O
THE TORCH OF REASON, SILVERTON, OREGON, AUGUST 3, 1899.
Defense of Ingersoll.
ing, or he is on a journey, or he is
----------
sleeping and must be awaked.”
To the E ditor of the O regonian : Whether or not such utterauces are
In your issues of the 22d and 23d wise, it ill-becomes the preachers
inst. you made editorial reference to aud teachers of the present day to
the late Robert G. Ingersoll, and take Mr. Ingersoll to task for re-
though very kind in tone, in the sorting to their use.
main, I think, the said estimates of You say: “Ingersoll gave men and
him were hardly fair in one or two women nothing to replace the bread t
particulars. I have waited two of faith he took from their hungry
days in the hope that somebody hands.” Without pausing to fully
better able than I would speak in enjoy the thought of so mixed a |
his behalf, but, as I have seen no metaphor from so clever a source, I
thing from any other source, I will will say that neither Mr. Ingersoll
ask the indulgence of your columns nor anybody else ever took from
foi^a few words on the subject.
“hungry hands” any faith that w’as
You say: “ He dies loved by a not replaced with some idea which ,
few, admired by thousands, feared more than repaid the loss of th e '
and hated by millions. He was not former. Those who most agoniz
content to doubt, he must revile. ingly bewail such so-called robbery
It was not enough for him to dis are the ones who still hold on to
believe, he must blaspheme.” In the “faith” they deem so precious.
reply, it may be said that few men Those who have exchanged the said
have ever antagonized the dominant faith for something else have done
ideas of their time—and, particu so because they found satisfaction
larly, the so-called religious ideas— in it; else it would not have been
without receiving as a reward for done.
their pains the execration of their
Mr Ingersoll never attacked that
fellows; but it does not follow that w'hich was kindly and helpful to
a later and wiser generation will humanity in its earthly environ
not do him justice. He can afford ment. He was kindly, thoughtful,
to await the test of time as to that. generoug anj helpful to an unusual
There is, however, seemingly unin degree; but simply because he not
tentional evidence of the correct only did not believe in, but was bit
ness of his opinion of the effect of terly opposed to certain super
supernatural religion upon men, in natural teachings which he re
your assertion that “millions” of garded as evil in their tendencies,
those who believe in “the gospel of you say he “made shipwreck” of
love” now “hate” him.
his life! If that be so, I hope I
If he “was not content to doubt,” may be so fortunate as to ship
but “must revile,” he certainly had wreck mine.
much justification therefore in the
Here are a few quotations from
teaching of the old Scripture, on his writings which may serve as
the “eye-for-an-eye and tooth-for-a warnings to enable the young man
tooth” basis, for he was himself the of the day to avoid making ship
object of constant, insistent, vocife wreck of their lives:
rous and unanimous vituperation
Happiness is the only good; the
on the part of the pulpit of the
place to be happy is here; the time
Christian world. And, as to his in to be happy is now; and the way to
clination to “blaspheme,” I think he happy is in making others happy,
you are mistaken. I think i/ im
When a fact can be demonstrated
possible for anybody to blaspheme force is unnecessary; and when it
unless the thing attacked is regard cannot be demonstrated force is in-
ed by him as sacred. If that is fiamous.
true, Mr. Ingersoll was never guilty
The spirit of w’orship is the spirit
of blasphemy, because he never at- of tyranny. The intellect has no
tacked anything that he regarded knees.
as sacred; and, if my contention in
It is a terrible thing to wake up
that particular is not true, he was) in the night, when sleeping alone,
simply following the example set and be compelled to say, “There is
him by every Christian pulpit in t a rascal in this bed.”
every land—in so far as I have ever
t 0 obey is slavish; but to act
heard—for it is the habit of all pul- from a sense of obligation, perceived
pits, I think, to attack and ridicule by the reason, is noble.
the gods and beliefs of those who
j want no heaven for which I
are called “heathen.” All worship must give up my reason; no hap-
of the supernatural was heathenish piness in exchange for my liberty;
to Mr. Ingersoll, and he used u° immortality that demands the
against it any weapon which he
thought effective. If the reader—
There are in nature neither re-
if I should have one-w ill turn to wa,rds nor P«niahmente; there are
l Kings xvm, aud read the story of
the contest between Elijah and’the
When every church becomes a
priests of Baal, he will find that the ««''ool,every cathedral a university,
former (who was God s immediate
hearers brave and honest
representative), laughed at and “re- thinkers, the dream of poet, philan-
viled” the latter for their failure, thropist, patriot and philosopher
with truly Ingersollian irony, by will become a great and splendid
saying: “Cry aloud, for he is a god; reahty-
either he is talking, or he is pursu-,
W. W. C atlin .
* Liberal
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