Morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven [Conn.]) 1848-1894, 1885-02-26
COMMUNICATIONS.
The InsersollIan Theory.

To the Editor of the JOURNAL AND COURIER:
That esoteric aggregation of mole cules,
primordially conceived in the womb of La
places nebular hypothesis, known to the
world by the modern name of Robert G.
Ingersoll, has essayed, Job-ike, to instruct
the Almighty in wisdom. In lecture de-
ivered in Brooklyn theater last Sunday
evening, acting grand jury, he indicted
the deity; witness, testified against him;
as an attorney, prosecuted him; and as full
bench of judges, rendered final verdict of
condemnation.
The method of this monumental specimen
of conceited egotism consists of degrading
God to the plane of mere anthropomor-
phitic worker after the manner of men and
then analyzing him in the crucible of human
reasoning. Because he QngersolD cannot
recognize the justice of divine punish
ment ergo, there is no such punishment
Acting as Il prosecuting attorney on the trial
of a brutal murderer, Ingerson demands the
most extreme penalty that can be inflicted
by human vengeance, and then proceeds to
denounce the deity, provided the latter pre-
sumes to punish the soul of the criminal by
consigning it to a spiritual death or banish-
ment from the divine presence.
Again, this wordly-wise man draws a pic
ture of a husband among the redeemed at the
day of judgment gloating over the dalnnation
of his unredeemed wife, and asks: "Is this
reasonable or just?' Yet when the murder
is strangling upon the gibbet Ingersoll
warns the relatives of the victim against in
reference, and informs them that the pun
ishment being just it is their duty to respect
the law which infiicts it and rejoice rather
than mourn that an infamous criminal, IN
deserving of any human sympathy or mercy,
has been removed from earth. Herein we
perceive that the finite creature, Ingersoll,
ricrht of iJ11rr ,aI1t4 70 OH
which he denies to the Creator. ''Is this
reasonable or just?"
Again, Ipgersoll, whenever the exigency
demands, denies the reality of future life
assumes the convenient role of the agnos-
tic in reference thereto Admitting that
this were true, the hangman's victim, legal
1y bounded to his death by the logic of In
gersoll is annihilated. What more herri-
BILE punishment could God infict than this?
We opine that even Ingerson himself would
prefer eternal transportation to some spirit
ual Botany Bay rather than be forever rele-
gated at death to the limbo of nonentity
Life! Life! is the deathless cry of every SEN
tient being; and 'Fwhile there is life there is
hope" and ga living dog is better than e
dead Eon."
Ingersoll cannot believe in the creative
over of God because he cannot conceive
how God can create anything. He finds no
difficulty in embracing the scientific theory,
however, which describes the material uni
verse as a product of nature, yet utterly fails
to show how nature was produced otherwise
than to postulate it's eternal existence. He
thinks that if he had directed the construc-
ton of the earth he could have greatly i'm
proved upon our planet as it now is, while
the truth is that if he were given the con
stituent elements he could not construct the
wing of gnat In making this claim he ag
grandizes himself over his own god, Nature.
If he only had the power he thinks he could
reorgapize the creation and revise the code of
omniscience. In protesting to know more
than God, he is a self-evident falsiier for the
reason that he does not reduce his knowledge
to practice. knowledge is power" and he
who knows how to do, yet fails to act, is an
intellectual sluggard deserving the severest
reprobation. Upon the whole We are salts
fed with the world as it is, and do not be
lieve that Ingersoll, had he the power, could
improve upon the skill of God, or of his
pantheistic deity, Nature. God, Christiani-
ty and this dear old earth will live long after
the Ingersolls of inidelity are forgotten.
G. V. A.
Wallingford, Ct, Feb. 25.