Lectures of Col. R.G. Ingersoll, vol 1

Lectures of Col. R.G. Ingersoll, vol 1

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Title: Lectures Of Col. R. G. Ingersoll, Vol. I Including His Answers To The Clergy, His Oration At His Brother's Grave, Etc., Etc.
Author: Col. Robert Green Ingersoll
Release Date: May, 2005 [EBook #8140] [Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule] [This file was first posted on June 18, 2003]
Edition: 10
Language: English
Character set encoding: ASCII
*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LECTURES OF COL. INGERSOLL, V1 ***

Produced by Mark R. Jaqua

LECTURES OF COL. R. G. INGERSOLL
Including His Answers To The Clergy, His Oration At His Brother's Grave, Etc., Etc.
Complete In Two Volumes
Volume I

CONTENTS
Gods Ghosts Hell Individuality Humboldt Which Way The Great Infidels Talmagian Theology At a Child's Grave Ingersoll's Oration at His Brother's Grave Mistakes of Moses Skulls and Replies What Shall We Do To Be Saved? Ingersoll's Answer To Prof. Swing, Dr. Thomas, And Others
INGERSOLL'S LECTURE ON GODS
Ladies and Gentlemen: An honest god is the noblest work of man. Each nation has created a god, and the god has always resembled his creators. He hated and loved what they hated and loved, and he was invariably found on the side of those in power. Each god was in tensely patriotic, and detested all nations but his own. All these Gods demanded praise, flattery, and worship. Most of them were pleased with sacrifice, and the smell of innocent blood has ever been considered a divine perfume. All these gods have insisted upon having a vast number of priests, and the priests have always insisted upon being supported by the people, and the principal business of these priests has been to boast about their God, and to insist that he could easily vanquish all the other gods put together.
These gods have been manufactured after numberless models, and according to the most grotesque fashions. Some have a thousand arms, some a hundred heads, some are adorned with necklaces of living snakes, some are armed with clubs, some with sword and shield, some with bucklers, and some with wings as a cherub; some were invisible, some would show themselves entire, and some would only show their backs; some were jealous, some were foolish, some turned themselves into men, some into swans, some into bulls, some into doves, and some into holy ghosts, and made love to the beautiful daughters of men. Some were married--all ought to have been--and some were considered as old bachelors from all eternity. Some had children, and the children were turned into gods and worshiped as their fathers had been. Most of these gods were revengeful, savage, lustful, and ignorant; as they generally depended upon their priests for information, their ignorance can hardly excite our astonishment.
These gods did not even know the shape of the worlds they had created, but supposed them perfectly flat. Some thought the day could be lengthened by stopping the sun, that the blowing of horns could throw down the walls of a city, and all knew so little of the real nature of the people they had created, that they commanded the people to love them. Some were so ignorant as to suppose that man could believe just as he might desire, or as might command, and to be governed by observation, reason, and experience was a most foul and damning sin. None of these gods could give a true account of the creation of this little earth. All were woefully deficient in geology and astronomy. As a rule, they were most miserable legislators, and as executives, they were far inferior to the average of American presidents.
The deities have demanded the most abject and degrading obedience. In order to please them, man must lay his very face in the dust. Of course, they have always been partial to the people who created them, and they have generally shown their partiality by assisting those people to rob and destroy others, and to ravish their