 | Civil War veteran, successful lawyer, spellbinding orator, and controversial iconoclast, Robert G. Ingersoll (1833-1899) was one of the best-known intellectuals of the nineteenth century. He rose to national prominence through his oratorical skills, which he publicly displayed on numerous lecture circuit tours. For almost twenty years this dedicated popularizer of progressive thinking and staunch critic of superstition would regularly address huge audiences, opening their minds to ideas that often provoked guarded whispers in private. Ingersoll was a man far ahead of his time, who advocated agnosticism, birth control, voting rights for women, the advancement of science, and civil rights for all races. Though eloquent on a wide variety of topics, he became most famous, and notorious, for his provocative lectures questioning the traditional, Bible-based Christian worldview of the age.
In this volume are collected his best-known lectures on religion, the Bible, morality, and related subjects. In the first essay, Ingersoll sets out "Why I Am an Agnostic." He next explores humankind's search for "The Truth." In "What Is Religion?" he details its effect on people and whether humanity can reform without religion. He next explains what "Superstition" is and what harm it does, and how rational beings overcome it. The positive things nonbelievers have contributed to society are highlighted in "What Infidels Have Done." Ingersoll recommends intelligence in "What Should You Substitute for the Bible?" In the next essay he states that the "Crumbling Creeds" of religious authority are passing away as humans become more enlightened. "The Liberty of Man, Woman, and Child" is brought about by intellectual development. The final essay is Ingersoll's gentle testimony to the power of "Love."
This outstanding collection is indispensable for freethinkers, humanists, and open-minded people of all persuasions.
Ingersoll on Truth:
"Each mind has the right to lift all curtains, withdraw all veils, scale all walls, explore all recesses, all heights, all depths for itself, in spite of church or priest, or creed or book."
Ingersoll on Religion:
"Religion can never reform mankind because religion is slavery. It is far better to be free, to leave the forts and barricades of fear, to stand erect and face the future, with a smile."
Ingersoll on Superstition:
"Now no man in whose brain the torch of reason burns, no man who investigates, who really thinks, who is capable of weighing evidence, believes in signs, in lucky or unlucky numbers."
Ingersoll on the Bible as a moral guide:
"We cannot depend on what are called 'inspired books,' or the religions of the world. These religions are based on the supernatural, and according to them we are under obligation to worship and obey some supernatural being, or beings. All these religions are inconsistent with intellectual liberty. They are the enemies of thought, of investigation, of mental honesty."
(from book jacket description)
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Superstition and Other Essays by Robert G. Ingersoll
