Lectures of Col. R.G. Ingersoll, vol 1 | Page 5

live forever. Therefore the Lord God sent him forth from
the garden of Eden to till the ground from which he was taken. So he
drove out the man, and he placed at the east of the garden of Eden
cherubims and a flaming sword, which turned every way to keep the
way of the tree of life."
According to this account the promise of the devil was fulfilled to the
very letter. Adam and Eve did not die, and they did become as gods,
knowing good and evil. The account shows, however, that the gods
dreaded education and knowledge then just as they do now. The church
still faithfully guards the dangerous tree of knowledge, and has exerted
in all ages her utmost power to keep mankind from eating the fruit
thereof. The priests have never ceased repeating the old falsehood and
the old threat: "Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye
die." From every pulpit comes the same cry, born of the same fear
"Lest they eat and become as gods, knowing good and evil." For this
reason, religion hates science, faith detests reason, theology is the
sworn enemy of philosophy, and the church with its flaming sword still
guards the hated tree, and like its supposed founder, curses to the
lowest depths the brave thinkers who eat and become as gods.
If the account given in Genesis is really true, ought we not, after all, to
thank this serpent? He was the first schoolmaster, the first advocate of
learning, the first enemy of ignorance, the first to whisper in human
ears the sacred word liberty, the creator of ambition, the author of
modesty, of inquiry, of doubt, of investigation, of progress and of
civilization.
Give me the storm and tempest of thought and action, rather than the
dead calm of ignorance and faith. Banish me from Eden when you will;
but first let me eat of the fruit of the tree of knowledge! Some nations
have borrowed their gods; of this number, we are compelled to say, is
our own. The Jews having ceased to exist as a nation, and having no

further use for a god, our ancestors appropriated him and adopted their
devil at the same time. This borrowed god is still an object of some
adoration, and this adopted devil still excites the apprehensions of our
people. He is still supposed to be setting his traps and snares for the
purpose of catching our unwary souls, and is still, with reasonable
success, waging the old war against our god.
To me, it seems easy to account for these ideas concerning gods and
devils. They are a perfectly natural production. Man has created them
all, and under the same circumstances will create them again. Man has
not only created all these gods, but he has created them out of the
materials by which he has been surrounded. Generally he has modeled
them after himself, and has given them hands, heads, feet, eyes, ears,
and organs of speech. Each nation made its gods and devils speak its
language not only, but put in their mouths the same mistakes in history,
geography, astronomy, and in all matters of fact, generally made by the
people.
No god was ever in advance of the nation that created him. The negroes
represented their deities with black skins and curly hair. The
Mongolian gave to his a yellow complexion and dark almond-shaped
eyes. The Jews were not allowed to paint theirs, or we should have seen
Jehovah with a full beard, an oval face, and an aquiline nose. Zeus was
a perfect Greek and Jove looked as though a member of the Roman
senate. The gods of Egypt had the patient face and placid look of the
loving people who made them. The gods of northern countries were
represented warmly clad in robes of fur; those of the tropics were naked.
The gods of India were often mounted upon elephants, those of some
islanders were great swimmers, and the deities of the Arctic zone were
passionately fond of whale's blubber. Nearly all people have carved or
painted representations of their gods, and these representations were, by
the lower classes generally treated as the real gods, and to these images
and idols they addressed prayers and offered sacrifice.
"In some countries, even at this day, if the people after long praying do
not obtain their desires, they turn their images off as impotent gods, or
upbraid them in a most reproachful manner, loading them with blows
and curses. 'How now, dog of a spirit,' they say, 'we give you lodging in
a magnificent temple, we gild you with gold, feed you with the choicest
food, and offer incense to you; yet, after all this care, you are