Lectures of Col. R.G. Ingersoll, vol 1 | Page 4

ignorance and of such atrocity.
Our ancestors not only had their God-factories, but they made devils as
well. These devils were generally disgraced and fallen gods. Some had
headed unsuccessful revolts; some had been caught sweetly reclining in
the shadowy folds of some fleecy clouds, kissing the wife of the God of
gods. These devils generally sympathized with man. There is in regard
to them a most wonderful fact: In nearly all the theologies, mythologic
and religious, the devils have been much more humane and merciful
than the gods. No devil ever gave one of his generals an order to kill
children and to rip open the bodies of pregnant women. Such
barbarities were always ordered by the good gods. The pestilences were
sent by the most merciful gods. The frightful famine, during which the
dying child with pallid lips sucked the withered bosom of a dead
mother, was sent by the loving gods. No devil was ever charged with
such fiendish brutality.
One of these gods, according to the account, drowned an entire world,
with the exception of eight persons. The old, the young, the beautiful
and the helpless were remorselessly devoured by the shoreless sea. This,
the most fearful tragedy that the imagination of ignorant priests ever

conceived, was the act not of a devil, but of God so-called, whom men
ignorantly worship unto this day. What a stain such an act would leave
upon the character of a devil! One of the prophets of one of these gods,
having in his power a captured king, hewed him in pieces in the sight
of all the people. Was ever any imp of any devil guilty of such
savagery?
One of these gods is reported to have given the following directions
concerning human slavery: "If thou buy a 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 master's, and he shall go out by himself. And 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 unto the door, or unto the doorpost; and his Master shall bore
his ear with an awl; and he shall serve him forever."
According to this, a man was given liberty upon condition that he
would desert forever his wife and children. Did any devil ever force
upon a husband, upon a father, so cruel and so heartless an alternative?
Who can worship such a god? Who can bend the knee to such a
monster? Who can pray to such a fiend?
All these gods threatened to torment forever the souls of their enemies.
Did any devil ever make so infamous a threat? The basest thing
recorded of the devil, is what he did concerning job and his family, and
that was done by the express permission of one of these gods and to
decide a little difference of opinion between their serene highnesses as
to the character of "my servant Job."
The first account we have of the devil is found in that purely scientific
book called Genesis, and is as follows: "Now the serpent was more
subtle than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made, and he
said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, ye shall not eat of the fruit of
the trees of the garden? And the woman said unto the serpent. We may
eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden; but of the fruit of the tree
which is in the midst of the garden God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it,
neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die. And the serpent said unto the
woman, Ye shall not surely die. For God doth know that in the day ye

eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened and ye shall be as gods,
knowing good and evil. And when the woman saw that the tree was
good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be
desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof and did eat, and
gave also unto her husband with her, and he did eat...... And the Lord
God said, Behold the man has become as one of us, to know good and
evil; and now, lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life
and eat, and