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

d books, the creeds and ceremonies of other lands-of Ind

a belief in the supernatural-a power above nature that

t the religion of a people was the science of that people, that is to sa

, and that in fact there has never been but one religion in the

riest who supplicates his God. The same mistake, the same superstition, bends the knees and shuts the eyes of b

n. The sun was the "Sky Father," the "All Seeing," the source of life-the fireside of the worl

ief deities in the ancient religions. They have been worshiped i

the sea, and all the trees, the dead as well as the living, burst into leaf and bud and flower. Hercules was a sun-god and so was Samson, whose strength was in his hair-that is to say, in his beams. He was shorn

or world. All of these gods were born in humble places-in caves, under trees, in common inns, and tyrants sought to kill them all when they were babes. All of these sun-gods were born at the winter solstice

gods is the exact h

t was a new name for an old biography-a survival-the last of the s

sacraments, symbols and ceremonies were legacies that we receive

a symbol of life, of immortality-of the god Agni, and it was chis

lived. The eucharist was borrowed from the Pagans. Ceres was the goddess of the fields-Bacchus of the vine. At the harvest festiva

siris, Isis and Horus, thousands of years bef

China, and among the Aztecs, long b

as known, other nations

e Atonement and Salvation by Fait

me,"-there is nothing new-nothing original

oduced, and that all were variations, modifications of on