The Works of Robert G. Ingersoll, Vol. 4 (of 12)

ntators-with Adam Clark, who thought that the serpent seduced our mother Eve, and was in fact the father of Cain. He also believed that the animals, while in

the story of Joshua having stopped the sun and moon. So, I read Henry and MacKnight and found that God so loved the world that he made up his mind

mense numbers of quails crossed the Red Sea, and that sometimes when tired, they settled on ships that sank beneath th

utes, a book calculated to produce, in any na

ng the evil, in contriving the hurtful, was at least equal to the evidence t

ker. He finds the maker and he is so much more wonderful than the watch that he says he must have had a maker. Then he finds God, the maker of t

gn. The wonder of the watch suggested the watchmaker, and the wonder of the watchmaker, suggested the c

es a human being, and at the same time determines and decrees exactly what that being shall do and be, the human being is responsible

rds and Calvin were absolutely right. There is no escape from their conclusions if you admit their premises. They

ndor enough to say that Calvin

uld justly be punished for the sins of their ancestors, and that men could, if they had faith, be justly credited with the virtues of others. Nothing could be more devout, orthodox, and idiotic. But all of our theology was no

the souls and ruined the lives of thousands. The genius of Shakespeare could not make the theology of Milton

e a bishop, and to accomplish that end he electioneered with the king's mistress. In other words, he was a fine old hypocrite. In the "Night Thoughts" the

loating God. This frightful poem should have been written in a madhouse. In it you find all the cries and groans and shrieks of maniac

been more appropriate for children. It is well to put a coffin where it can be seen from the cradle. When a mother nurses h

h sunshine without a fear of night-to forget the past, to have no thought of the future, no dream of God, or heaven, or hell-to be

pathized with all who suffered-with the imprisoned, the enslaved, the outcasts. He loved the beautiful. No wonder that the belief in eternal punishment

ith wrath and the terrors of the judgment to come

that Christians had for many centu

Reformation of the Church. We had Pilgrim's

tler dug up more snakes than he killed-suggested more dif