Salt Lake evening Democrat. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1885-1887, 1885-04-30
INGERSOLL ON BLAspHEMy
samples From His Startling Eudeef
Opened at BOSTON.

81 take the ground, )" said Bob Inpersol,
10 very large audience in the boston
theater few evenings ago, "that what is
100 sacred to be discussed is too absurd 70
De believed. Credulity is a virtue only
where investigation is a crime. and in
vestlgation is crime only where impos-
TORS begin. That is all. l take this occa-
sion to again say that on the subject of
theology l know nothing. AS to the
great question of whence and where. 7
know Just as little as any cardinal or anv
pope who ever lived, and just as much as
as all OF them put together. Now most
rellglonlsts have believed that there was
something in the sky, they do not know
exactly where, but somewhere, a God
VINO was wonderfully quick-tempered.
llylng INTO passion before one had time
TO explain; who was always watching for
an opportunity to catch one of his children
on the hip.
/ really believe that all the religions
IN this world have been substanfiaIIv
built by believers, and that all who have
contributed to the support of those re-
nglons-that is the paying members
have been substantially honest Take
the idea, first, that there is a God who
can be battered; who, with a few words.
can be made perfectly happy, and who
with one or two words, can be turned
INTO spasm of rage. Do you know that
any man who depends for happiness ON
me is to that extent my slave, and if
there is any God who depends for happi-
ness on man he iseven beneath man. There
is some mistake in that logic. If one be-
lieves in that God, of course he will be-
lieve in the crime known as blasphemv.
Now, if there is a God who is sacred.
then he makes known his will to some
people, and OF course the people he Sc
lects are sacred. You must not touch
them. You know how it is. God selects
ministers. He used to do it. He does so
still. He surprises us sometimes with the
choice he makes"
= Colonel Ingersoll continued to discuss
the origin and nature of blasphemy in a
vein of broad ridicule for about two
hours. Here are some of his points:
1t is blasphemy to be manly, frank,
brave and generous. 1t is blasphemy in
New York to say that Mohammed was a 1
prophet, and it is blasphemy to say in
Constantinople that Mohammed was not
a prophet.
There is in the Testament sin against
the Holy Ghost which will not be for
given In this world or in the world to
come, and they have not told us what
that sin is. That is kept absolutely Sc
cret. Is there any tyranny more abso-
lutely devilish than that hundreds and
thousands of men and women in the
United States and in the world should be
suffering in insane asylums, crazed by
the idea that they have committed the
objectionable sin? That is the sin against
the Holy Ghost.
l am not fighting Presbvterians, but
Presbyterianism. Some of the best friends
have in the world are Presbyterians 1
do not hate man because he has the
rheumatism. l fight the diseases, and
not the man.
A Presbyterian boy may feel divine
thrill as he passes a sentence of eternal
grief upon the mother who bore him.
That is the last Presbyterian joy. say
tonight, if the Presbyterian creed is true,
God is insane.
l have violated the laws of Massachu-
sets tonight. l have violated the laws
of every state in which | have spoken
But those laws are wild beasts asleep.
The church has some influence after
all. notice in the paper that Mr.. Ryan
refused to fight Mr. Sullivan during Lent.
What is worship? To do justice, to de-
fend the right, to be strength for the
weak, to be shielder for the defenseless,
to keep peace between neighbor and
nations, to labor-all these are worship.
Bodies are sacred, not books and
rituals. Human happiness is sacred, and
whoever clouds the sunshine of a heart
is a blasphemer.
In that vast cemetery of the past lie
inferred the religions of men, and there.
too, are nearly all their gods. One by
one the myths have faded from the
clouds; one by one the phantom
hosts have disappeared. Facts, realities
have takeu their places. The God has
fled, but the man is here.
The religion Of one age becomes the
scorn OF the next; the gods of one period
are the bywords of the following. Our
religion is doomed like the rest.
These four-justice, love, charity and
liberty, changeless, deathless these are
the only gods. In their temples will
worship; at their shrine l will bow down.
Boston Record.