



Produced by David Widger






THE WORKS OF ROBERT G. INGERSOLL

By Robert G. Ingersoll


"HAPPINESS IS THE ONLY GOOD, REASON THE ONLY
TORCH, JUSTICE THE ONLY WORSHIP, HUMANITY THE
ONLY RELIGION, AND LOVE THE ONLY PRIEST."


IN TWELVE VOLUMES, VOLUME VIII.


INTERVIEWS


1900


Dresden Edition




INTERVIEWS




THE BIBLE AND A FUTURE LIFE

_Question_.  Colonel, are your views of religion based upon the
Bible?

_Answer_.  I regard the Bible, especially the Old Testament, the
same as I do most other ancient books, in which there is some truth,
a great deal of error, considerable barbarism and a most plentiful
lack of good sense.

_Question_.  Have you found any other work, sacred or profane,
which you regard as more reliable?

_Answer_.  I know of no book less so, in my judgment.

_Question_.  You have studied the Bible attentively, have you not?

_Answer_.  I have read the Bible.  I have heard it talked about a
good deal, and am sufficiently well acquainted with it to justify
my own mind in utterly rejecting all claims made for its divine
origin.

_Question_.  What do you base your views upon?

_Answer_.  On reason, observation, experience, upon the discoveries
in science, upon observed facts and the analogies properly growing
out of such facts.  I have no confidence in anything pretending to
be outside, or independent of, or in any manner above nature.

_Question_.  According to your views, what disposition is made of
man after death?

_Answer_.  Upon that subject I know nothing.  It is no more wonderful
that man should live again than he now lives; upon that question
I know of no evidence.  The doctrine of immortality rests upon
human affection.  We love, therefore we wish to live.

_Question_.  Then you would not undertake to say what becomes of
man after death?

_Answer_.  If I told or pretended to know what becomes of man after
death, I would be as dogmatic as are theologians upon this question.
The difference between them and me is, I am honest.  I admit that
I do not know.

_Question_.  Judging by your criticism of mankind, Colonel, in your
recent lecture, you have not found his condition very satisfactory?

_Answer_.  Nature, outside of man, so far as I know, is neither
cruel nor merciful.  I am not satisfied with the present condition
of the human race, nor with the condition of man during any period
of which we have any knowledge.  I believe, however, the condition
of man is improved, and this improvement is due to his own exertions.
I do not make nature a being.  I do not ascribe to nature
intentions.

_Question_.  Is your theory, Colonel, the result of investigation
of the subject?

_Answer_.  No one can control his own opinion or his own belief.
My belief was forced upon me by my surroundings.  I am the product
of all circumstances that have in any way touched me.  I believe
in this world.  I have no confidence in any religion promising joys
in another world at the expense of liberty and happiness in this.
At the same time, I wish to give others all the rights I claim for
myself.

_Question_.  If I asked for proofs for your theory, what would you
furnish?

_Answer_.  The experience of every man who is honest with himself,
every fact that has been discovered in nature.  In addition to
these, the utter and total failure of all religionists in all
countries to produce one particle of evidence showing the existence
of any supernatural power whatever, and the further fact that the
people are not satisfied with their religion.  They are continually
asking for evidence.  They are asking it in every imaginable way.
The sects are continually dividing.  There is no real religious
serenity in the world.  All religions are opponents of intellectual
liberty.  I believe in absolute mental freedom.  Real religion with
me is a thing not of the head, but of the heart; not a theory, not
a creed, but a life.

_Question_.  What punishment, then, is inflicted upon man for his
crimes and wrongs committed in this life?

_Answer_.  There is no such thing as intellectual crime.  No man
can commit a mental crime.  To become a crime it must go beyond
thought.

_Question_.  What punishment is there for physical crime?

_Answer_.  Such punishment as is necessary to protect society and
for the reformation of the criminal.

_Question_.  If there is only punishment in this world, will not
some escape punishment?

_Answer_.  I admit that all do not seem to be punished as they
deserve.  I also admit that all do not seem to be rewarded as they
deserve; and there is in this world, apparently, as great failures
in matter of reward as in matter of punishment.  If there is another
life, a man will be happier there for acting according to his
highest ideal in this.  But I do not discern in nature any effort
to do justice.

--_The Post_, Washington, D. C., 1878.




MRS. VAN COTT, THE REVIVALIST

_Question_.  I see, Colonel, that in an interview published this
morning, Mrs. Van Cott (the revivalist), calls you "a poor barking
dog."  Do you know her personally?

_Answer_.  I have never met or seen her.

_Question_.  Do you know the reason she applied the epithet?

_Answer_.  I suppose it to be the natural result of what is called
vital piety; that is to say, universal love breeds individual
hatred.

_Question_.  Do you intend making any reply to what she says?

_Answer_.  I have written her a note of which this is a copy:

  _Buffalo, Feb. 24th, 1878._
MRS. VAN COTT;

My dear Madam:--Were you constrained by the love of Christ to call
a man who has never injured you "a poor barking dog?"  Did you make
this remark as a Christian, or as a lady?  Did you say these words
to illustrate in some faint degree the refining influence upon
women of the religion you preach?

What would you think of me if I should retort, using your language,
changing only the sex of the last word?

I have the honor to remain,

Yours truly,

R. G. INGERSOLL

_Question_.  Well, what do you think of the religious revival system
generally?

_Answer_.  The fire that has to be blown all the time is a poor
thing to get warm by.  I regard these revivals as essentially
barbaric.  I think they do no good, but much harm, they make innocent
people think they are guilty, and very mean people think they are
good.

_Question_.  What is your opinion concerning women as conductors
of these revivals?

_Answer_.  I suppose those engaged in them think they are doing
good.  They are probably honest.  I think, however, that neither
men nor women should be engaged in frightening people into heaven.
That is all I wish to say on the subject, as I do not think it
worth talking about.

--_The Express_, Buffalo, New York, Feb., 1878.




EUROPEAN TRIP AND GREENBACK QUESTION

_Question_.  What did you do on your European trip, Colonel?

_Answer_.  I went with my family from New York to Southampton,
England, thence to London, and from London to Edinburgh.  In Scotland
I visited every place where Burns had lived, from the cottage where
he was born to the room where he died.  I followed him from the
cradle to the coffin.  I went to Stratford-upon-Avon for the purpose
of seeing all that I could in any way connected with Shakespeare;
next to London, where we visited again all the places of interest,
and thence to Paris, where we spent a couple of weeks in the
Exposition.

_Question_.  And what did you think of it?

_Answer_.  So far as machinery--so far as the practical is concerned,
it is not equal to ours in Philadelphia; in art it is incomparably
beyond it.  I was very much gratified to find so much evidence in
favor of my theory that the golden age in art is in front of us;
that mankind has been advancing, that we did not come from a perfect
pair and immediately commence to degenerate.  The modern painters
and sculptors are far better and grander than the ancient.  I think
we excel in fine arts as much as we do in agricultural implements.
Nothing pleased me more than the painting from Holland, because
they idealized and rendered holy the ordinary avocations of life.
They paint cottages with sweet mothers and children; they paint
homes.  They are not much on Ariadnes and Venuses, but they paint
good women.

_Question_.  What did you think of the American display?

_Answer_.  Our part of the Exposition is good, but nothing to what
is should and might have been, but we bring home nearly as many
medals as we took things.  We lead the world in machinery and in
ingenious inventions, and some of our paintings were excellent.

_Question_.  Colonel, crossing the Atlantic back to America, what
do you think of the Green