Ingersoll on science vs. religion

July 2, 2013 • 8:23 am

We all should read more Ingersoll, and a good place to start is Susan Jacoby’s new book on the man, Robert Ingersoll: The Great Agnostic and American Freethought. Jacoby will be giving the keynote address at TAM, and I look forward to meeting her.

Here’s a nice quote from Ingersoll’s God in the Constitution (1890) 

We have already compared the benefits of theology and science. When the theologian governed the world, it was covered with huts and hovels for the many, palaces and cathedrals for the few. To nearly all the children of men, reading and writing were unknown arts. The poor were clad in rags and skins — they devoured crusts, and gnawed bones. The day of Science dawned, and the luxuries of a century ago are the necessities of to-day. Men in the middle ranks of life have more of the conveniences and elegancies than the princes and kings of the theological times. But above and over all this, is the development of mind. There is more of value in the brain of an average man of to-day—of a master-mechanic, of a chemist, of a naturalist, of an inventor, than there was in the brain of the world four hundred years ago.

These blessings did not fall from the skies. These benefits did not drop from the outstretched hands of priests. They were not found in cathedrals or behind altars — neither were they searched for with holy candles. They were not discovered by the closed eyes of prayer, nor did they come in answer to superstitious supplication. They are the children of freedom, the gifts of reason, observation and experience — and for them all, man is indebted to man.

The man was eloquent.

27 thoughts on “Ingersoll on science vs. religion”

    1. And he somehow got lots of believers to flock to his speeches, and they often left smiling. Even though he was unflinching in his non-belief, several believers were proud to be his friend. Jacoby’s book leaves the impression that Ingersoll was indeed a rare personality. His politics were progressive, and he touted evolution while castigating the social Darwinists (like Spencer). The other things that are noteworthy is that he did much to restore the reputation of Thomas Paine, was way ahead of his time with respect to the rights and equal status of women.

      1. I have read a lot of his writings and I can’t agree more. He not only did much to restore the reputation of TP but also that of Voltaire. In one of the lectures he gives a moving oration on the deeds of Voltaire.
        He [Ingersoll] is a man to be admired.

  2. What’s even more remarkable is how much more luxurious and informed are lives are today compared with over a century ago when Ingersoll wrote those words….

    b&

    1. Would reflect on how much more inexcusable it is for one to be willfully ignorant and non-curious now as compared to then.

      The other day came upon a 2009 penny, the back of which (marking the bicentennial of Lincoln’s birth) showing Lincoln sitting on a log reading, resting from his rail-splitting labors. What president after Lincoln could so extensively quote Shakespeare?

  3. The “poor were clad in rags and skins” & didn’t – DON’T – the pious just love that, to wit Fanny Alexander’s –
    “The rich man in his castle,
    The poor man at his gate,
    He made them, high or lowly,
    And ordered their estate.”

    1. A not insignificant portion of religious doctrine attempts to convince the socially and materially unlucky that they should just suck it up and deal. Don’t be bothering us haves. Consider your divinely ordained have-not-ness a kind of blessing. Yeah, that’s the ticket!

        1. And I don’t mean to imply that there is no virtue in not wanting lots material posessions (‘not he who has little but he who desires much, is poor’) but that some seem to glory in the existence of those in the lower echelons as they can be fruitful recruiting grounds & places to show the virtue of the religious with ‘pious deeds’.

  5. This simply confirms what many of us (except Lennie!) have been saying for years. Big Pharma is, on balance, a badass!

    Sent from my iPad

  6. Very eloquent. And I love Susan Jacoby. She was one of the main reasons I traveled to Montreal in 2011 for the AAIC Convention (unfortunately she was ill and couldn’t make it). I’ve been looking forward to her book on Ingersoll for a while.

  10. One thing that saddens me is reading what Ingersoll wrote about the imminent demise of religion. It hasn’t happened yet, which makes me think that perhaps it never will.

  11. Enclosed, Off topic:
    The 4th verse of the Nat’l Anthem – including “Heaven”, “Power” and “God”. Well, on the plus side, it rarely gets sung… but there needs to be a vocabulary adjustment. Won’t happen any time soon.
    Someday, reason willing.

    Oh! thus be it ever, when freemen shall stand
    Between their loved home and the war’s desolation!
    Blest with victory and peace, may the heav’n rescued land
    Praise the Power that hath made and preserved us a nation.
    Then conquer we must, when our cause it is just,
    And this be our motto: “In God is our trust.”
    And the star-spangled banner in triumph shall wave
    O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave!

    1. If I correctly recall, Francis Scott Key was up all night on the British ship. I myself would get a bit addled around 4 a.m. writing poetry.

  12. I recently found this page at Project Gutenberg which has all the works of Ingersoll available for download. I recommend using the EPUB option for
    those not using an E-reader such as the
    Kindle.
    Books by Ingersoll, Robert Green (sorted by popularity)
    http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/author/2662

  13. honest, true and  very very wise.

    ________________________________

    1. I’ve listened to the entire first volume so far. Ted Delorme’s reading is so good I could easily imagine that I was listening to Ingersoll himself.

  16. I would have much enjoyed then, and would much enjoy today, listening to a marathon lecture by the gentleman. But today the mass of humankind suffer too much from “attention deficit syndrome,” not to mention presuming to dismiss him as “irrelevant.” They would be more likely to pay attention to him as part of some computer game.

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