



Produced by David Widger





HELL

WARM WORDS ON THE CHEERFUL AND COMFORTING DOCTRINE OF ETERNAL DAMNATION


COL. INGERSOLL'S AMERICAN SECULAR LECTURES


By Col. Robert G. Ingersoll

Minister Of The Gospel Of Free Thought In America


Rev. HENRY WARD BEECHER says:--"I admire Ingersoll because he is not
afraid to speak what he honestly thinks, and I am only sorry he does not
think as I do. I never heard so much brilliancy and pith put into a two
hours' Speech as I did on that night. I wish my whole Congregation had
been there to hear it. I regard him as one of the greatest Men of the
Age."--New York Herald.




HELL.

THE idea of a hell was born of revenge and brutality on the one side,
and cowardice on the other. In my judgment the American people are too
brave, too charitable, too generous, too magnanimous, to believe in the
infamous dogma of an eternal hell. I have no respect for any human being
who believes in it. I have no respect for any man who preaches it.
I have no respect for the man who will pollute the imagination of
childhood with that infamous lie. I have no respect for the man who will
add to the sorrows of this world with the frightful dogma. I have no
respect for any man who endeavours to put that infinite cloud, that
infinite shadow, over the heart of humanity.

For a good many years the learned intellects of Christendom have been
examining into the religions of other countries in the world, the
religions of the thousands that have passed away. They examined into the
religions of Egypt, the religion of Greece, the religion of Rome and
of the Scandinavian countries. In the presence of the ruins of those
religions the learned men of Christendom insisted that those religions
were baseless, that they were fraudulent. But they have all passed away.
While this was being done the Christianity of our day applauded, and
when the learned men got through with the religions of other countries
they turned their attention to our religion. By the same mode of
reasoning, by the same methods, by the same arguments that they used
with the old religions, they were overturning the religion of our day.
Why? Every religion in this world is the work of man. Every book has
been written by man. Men existed before the books. If books had existed
before man, I might admit there was such a thing as a sacred volume. Man
never had an idea--man will never have an idea, except those supplied
to him by his surroundings. Every idea in the world that man has came to
him by nature. You can imagine an animal with the hoof of a bison, with
the pouch of the kangaroo, with the wings of an eagle, with the beak
of a bird, and with the tail of the lion; and yet every point of this
monster you borrowed from nature. Every thing you can think of, every
thing you can dream of, is borrowed from your surroundings. And there
is nothing on this earth coming from any other sphere whatever. Man has
produced every religion in the world. And why? Because each religion
bodes forth the knowledge and the belief of the people at the time it
was made, and in no book is there any knowledge found, except that of
the people who wrote it. In no book is there found any knowledge, except
that of the time in which it was written. Barbarians have produced, and
always will produce barbarian religions; barbarians have produced and
always will produce ideas in harmony with their surroundings, and all
the religions of the past were produced by barbarians. We are making
religions to-day. That is to-say, we are changing them, and the religion
of to-day is not the religion of one year ago. What changed it? Science
has done it; education and the growing heart of man has done it. And
just to the extent that we become civilized ourselves, will we improve
the religion of our fathers. If the religion of one hundred years ago,
compared with the religion of to-day is so low, what will it be in one
thousand years?

If we continue making the inroads upon orthodoxy which we have been
making during the last twenty-five years, what will it be fifty years
from to-night? It will have to be remonetized by that time, or else it
will not be legal tender. In my judgment, every religion that stands
by appealing to miracles is dishonoured Every religion in the world has
denounced every other religion as a