the ecstasy of the saints forever. On this principle man never enjoys a good dinner so much as when a fellow creature is dying of famine before his eyes, or he never enjoys the cheerful warmth of his own fireside so greatly as when a poor and abandoned wretch is dying on his doorstep. The saints enjoy the ecstasy and the groans of the tormented are music to them. I say here tonight that you cannot commit a sin against an infinite being. I can sin against my brother or my neighbor because I can injure them. There can be no sin where there is no injury. Neither can a finite being commit infinite sin. An old saint believed that hell was in the interior of the earth and that the rotation of the earth was caused by the souls trying to get away from the fire. The old church at Stratford on Avon, Shakespeare's home, is adorned with pictures of hell and the like. One of the pictures represents resurrection mourning. People are getting out of their graves and devils are catching hold of their heels. In one place there is a huge brass monster and devils are driving scores of lost souls into his mouth. Over hot fires hang cauldrons with 50 or 60 people in each and devils are poking the fires. People are hung up on hooks by their tongues and devils are lashing them. Up in the right hand corner are some of the saved with grins on their faces stretching from ear to ear. They seem to say, ah ha, what did I tell you? Some of the old saints, gentlemen who died in the odor of sanctity and are now in the harp business, insisted that heaven and hell would be plainly in view of each other. Only a few years ago Reverend J. Furness, an appropriate name, published a little pamphlet called A Sight in Hell. I remember when I first read that. My little child, seven years old, was ill and in bed. I thought she would not hear me and I read some of it aloud. She arose and asked, who says that? I answered, that's what they preach in some of the churches. I never will enter a church as long as I live, she said, and she never has. The doctrine of Orthodox Christianity is that the damned shall suffer torment forever and ever and if you were a wanderer foot sore weary with parched tongue dying for a drop of water and you met one who divided his poor portion with you and died as he saw you reviving. If he was an unbeliever and you a believer and you died and went to heaven and he called to you from hell for a draft of water, it would be your duty to laugh at him. Reverend Mr. Spurgeon says that everywhere in hell will be written the words forever. They will be branded on every wave of flame. They will be forged in every link of every chain. They will be seen in every lurid flash of brimstone. Everywhere will be those words forever. Everybody will be yelling and screaming them. Just think of that picture of the mercy and justice of the eternal father of us all. If these words are necessary, why are they not written now? Everywhere in the world, on every tree and every field and on every blade of grass, I say I am entitled to have it so. I say that it is God's duty to furnish me with the evidence. Here is another good book read in every Sunday school, a splendid book, Pollock's Course of Time. Every copy in the world of such books as that ought to be burned. Well the author pretends to have gone to hell and I think that he ought to have stopped there. The lecturer read the passage from the work descriptive of the torments of the damned and proceeded. And that book is put into the hands of children in order that they may love and worship the most merciful God. In old time they had to find a place for hell and they found a hundred places for it. One says that it was under Lake Avernus, but the Christians thought differently. One divine tells us that it must be below the earth because Christ descended into hell. Another gives it as his opinion that hell is in the sun and he tells us that nobody without an express revelation from God can prove that it is not there, most likely. Well he had the idea at all events of utilizing the damned as fuel to warm the earth. But I will quote from another poet. If it is lawful to call him a poet, I mean Tupper. Colonel Ingersoll quoted from that Orthodox author and continued. Another divine preached a sermon no further back than 1876 in which he said that the damned will grow worse and the same divine says that the devil was the first universalist. Then I am on the side of the devil. The fact is that you have got not merely to believe the Bible but you must also believe in a certain interpretation of it and, mind you, you must also believe in the doctrine of the Trinity. I want to explain what that is so that you may never have an excuse for not knowing it. I quote from the best theologian that ever wrote. Then he went on to give in substance the Athanasian definition of the Trinity, winding up with a long string of adjectives, culminating in the description entirely incomprehensible. If you don't understand it after that, it is your own fault. Now you must believe in that doctrine. If you do not, all the Orthodox churches agree in condemning you to everlasting flames. We have got to burn through all our lives simply with the view of making them happy. We are taught to love our enemies, to pray for those that persecute us, to forgive, should not the merciful God practice what he preaches? I say that reverently. Why should he say forgive your enemies if he will not himself forgive? Why should he say pray for those that despise and persecute you, but if they refuse to believe his doctrine he will burn them forever? I cannot believe it. Here is a little child residing in the Perleus of the city, some boy who is taught that it is his duty to steal by his mother, who applauds his success and pats him on the head and calls him a good boy. Would it be just to condemn him to an eternity of torture? Suppose there is a God. Let us bring to this question some common sense. I care nothing about the doctrines of religions or creeds of the past. Let us come to the bar of the 19th century and judge matter by what we know, by what we think, by what we love. But they say to us, if you throw away the Bible, what are we to depend on then? But no two persons in the world agree as to what the Bible is, what they are to believe, and what they are not to believe. It is like a guidepost that has been thrown down in some time of disaster and has been put up the wrong way. Nobody can accept its guidance, for nobody knows where it would direct him. I say, tear down the useless guidepost, but they answer, oh do not do that or we will have nothing to go by. I would say, old church, you take that road and I will take this. Another minister has said that the Bible is the great town clock, at which we all may set our watches. But I have said to a friend of that minister, suppose we all should set our watches by that town clock. There would be many persons to tell you that in old times the long hand was the hour hand, and besides the clock hasn't been wound up for a long time. I say, let us wait till the sun rises and set our watches by nature. For my part I am willing to give up heaven to get rid of hell. I had rather there should be no heaven than that any solitary soul should be condemned to suffer forever and ever. But they tell me that the Bible is the good book. Now in the Old Testament there is not in my judgment a single reference to another life. Is there a burial service mentioned in it in which a word of hope is spoken at the grave of the dead? The idea of eternal life was not born of any book. That wave of hope and joy ebbs and flows and will continue to ebb and flow as long as love kisses the lips of death. Let me tell you a tale of the Persian religion. Of a man who, having done good for long years of his life, presented himself at the gates of paradise, but the gates remained closed against him. He went back and followed up his good works for seven years longer, and the gates of paradise still remain shut against him. He toiled in works of charity until at last they were opened unto him. Think of that, pursued the lecturer, and send out your missionaries among those people. There is no religion but goodness, but justice, but charity. Religion is not theory. It is life. It is not intellectual conviction. It is divine humanity and nothing else. Colonel Ingersoll here told another tale from the Hindu of a man who refused to enter paradise without a faithful dog, urging that ingratitude was the blackest of all sins. And the God, he said, admitted him dog and all. Compare that religion with the orthodox tenets of the city of New York. There is a prayer which every Brahmin prays, in which he declares that he will never enter into a final state of bliss alone, but that everywhere he will strive for universal redemption. That never will he leave the world of sin and sorrow, but remain suffering and striving and sorrowing after universal salvation. Compare that with the orthodox idea and send out your missionaries to the benighted Hindus. The doctrine of hell is infamous beyond all power to express. I wish there were words mean enough to express my feelings of loathing on this subject. What harm has it not done? What waste places has it not made? It has planted misery and wretchedness in this world. It peels the future with selfish joys and lurid abysses of eternal flame, but we are getting more sense every day. We begin to despise those monstrous doctrines. If you want to better men and women, change their conditions here. Don't promise them something somewhere else. One biscuit will do more good than all the tracks that were ever peddled in the world. Give them more whitewash, more light, more air. You have to change men physically before you change them intellectually. I believe the time will come when every criminal will be treated as we now treat the diseased and sick, when every penitentiary will become a reformatory, and that if criminals go to them with hatred in their bosoms, they will leave them without feelings of revenge. Let me tell you that story of Orpheus and Eurydice. Eurydice had been carried away by the god of hell, and Orpheus, her lover, went in quest of her. He took with him his lyre, and played such exquisite music that all hell was amazed. Ixion forgot his labours at the wheel. The daughters of Deneus ceased from their hopeless task. Tantalus forgot his thirst. Even Pluto smiled, and for the first time in the history of hell, the eyes of the Furies were wet with tears. As it was with the lyre of Orpheus, so it is today with the great harmonies of science, which are rescuing from the prisons of superstition the torn and bleeding heart of man. End of Ingersoll's lecture on hell. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. This is the third lecture from lectures of Colonel R.G. Ingersoll, read for you by Ted DeLorm in Fort Mill, South Carolina during May 2007. Ingersoll's lecture on individuality. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. The lectures of Colonel Robert Green Ingersoll. Lecture number four, Ingersoll's lecture on individuality, an arraignment of the church. His soul was like a star and dwelt apart. On every hand are the enemies of individuality and mental freedom. Custom meets us at the cradle and leaves us only at the tomb. Our first questions are answered by ignorance and our last by superstition. We are pushed and dragged by countless hands along the beaten track and our entire training can be summed up in the word suppression. Our desire to have a thing or to do a thing is considered as conclusive evidence that we ought to do it. At every turn we run not to have it, an ought not against a cherubim and a flaming sword, guarding some entrance to the Eden of our desire. We are allowed to investigate all subjects in which we feel no particular interest and to express the opinions of the majority with the utmost freedom. We are taught that liberty of speech should never be carried to the extent of contradicting the dead witnesses of a popular superstition. Society offers continual rewards for self-betrayal and they are nearly all earned and claimed and some are paid. We have all read accounts of Christian gentlemen remarking when about to be hanged how much better it would have been for them if they had only followed a mother's advice. But after all how fortunate it is for the world that the maternal advice has not been followed. How lucky it is for us all that it is somewhat unnatural for a human being to obey. Universal obedience is universal stagnation. Disobedience is one of the conditions of progress. Select any age of the world and tell me what would have been the effect of implicit obedience. Suppose the church had had absolute control of the human mind at any time would not the word liberty and progress have been blotted from the human speech. In defiance of advice the world has advanced. Suppose the astronomers had controlled the science of astronomy. Suppose the doctors had controlled the science of medicine. Suppose kings had been left to fix the form of government. Suppose our fathers had taken the advice of Paul who was subject to the powers that be because they are ordained of God. Suppose the church could control the world today. We would go back to chaos and old night. Philosophy would be branded as infamous. Science would again press its pale and thoughtful face against the prison bars and round the limbs of liberty would climb the bigot's flame. It is a blessed thing that in every age someone has had individuality enough and courage enough to stand by his own convictions. Someone who had the grit to say his say. I believe it was Magellan who said, the church says the earth is flat but I have seen its shadow on the moon and I have more confidence even in a shadow than in the church. On the prow of his ship were disobedience, defiance, scorn, and success. The trouble with most people is that they bow to what is called authority. They have a certain reverence for the old because it is old. They think a man is better for being dead, especially if he has been dead a long time, and that the forefathers of their nation were the greatest and best of all mankind. All these things they implicitly believe because it is popular and patriotic and because they were told so when very small and remembered distinctly of hearing mother read it out of a book, and they are all willing to swear that mother was a good woman. It is hard to overestimate the influence of early training in the direction of superstition. You first teach children that a certain book is true, that it was written by God himself, that to question its truth is sin, and to deny it is a crime, and that should they die without believing that book, they will be forever damned without benefit of clergy. The consequence is that before they read that book, they believe it to be true. When they do read, their minds are wholly unfitted to investigate its claim. They accept it as a matter of course. In this way reason is overcome. The sweet instincts of humanity are blotted from the heart, and while reading its infamous pages, even justice throws aside her scales, shrieking for revenge, and charity with bloody hands applaud a deed of murder. In this way we are taught that the revenge of man is the justice of God, that mercy is not the same everywhere. In this way the ideas of our race have been subverted. In this way we have made tyrants, bigots, and inquisitors. In this way the brain of man has become a kind of palimpsest, upon which, and over the writings of nature, superstition has scribbled her countless lies. Our great trouble is that most teachers are dishonest. They teach as certainties those things concerning which they entertain doubts. They do not say, we think this is so, but we know this is so. They do not appeal to the reason of the pupil, but they command his faith. They keep all doubts to themselves. They do not explain, they assert. All this is infamous. In this way you make Christians, but you cannot make men. You cannot make women. You can make followers, but no leaders. Disciples, but no Christs. You may promise power, honor, and happiness to all those who will blindly follow, but you cannot keep your promise. An Eastern monarch said to a hermit, Come with me, and I will give you power. I have all the power that I know how to use, replied the hermit. Come, said the king, I will give you wealth. I have no wants that money can supply. I will give you honor. Ah, honor cannot be given. It must be earned. Come, said the king, making a last appeal, and I will give you happiness. No, said the man of solitude. There is no happiness without liberty, and he who follows cannot be free. You shall have your liberty too, then I will stay. And all the king's courtiers thought the hermit a fool. Now and then somebody examines, and in spite of all, keeps up his manhood, and has courage to follow where his reason leads. Then the pious get together, and repeat wise saws, and exchange knowing nods, and most prophetic winks. The stupidly wise sit owl-like on the dead limbs of the tree of knowledge, and solemnly hoot, wealth sneers, and fashion laps, and respectability passes on the other side, and scorn points with all her skinny fingers, and like the snakes of superstition writhe and hiss, and slander lends her tongue, and infamy her brand, perjury her oath, and the law its power, and bigotry tortures, and the church kills. The church hates a thinker precisely for the same reason that a robber dislikes a sheriff, or that a thief despises the prosecuting witness. Tyranny likes courtiers, flatterers, followers, thorners, and superstition wants believers, disciples, zealots, hypocrites, and subscribers. The church demands worship, the very thing that man should give to no being human or divine. To worship another is to degrade yourself. Worship is awe, and dread, and vague fear, and blind hope. It is the spirit of worship that elevates the one, and degrades the many, and manacles even its own hands. The spirit of worship is the spirit of tyranny. The worshipper always regrets that he is not the worshipped. We should all remember that the intellect has no knees, and that whatever the attitude of the body may be, the brave soul is always found erect. Whoever worships abdicates. Whoever believes at the commands of power tramples his own individuality beneath his feet, and voluntarily robs himself of all that renders man superior to brute. The despotism of faith is justified upon the ground that Christian countries are the grandest and most prosperous of the world. At one time the same thing could have been truly said in India, in Egypt, in Greece, in Rome, and in every other country that has, in the history of the world, swept to empire. This argument proves too much, not only, but the assumption upon which it is based is utterly false. Numberless circumstances and countless conditions have produced the prosperity of the Christian world. The truth is that we have advanced in spite of religious zeal, ignorance, and opposition. The church has won no victories for the rights of man. Over every fortress of tyranny has waved, and still waves, the banner of the church. Wherever brave blood has been shed, the sword of the church has been wet. On every chain has been the sign of the cross. The altar and the throne have leaned against and supported each other. Who can appreciate the infinite impudence of one man assuming to think for others? Who can imagine the impudence of a church that threatens to inflict eternal punishment upon those who honestly reject its claims and scorn its pretensions? In the presence of the unknown, we have all an equal right to guess. Over the vast plain called life we are all travellers, and not one traveller is perfectly certain that he is going in the right direction. True it is that no other plane is so well supplied with guide boards. At every turn and crossing you find them, and upon each one is written the exact direction and distance. One great trouble is, however, that these boards are all different, and the result is that most travellers are confused in proportion to the number they read. Thousands of people are around each of these signs, and each one is doing his best to convince the traveller that his particular board is the only one upon which the least reliance can be placed, and that if his road is taken the reward for so doing will be infinite and eternal, while all the other roads are said to lead to hell, and all the makers of the other guide boards are declared to be heretics, hypocrites, and liars. Well, says a traveller, you may be right in what you say, but allow me at least to read some of the other directions and examine a little into their claims. I wish to rely a little upon my own judgment in a matter of such great importance. No, sir, shouts the zealot, that is the very thing you are not allowed to do. You must go my way, without investigation, or you are as good as damned already. Well, says the traveller, if that is so, I believe I had better go your way, and so most of them go along, taking the word of those who know as little as themselves. Now and then comes one who, in spite of all threats, calmly examines the claims of all, and as calmly rejects them all. These travellers take roads of their own, and are denounced by all the others as infidels and atheists. In my judgment every human being should take a road of his own. Every mind should be true to itself, should think, investigate, and conclude for itself. This is a duty alike incumbent upon pauper and prince. Every soul should repel dictation and tyranny, no matter from what source they come, from earth or heaven, from men or gods. Besides, every traveller upon this vast plain should give to every other traveller his best idea as to the road that should be taken. Each is entitled to the honest opinion of all, and there is but one way to get an honest opinion upon any subject whatever. The person giving the opinion must be free from fear. The merchant must not fear to lose his custom, the doctor his practice, nor the preacher his pulpit. There can be no advance without liberty. Suppression of honest inquiry is retrogression, and must end in intellectual night. The tendency of Orthodox religion today is towards mental slavery and barbarism. Not one of the Orthodox ministers dare preach what he thinks if he knows that a majority of his congregation think otherwise. He knows that every member of his church stands guard over his brain with a creed, like a club, in his hand. He knows that he is not expected to search after the truth, but that he is employed to defend the creed. Every pulpit is a pillory in which stands a hired culprit defending the justice of his own imprisonment. Is it desirable that all should be exactly alike in their religious convictions? Is any such thing possible? Do we not know that there are no two persons alike in the whole world? No two trees, no two leaves, no two anythings that are alike. Infinite diversity is the law. Religion tries to force all minds into one mold. Knowing that all cannot believe, the church endeavors to make all say that they believe. She longs for the unity of hypocrisy and detests the splendid diversity of individuality and freedom. Nearly all people stand in great horror of annihilation, and yet to give up your individuality is to annihilate yourself. Mental slavery is mental death, and every man who has given up his intellectual freedom is the living coffin of his dead soul. In this sense every church is a cemetery, and every creed an epitaph. We should all remember that to be like other folks is to be unlike ourselves, and that nothing can be more detestable in character than servile imitation. The great trouble with imitation is that we are apt to ape those who are in reality far below us. After all the poorest bargain that a human being can make is to trade off his individuality for what is called respectability. There is no saying more degrading than this. It is better to be the tail of a lion than the head of a dog. It is a responsibility to think and act for yourself. Most people hate responsibility, therefore they join something and become the tail of some lion. They say my party can act for me. My church can do my thinking. It is enough for me to pay taxes and obey the lion to which I belong, without troubling myself about the right, the wrong, or the why or the wherefore of anything whatever. These people are respectable. They hate reformers and dislike exceedingly to have their minds disturbed. They regard convictions as very disagreeable things to have. They love forms and enjoy beyond everything else telling what a splendid tail their lion has and what a troublesome dog their neighbour is. Besides this natural inclination to avoid personal responsibility is and always has been the fact that every religious has warned men against the presumption and wickedness of thinking for themselves. The reason has been denounced by all Christendom as the only unsafe guide. The church has left nothing undone to prevent man following the logic of his brain. The plainest facts have been covered with the mantle of mystery. The grossest absurdities have been declared to be self-evident facts. The order of nature has been, as it were, reversed, in order that the hypocritical few might govern the honest many. The man who stood by the conclusion of his reason was denounced as a scornor and hater of God and his holy church. From the organisation of the first church until this moment every member has borne the marks of collar and chain and whip. No man ever seriously attempted to reform a church without being cast out and hunted down by the hounds of hypocrisy. The highest crime against a creed is to change it. Reformation is treason. Thousands of young men are being educated at this moment by the various churches. What for? In order that they may be prepared to investigate the phenomena by which we are surrounded? No. The object and the only object is that they may be prepared to defend a creed. That they may learn the arguments of their respective churches and repeat them in the dull ears of a thoughtless congregation. If one, after being thus trained at the expense of the Methodists, turns Presbyterian or Baptist, he is denounced as an ungrateful wretch. Honest investigation is utterly impossible within the pale of any church. For the reason that if you think the church is right, you will not investigate. And if you think it wrong, the church will investigate you. The consequence of this is that most of the theological literature is the result of suppression, of fear, of tyranny, and hypocrisy. Every orthodox writer necessarily said to himself, if I write that, my wife and children may want for bread. I will be covered with shame and branded with infamy. But if I write this, I will gain position, power, and honor. My church rewards defenders and burns reformers. Under these conditions, all your Scots, Henrys, and McNights have written, and weighed in these scales what are their commentaries worth. They are not the ideas and decisions of honest judges, but the softisms of the paid attorneys of superstition. Who can tell what the world has lost by this infamous system of suppression? How many grand thinkers died with the mailed hand of superstition on their lips? How many splendid ideas have perished in the cradle of the brain, strangled in the poisonous coils of that python, the church? For thousands of years a thinker was hunted down like an escaped convict. To him who had braved the church, every door was shut, every knife was open. To shelter him from the wildstorm, to give him a crust of bread when dying, to put a cup of water to his cracked and bleeding lips. These were all crimes, not one of which the church ever did forgive, and with the justice taught of God, his helpless children were exterminated as scorpions and vipers. Who, at the present day, can imagine the courage, the devotion to principle, the intellectual and moral grandeur it once required to be an infidel, to brave the church, her racks, her faggots, her dungeons, her tongues of fire, to defy and scorn her heaven and her devil and her god? They were the noblest sons of earth, they were the real saviours of our race, the destroyers of superstition, and the creators of science. They were the real titans, who bared their grand forads to all the thunderbolts of all the gods. The church has been and still is the great robber. She has rifled not only the pockets, but the brains of the world. She is the stone at the sepulcher of liberty, the upas tree in whose shade the intellect of man has withered, the gorgon beneath whose gaze the human heart has turned to stone. Under her influence even the Protestant mother expects to be in heaven, while her brave boy who is fighting for the rights of man shall writhe in hell. It is said that some of the Indian tribes placed the heads of their children between pieces of bark until the form of the skull is permanently changed. To us this seems a most shocking custom, and yet after all, is it as bad as to put the souls of our children in the straight jacket of a creed to so utterly deform their minds that they regard the God of the Bible as a being of infinite mercy and really considerate of virtue to believe a thing just because it seems unreasonable. Every child in the Christian world has uttered its wondering protest against this outrage. All the machinery of the church is constantly employed in thus corrupting the reason of children. In every possible way they are robbed of their own thoughts and forced to accept the statements of others. Every Sunday school has for its object the crushing out of every germ of individuality. The poor children are taught that nothing can be more acceptable to God than unreasoning obedience and eyeless faith, and that to believe that God did an impossible act is far better than to do a good one yourself. They are told that all the religions have been simply the John the Baptist of ours, that all the gods of antiquity have withered and sunken into the Jehovah of the Jews, that all the longings and aspirations of the race are realized in the motto of the Evangelical Alliance, liberty in non-essentials, that all there is or ever was of religion can be found in the apostles creed, that there is nothing left to be discovered, that all the thinkers are dead, and all the living should simply be believers, that we have only to repeat the epitaph found on the grave of wisdom, that graveyards are the best possible universities, and that the children must be forever beaten with the bones of the Father. It has always seemed absurd to suppose that a God would choose for his companions during all eternity the dear souls whose highest and only ambition is to obey. He certainly would now and then be tempted to make the same remark made by an English gentleman to his poor guest. This gentleman had invited a man in humble circumstances to dine with him. The man was so overcome with honor that to everything the gentleman said he replied, yes. Tired at last with the monotony of acquiescence, the gentleman cried out, for God's sake, my good man, say no just once so there will be two of us. Is it possible that an infinite God created this world simply to be the dwelling place of slaves and serfs, simply for the purpose of raising orthodox Christians, that he did a few miracles to astonish them, that all the evils of life are simply his punishments, and that he is finally going to turn heaven into a kind of religious museum filled with Baptist barnacles, petrified Presbyterians, and Methodist mummies. I want no heaven for which I must give my reason, no happiness in exchange for my liberty, and no immortality that demands the surrender of my individuality, better wrought in the windowless tomb to which there is no door but the red mouth of the pallid worm than where the jeweled collar even of a God. Religion does not and cannot contemplate man as free. She accepts only the homage of the prostrate and scorns the offerings of those who stand erect. She cannot tolerate the liberty of thought. The wide and sunny fields belong not to her domain. The starlit heights of genius and individuality are above and beyond her appreciation and power. Her subjects cringe at her feet, covered with the dust of obedience. They are not athletes, standing posed by rich life and brave endeavor like the antique statues, but shriveled deformities, studying with furtive glance the cruel face of power. No religionist seems capable of comprehending this plain truth. There is this difference between thought and action. For our actions we are responsible to ourselves and to those injuriously affected. For thoughts there can in the nature of things be no responsibility to gods or men here or hereafter. And yet the Protestant has vied with the Catholic in denouncing freedom of thought. And while I was taught to hate Catholicism with every drop of my blood, it is only justice to say that in all essential particulars it is precisely the same as every other religion. Luther denounced mental liberty with all the course and brutal vigor of his nature. Calvin despised from the very bottom of his petrified heart anything that even looked like religious toleration, and solemnly declared to advocate it was to crucify Christ afresh. All the founders of all the Orthodox churches have advocated the same infamous tenet. The truth is that what is called religion is necessarily inconsistent with free thought. A believer is a songless bird in a cage. A free thinker is an eagle parting the clouds with tireless wings. At present owing to the inroads that have been made by liberals and infidels, most of the churches pretend to be in favor of religious liberty. Of these churches we will ask this question. How can a man who conscientiously believes in religious liberty worship a God who does not? They say to us, we will not imprison you on account of your belief, but our God will. We will not burn you because you throw away the sacred scriptures, but their author will. We think it an infamous crime to persecute our brethren for opinion's sake, but the God whom we ignorantly worship will on that account damn his own children forever. Why is it that these Christians do not only detest the infidels but so cordially despise each other? Why do they refuse to worship in the temples of each other? Why do they care so little for the damnation of men and so much for the baptism of children? Why will they adorn their churches with the money of thieves and flatter vice for the sake of subscription? Why will they attempt to bribe science to certify to the writings of God? Why do they torture the words of the great into an acknowledgment of the truth of Christianity? Why do they stand with hat in hand before presidents, kings, emperors, and scientists begging like Lazarus for a few crumbs of religious comfort? Why are they so delighted to find an allusion to providence in the message of Lincoln? Why are they so afraid that someone will find out that Paley wrote an essay in favor of the Epicurean philosophy, and that Sir Isaac Newton was once an infidel? Why are they so anxious to show that Voltaire recanted, that pain died palsied with fear, that the Emperor Julian cried out, Galilean thou hast conquered, that Gibbon died a Catholic, that Occasies had a little confidence in Moses, that the old Napoleon was once complimentary enough to say that he thought Christ greater than himself or Caesar, that Washington was caught on his knees at Valley Forge, that blunt old Ethan Allen told his child to believe the religion of her mother, that Franklin said, don't unchain the tiger, that Volney got frightened in a storm at sea, and that Oaks' aims was a wholesale liar. Is it because the foundation of their temple is crumbling, because the walls are cracked, the pillars leaning, the great dome swaying to its fall, and because science has written over the high altar its mene mene tekel ufarsin, the old words destined to be the epitaph of all religions. Every assertion of individual independence has been a step towards infidelity. Luther started toward Humboldt, Wesley toward Bradlaw. To really reform the church is to destroy it. Every new religion has a little less superstition than the old, so that the religion of science is but a question of time. I will not say the church has been an unmitigated evil in all respects. Its history is infamous and glorious. It has delighted in the production of extremes. It has furnished murderers for its own martyrs. It has sometimes fed the body, but has always starved the soul. It has been a charitable highwayman, a generous pirate. It has produced some angels and a multitude of devils. It has built more prisons than asylums. It made a hundred orphans while it cared for one. In one hand it carried the arms-dish and in the other a sword. It has founded schools and endowed universities for the purpose of destroying true learning. It filled the world with hypocrites and zealots, and upon the cross of its own Christ it crucified the individuality of man. It has sought to destroy the independence of the soul and put the world upon its knees. This is the crime. The commission of this crime was necessary to its existence. In order to compel obedience, it declared that it had the truth and all the truth, that God had made it the keeper of all his secrets, his agent and his vice-agent. It declared that all other religions were false and infamous. It rendered all compromises impossible and all thought superfluous. Thought was an enemy. Obedience was its friend. Investigation was fraught with danger. Therefore investigation was suppressed. The holy of holies was behind the curtain. All this was upon the principle that forgers hate to have the signature examined by an expert and that imposter detests curiosity. He that hath ears to hear let him hear has always been one of the favorite texts of the church. In short, Christianity has always opposed every forward movement of the human race. Across the highway of progress, it has always been building breastworks of bibles, tracts, commentaries, prayer books, creeds, dogmas and platforms. And at every advance the Christians have gathered behind these heaps of rubbish and shot the poisoned arrows of malice at the soldiers of freedom. And even the liberal Christian of today has his holy of holies and in the niche of the temple of his heart has his idol. He still clings to a part of the old superstition and all the pleasant memories of the old belief linger in the horizon of his thoughts like a sunset. We associate the memory of those we love with the religion of our childhood. It seems almost a sacrilege to rudely destroy the idols that our fathers worshipped and turn their sacred and beautiful truths into the silly fables of barbarism. Some throw away the Old Testament and cling to the new while others give up everything except the idea that there is a personal God and that in some wonderful way we are the objects of his care. Even this, in my opinion, as science, the great iconoclast marches onward, will have to be abandoned with the rest. The great ghost will surely share the fate of the little ones. They fled at the first appearance of the dawn and the other will vanish with the perfect day. Until then the independence of man is little more than a dream. Overshadowed by an immense personality in the presence of the irresponsible and the infinite, the individuality of man is lost and he falls prostrate in the very dust of fear. Beneath the frown of the absolute, man stands a wretched, trembling slave. Beneath his smile he is at best only a fortunate serf. Governed by a being whose arbitrary will is law, chained to the chariot of power, his destiny rests in the pleasure of the unknown. Under these circumstances what wretched object can he have in lengthening out his aimless life? And yet in most minds there is a vague fear of what the gods may do and the safe side is considered the best side. A gentleman walking among the ruins of Athens came upon a fallen statue of Jupiter, making an exceedingly low bow, he said, Jupiter, I salute thee. He then added, should you ever get up in the world again, do not forget, I pray you, that I treated you politely while you were prostrate. We all have been taught by the church that nothing is so well calculated to excite the ire of the deity as to express a doubt as to his existence, and that to deny it is an unpardonable sin. Numerous well-attested instances were referred to of atheists being struck dead for denying the existence of God. According to these religious people, God is infinitely above us in every respect, infinitely merciful, and yet he cannot bear to hear a poor, finite man honestly question his existence, knowing as he does that his children are groping in darkness and struggling with doubt and fear, knowing that he could enlighten them if he would, he still holds the expression of a sincere doubt as to his existence the most infamous of crimes. According to the orthodox logic, God, having furnished us with imperfect minds, has a right to demand a perfect result. Suppose Mr. Smith should overhear a couple of small bugs holding a discussion as to the existence of Mr. Smith, and suppose one should have the temerity to declare upon the honor of a bug that he had examined the whole question to the best of his ability, including the argument based upon design, and had come to the conclusion that no man by the name of Smith had ever lived. Think then of Mr. Smith flying into an ecstasy of rage, crushing the atheist bug beneath his iron heel while he exclaimed, I will teach you blasphemous wretch, that Smith is a diabolical fact. What then can we think of God, who would open the artillery of heaven upon one of his own children for simply expressing his honest thought, and what man who really thinks can help repeating the words of Anais, if there are gods they certainly pay no attention to the affairs of man. In religious ideas and conceptions there has been for ages a slow and steady development, at the bottom of the ladder speaking of modern times is Catholicism, and at the top are atheism and science. The intermediate rounds of this letter are occupied by the various sects whose name is Legion. But whatever may be the truth on any subject has nothing to do with our right to investigate that subject, and express any opinion we may form. All that I ask is the right I freely accord to all others. A few years ago a Methodist clergyman took it upon himself to give me a piece of friendly advice. Although you may disbelieve the Bible, said he, you ought not to say so. That you should keep to yourself. Do you believe the Bible, said I? He replied most assuredly to which I retorted. Your answer conveys no information to me. You may be following your own advice. You told me to suppress my opinions. Of course a man who will advise others to dissimulate will not always be particular about telling the truth himself. It is the duty of each and every one to maintain his individuality. This above all to thine own self be true, and it must follow as the night the day thou canst not then be false to any man. It is a magnificent thing to be the sole proprietor of yourself. It is a terrible thing to wake up at night and say there is nobody in this bed. It is humiliating to know that your ideas are all borrowed, and that you are indebted to your memory for your principles, that your religion is simply one of your habits, and that you would have convictions if they were only contagious. It is mortifying to feel that you belong to a mental mob and cry crucify him because the others do. That you reap what the great and brave have sown, and that you can benefit the world only by leaving it. Surely every human being ought to attain the dignity of the unit. Surely it is worth something to be one and to feel that the senses of the universe would not be complete without counting you. Surely there is grandeur in knowing that in the realm of thought at least you are without a chain, that you have the right to explore all heights and all depths, that there are no walls, fences, prohibited places, nor sacred corners in all the vast expanse of thought, that your intellect owes no allegiance to any being human or divine, that you hold all in fee and upon no condition and by no tenure whatever, that in the world of mind you are relieved from all personal dictation and from the ignorant tyranny of majorities. Surely it is worth something to feel that there are no priests, no popes, no parties, no governments, no kings, no gods to whom your intellect can be compelled to pay a reluctant homage. Surely it is a joy to know that all the cruel ingenuity of bigotry can devise no prison, no lock, no cell in which for one instant to confine a thought, that ideas cannot be dislocated by racks, nor crushed in iron boots, nor burned with fire. Surely it is sublime to think that the brain is a castle and that within its curious bastions and winding halls the soul in spite of all worlds and all beings is the supreme sovereign of itself. End of Ingersoll's lecture on individuality. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. Ingersoll's lecture on individuality is the fourth lecture from the book Lectures of Colonel Robert Green Ingersoll, read for you by Ted DeLorm in Fort Mill, South Carolina, during May 2007.