Included are:
1. THE TEN COMMANDMENTS.
2 WHAT IS IT ALL WORTH?
3. WAS JEHOVAH A GOD OF LOVE?
4. JEHOVAH’S ADMINISTRATION.
5. The question is, Were the authors of these four gospels inspired?
6. The gospels are filled with accounts of miracles. Were they ever performed?
7. Jesus raising the dead
8. WHY SHOULD WE PLACE CHRIST AT THE TOP AND SUMMIT OF THE HUMAN RACE?
9. How are we to separate the mistakes of man from the thoughts of God?
10. Negative e-mail received about Ingersoll
1. THE TEN COMMANDMENTS.
Some Christian lawyers — some eminent and stupid judges — have said and still say,
that the Ten Commandments are the foundation of all law. All of the
Ten Commandments that are good were old; all that were new art foolish.
If Jehovah had been civilized he would have left out the commandment about
keeping the Sabbath, and in its place would have said: “Thou shalt not enslave
thy fellow-men.” He would have omitted the one about swearing, and said:
“The man shall have but one wife, and the woman but one husband.”
He would have left out the one about graven images, and in its stead would
have said: “Thou shalt not wage wars of extermination, and thou shalt not
unsheathe the sword except in self-defence.”
If Jehovah had been civilized, how much grander the Ten Commandments would
have been.
All that we call progress — the enfranchisement of man, of labor, the substitution
of imprisonment for death, of fine for imprisonment, the destruction of polygamy,
the establishing of free speech, of the rights of conscience; in short, all that
has tended to the development and civilization of man; all the results of
investigation, observation, experience and free thought; all that man has
accomplished for the benefit of man since the close of the Dark Ages
— has been done in spite of the Old Testament.
Let me further illustrate the morality, the mercy, the philosophy and
goodness of the Old Testament:
2 WHAT IS IT ALL WORTH?
Will some Christian scholar tell us the value of Genesis?
We know that it is not true — that it contradicts itself.
There are two accounts of the creation in the first and second chapters.
In the first account birds and beasts were created before man.
In the second, man was created before the birds and beasts.
In the first, fowls are made out of the water.
In the second, fowls are made out of the ground.
In the first, Adam and Eve are created together.
In the second, Adam is made; then the beasts and birds, and then
Eve is created from one of Adam’s ribs.
These stories are far older than the Pentateuch:
Persian: God created the world in six days, a man called Adama, a woman called Evah, and then rested.
The Etruscan, Babylonian, Phoenician, Chaldean and the Egyptian stories are much the same.
The Persians, Greeks, Egyptians, Chinese and Hindus have their Garden of Eden and the Tree of Life.
So the Persians, the Babylonians, the Nubians, the people of Southern India, all had the story of the fall of man and the subtle serpent.
The Chinese say that sin came into the
world by the disobedience of woman.
And even the Tahitians tell us that man was created from the earth, and the first woman from one of his bones.
All these stories are equally authentic and of equal value to the world, and all the authors were equally inspired.
We know also that the story of the flood is much older than the book of Genesis, and we know besides that it is not true.
We know that this story in Genesis was copied from the Chaldean. There you find all about the rain, the ark, the animals, the dove that was sent out three times, and the mountain on which the ark rested. So the Hindus, Chinese, Parsees, Persians, Greeks, Mexicans and Scandinavians have substantially the same story.
3. WAS JEHOVAH A GOD OF LOVE?
Did these words come from the heart of love? — “When the Lord thy God shall
drive them before thee, thou shalt smite them and utterly destroy them;
thou shalt make no covenant with them, or show mercy unto them.”
“I will heap mischief upon them. I will send mine arrows upon them; they shall
be burned with hunger and devoured with burning heat and with bitter destruction.”
“I will send the tooth of beasts upon them, with the poison of serpents of the
dust.”
“The sword without, and terror within, shall destroy both the young man and the
virgin; the suckling also with the man of gray hairs.”
“Let his children be fatherless and his wife a widow; let his children be
continually
vagabonds and beg; let them seek their bread also out of their desolate places;
let the extortioner catch all that he hath, and let the stranger spoil his labor;
let there be none to extend mercy unto him, neither let there be any to favor
his fatherless children.”
“And thou shalt eat the fruit of thine own body — the flesh of thy sons and
daughters.”
“And the heaven that is over thee shall be brass, and the earth that is under thee
shall be iron.”
“Cursed shalt thou be in the city, and cursed shalt thou be in the field.”
“I will make my arrows drunk with blood.”
“I will laugh at their calamity.”
Did these curses, these threats, come from the heart of
love or from the mouth of savagery?
4. JEHOVAH’S ADMINISTRATION.
He created the world, the hosts of heaven, a man and woman — placed them
in a garden. Then the serpent deceived them, and they were cast out and
made to earn their bread.
Jehovah had been thwarted.
Then he tried again. He went on for about sixteen hundred years trying to
civilize the people.
No schools, no churches, no Bible, no tracts — nobody taught to read or write.
No Ten Commandments. The people grew worse and worse, until the
merciful Jehovah sent the flood and drowned all the people except
Noah and his family, eight in all.
Then he started again, and changed their
diet. At first Adam and Eve were
vegetarians. After the flood Jehovah said: “Every moving thing that liveth
shall be meat for you” — snakes and buzzards.
Then he failed again, and at the Tower of
Babel he dispersed and scattered the people.
Finding that he could not succeed with all the people, he thought he would try
a few, so he selected Abraham and his descendants. Again he failed, and
his chosen people were captured by the Egyptians and enslaved for four hundred years.
Then he tried again — rescued them from
Pharaoh and started for Palestine.
Then he changed their diet, allowing them to eat only the beasts that parted
the hoof and chewed the cud. Again he failed. The people hated him,
and preferred the slavery of Egypt to the freedom of Jehovah. So he kept
them wandering until nearly all who came from Egypt had died.
Then he tried again — took them into Palestine and had them governed by Judges.
This, too, was a failure — no schools,
no Bible. Then he tried kings, and the kings were mostly idolaters.
Then the chosen people were conquered and carried into captivity by
the Babylonians.
Another failure.
Then they returned, and Jehovah tried prophets — howlers and wailers
— but the people grew worse and worse. No schools, no sciences, no arts,
no commerce. Then Jehovah took upon himself flesh, was born of a woman,
and lived among the people that he had been trying to civilize for several
thousand years. Then these people, following the law that Jehovah had given
them in the wilderness, charged this Jehovah-man — this Christ
— with blasphemy; tried, convicted and killed him.
Jehovah had failed again.
Then he deserted the Jews and turned his attention to the rest of the world.
And now the Jews, deserted by Jehovah, persecuted by Christians, are the
most prosperous people on the earth. Again has Jehovah failed.
What an administration!
5. The question is, Were the authors of these four gospels
inspired?
If they were inspired, then the four gospels mast be true.
If they are true, they must agree. Matthew, Mark and Luke
knew nothing of the atonement, nothing of salvation by faith. They knew only the gospel of good deeds — of charity. They teach that if we forgive others God will forgive us.
With this the gospel of John does not agree.
In that gospel we are taught that we must believe on the Lord Jesus Christ;
that we must be born again; that we must drink the blood and eat the flesh
of Christ. In this gospel we find the doctrine of the atonement and that
Christ died for us and suffered in our place.
This gospel is utterly at variance with the other three.
If the other three are true, the gospel of John is false.
If the gospel of John was written by an inspired man, the writers of the
other three were uninspired. From this there is no possible escape.
The four cannot be true.
It is evident that there are many interpolations in the four gospels.
6. The gospels are filled with accounts of miracles.
Were they ever performed?
Matthew gives the particulars of about twenty-two miracles,
Mark of about nineteen,
Luke of about eighteen and
John of about seven.
According to the gospels, Christ healed diseases, cast out devils,
rebuked the sea, cured the blind, fed multitudes with five loaves and two fishes,
walked on the sea, cursed a fig tree, turned water into wine and raised the dead.
Matthew is the only one that tells about the Star and the Wise Men
— the only one that tells about the murder of babes.
John is the only one who says anything
about the resurrection of Lazarus,
and Luke is the only one giving an account
of the rising from the dead the widow of Nain’s son.
How is it possible to substantiate these miracles?
The Jews, among whom they were said to have been performed, did not
believe them. The diseased, the palsied, the leprous, the blind who
were cured, did not become followers of Christ. Those that were raised
from the dead were never heard of again.
Does any intelligent man believe in the existence of devils?
The writer of three of the gospels certainly did.
John says nothing about Christ having cast out devils,
but Matthew, Mark and Luke give many instances.
7. Jesus raising the dead
It was more wonderful than the raising of the widow’s son.
He had not been laid in the tomb for days.
He was only on his way to the grave, but Lazarus was
actually dead.
He had begun to decay.
Lazarus did not excite the least interest.
No one asked him about the other world.
No one inquired of him about their dead friends.
When he died the second time no one said: “He is not afraid. He has traveled
that road twice and knows just where he is going.”
We do not believe in the miracles of Mohammed, and yet they are as well
attested as this. We have no confidence in the miracles performed by
Joseph Smith, and yet the evidence is far greater, far better.
8. WHY SHOULD WE PLACE CHRIST AT THE TOP AND SUMMIT OF THE HUMAN RACE?
Was he kinder, more forgiving, more self-sacrificing than Buddha?
Was he wiser, did he meet death with more perfect calmness, than Socrates?
Was he more patient, more charitable, than Epictetus?
Was he a greater philosopher, a deeper thinker, than Epicurus?
In what respect was he the superior of Zoroaster?
Was he gentler than Lao-tsze, more universal than Confucius?
Were his ideas of human rights and duties superior to those of Zeno?
Did he express grander truths than Cicero?
Was his mind subtler than Spinoza’s?
Was his brain equal to Kepler’s or Newton’s?
Was he grander in death — a sublimer martyr than Bruno?
Was he in intelligence, in the force and beauty of expression, in breadth
and scope of thought, in wealth of illustration, in aptness of comparison,
in knowledge of the human brain and heart, of all passions, hopes and fears,
the equal of Shakespeare, the greatest of the human race?
If Christ was in fact God, he knew all the future.
Before him like a panorama moved the history yet to be.
He knew how his words would be interpreted.
He knew what crimes, what horrors, what
infamies, would be committed in his name.
He knew that the hungry flames of
persecution would climb around the limbs of countless martyrs.
He knew that; thousands and thousands of
brave men and women would languish in dungeons in darkness, filled with pain.
He knew that his church would invent and use instruments of torture; that his followers would appeal to whip and fagot, to chain and rack.
He saw the horizon of the future lurid with the flames of the auto da fe.
He knew what creeds would spring like poisonous fungi from every text.
He saw the ignorant sects waging war against each other.
He saw thousands of men, under the orders of priests, building prisons for their fellow-men.
He saw thousands of scaffolds dripping with the best and bravest blood.
He saw his followers using the instruments of pain.
He heard the groans — saw the faces white with agony.
He heard the shrieks and sobs and cries of all the moaning, martyred multitudes.
He knew that commentaries would be written on his words with swords, to be read by the light of fagots.
He knew that the Inquisition would be born of the teachings attributed to him.
He saw the interpolations and falsehoods that hypocrisy would write and tell.
He saw all wars that would he waged, and he knew that above these fields of death, these dungeons, these rackings, these burnings, these executions, for a thousand years would float the dripping banner of the cross.
He knew that hypocrisy would be robed and crowned — that cruelty and credulity would rule the world; knew that liberty would perish from the earth; knew that popes and kings in his name would enslave the souls and bodies of men; knew that they would persecute and destroy the discoverers, thinkers and inventors; knew that his church would extinguish reason’s holy light and leave the world without a star.
He saw his disciples extinguishing the
eyes of men, flaying them alive, cutting out their tongues, searching for all the nerves of pain.
He knew that in his name his followers would trade in human flesh; that cradles would be robbed and women’s breasts unbabed for gold.
And yet he died with voiceless lips.
Why did he fail to speak?
Why did he not tell his disciples, and through them the world:
“You shall not burn, imprison and torture in my name.
You shall not persecute your fellow-men.”
Why did he not plainly say: “I am the Son of God,” or, “I am God”?
Why did he not explain the Trinity?
Why did he not tell the mode of baptism that was pleasing to him?
Why did he not write a creed?
Why did he not break the chains of slaves?
Why did he not say that the Old Testament was or was not the inspired word of God?
Why did he not write the New Testament himself?
Why did he leave his words to ignorance, hypocrisy and chance?
Why did he not say something positive, definite and satisfactory about another world?
Why did he not turn the tear-stained hope of heaven into the glad knowledge of another life?
Why did he not tell us something of the rights of man, of the liberty of hand and brain?
Why did he go dumbly to his death, leaving the world to misery and to doubt?
I will tell you why. He was a man, and did not know.
9. How are we to separate the mistakes of man from the thoughts of God?
Can we do this without being inspired ourselves?
If the original writers were inspired, then the translators should have been, and so should be the men who tell us what the Bible means.
How is it possible for a human being to know that he is inspired by an infinite being? But of one thing we may be certain: An inspired book should certainly excel all the books produced by uninspired men.
It should, above all, be true, filled with wisdom, blossoming in beauty — perfect.
To get the full document and many of his other documents check a good Web Site of most of Robert G. Ingersoll works of the 1800’s — these have been suppressed books
10. Negative e-mail received about Ingersoll:
>And if I were you I’d really be embarassed to have anything by
>that fool Ingersol on your web page. This man seems to think that the
>New Testament was originally written in Hebrew – what a poor foolish and
>misinformed soul he is.
> R.P. Fellowship of the South Hills
My reply:
Ingersoll did not claim to be God. Jesus did.
To make things worse, Jesus believed desease was caused by evil spirits and demons. We know better, as did Ingersoll.
Naturalism and Religious Experience 