I read this 140-year-old rant many years ago and greatly appreciated it then. It is so packed with thoughtful observations that I reread it this week as an ebook. It is as relevant to today’s society as it was in the 1880s. Robert Green Ingersol, although raised by a Congregationalist clergyman, came to be known as “The Great Agnostic”, fought as a Colonel for the Union in the Civil War, studied law and became a great orator in the age of great orators who made a good living touring the country giving speeches. He advocated for suffrage, women’s rights, abolition of slavery, democracy and above all, for critical thinking, scientific rationalization, and freedom from religious dogma and intolerance.
In this series of lectures made into a book, he exposes the contradictions, cruelty and impossibilities of the stories of the Pentateuch (the first five books of the Old Testament), with searing sarcasm, impeccable logic, wit, and a keen awareness of irony. He analyses the accounts therein in the context of scientific facts known in the 1800s. He points out that these books could not have been written by Moses as his death and burial is recorded in Deuteronomy 34:1-8, but, for convenience, agrees to call Moses the author. While some of the scientific data that he cites is in need of some minor revisions today, those errors are minuscule compared to those in the Bible. His knowledge of the Old Testament and nineteenth century science is impressive, and his insights into the implications of the cruel, inconsistent laws supposedly delivered by Jehovah to the Jews for all subsequent generations are contrasted with those of the secular agnostic freethinkers, of which he was one of the first in North America. His Victorian prudishness makes him unwilling to quote certain passages of the Bible, so he viciously condemned them with cute oblique references to obscenities in the holy book.
In the introduction, Ingersol urges the clergy ‘who are not allowed to think for themselves’ to use logic and reasoning rather than blind adherence to ancient dogmas- to free their minds. In the concluding chapter he passionately mocks those who choose to ignore the “Mistakes Of Moses” and lists off dozens of these that are more fully dealt with in earlier chapters.
There are so may good quotes that it is difficult to single out the best.
“Let us account for the things we see by facts we know. If there are things for which we cannot account, let us wait for light.”
“Theology is not what we know about God but about what we do not know about Nature.”
“Imagine the Lord God with a bone in his hand with which to start a woman, trying to decide whether to create a blond or a brunette.”
Years ago this book was one of several pushing me to become the secular humanist that I am today. Any clergy who read it need to be cautious lest their conscience then drives them from their only source of income, after considering its logic. Unfortunately, it is not very popular today in spite of efforts by various humanists such as Tim Page (What Has God Got To Do With It) to revive its timeless relevance. It deserves better, and should be widely read. And on Wikisource, last updated exactly one year ago, it is free! At least read the conclusion; it will free your mind to think for yourself.
The Passionate Reader 