The Works of Robert G. Ingersoll, Volume VIII | Page 9

utterly gave up the
idea that this life is a period of probation. He utterly gave up the idea of
eternal punishment, and before he died he had the happiness of
believing that God was almost as good and generous as he was himself.
Question. I suppose this gossip about a change in your religious views
arose or was created by the expression used at your brother's funeral,
"In the night of death hope sees a star and listening love can hear the
rustle of a wing"?
Answer. I never willingly will destroy a solitary human hope. I have
always said that I did not know whether man was or was not immortal,
but years before my brother died, in a lecture entitled "The Ghosts,"
which has since been published, I used the following words: "The idea
of immortality, that like a sea has ebbed and flowed in the human heart,
with its countless waves of hope and fear, beating against the shores
and rocks of time and fate, was not born of any book, nor of any creed,
nor of any religion. It was born of human affection, and it will continue
to ebb and flow beneath the mists and clouds of doubt and darkness as
long as love kisses the lips of death. It is the rainbow--Hope, shining
upon the tears of grief."
Question. The great objection to your teaching urged by your enemies
is that you constantly tear down, and never build up?

Answer. I have just published a little book entitled, "Some Mistakes of
Moses," in which I have endeavored to give most of the arguments I
have urged against the Pentateuch in a lecture I delivered under that
title. The motto on the title page is, "A destroyer of weeds, thistles and
thorns is a benefactor, whether he soweth grain or not." I cannot for my
life see why one should be charged with tearing down and not
rebuilding simply because he exposes a sham, or detects a lie. I do not
feel under any obligation to build something in the place of a detected
falsehood. All I think I am under obligation to put in the place of a
detected lie is the detection. Most religionists talk as if mistakes were
valuable things and they did not wish to part with them without a
consideration. Just how much they regard lies worth a dozen I do not
know. If the price is reasonable I am perfectly willing to give it, rather
than to see them live and give their lives to the defence of delusions. I
am firmly convinced that to be happy here will not in the least detract
from our happiness in another world should we be so fortunate as to
reach another world; and I cannot see the value of any philosophy that
reaches beyond the intelligent happiness of the present. There may be a
God who will make us happy in another world. If he does, it will be
more than he has accomplished in this. I suppose that he will never
have more than infinite power and never have less than infinite wisdom,
and why people should expect that he should do better in another world
than he has in this is something that I have never been able to explain.
A being who has the power to prevent it and yet who allows thousands
and millions of his children to starve; who devours them with
earthquakes; who allows whole nations to be enslaved, cannot in my
judgment be implicitly be depended upon to do justice in another
world.
Question. How do the clergy generally treat you?
Answer. Well, of course there are the same distinctions among
clergymen as among other people. Some of them are quite respectable
gentlemen, especially those with whom I am not acquainted. I think
that since the loss of my brother nothing could exceed the heartlessness
of the remarks made by the average clergyman. There have been some
noble exceptions, to whom I feel not only thankful but grateful; but a

very large majority have taken this occasion to say most unfeeling and
brutal things. I do not ask the clergy to forgive me, but I do request that
they will so act that I will not have to forgive them. I have always
insisted that those who love their enemies should at least tell the truth
about their friends, but I suppose, after all, that religion must be
supported by the same means as those by which it was founded. Of
course, there are thousands of good ministers, men who are
endeavoring to make the world better, and whose failure is no
particular fault of their own. I have always been in doubt as to whether
the clergy were a necessary or an unnecessary evil.