Blue-grass blade., 1895-01-13
lnpersoII on God and Immor-
tality,

~
the theological bow-wows TO barking at
him, as dogs bark at the moon.
Ingersoll replies to them collectively,
In reply Ingersoll says: "The existence
of God I neither affirm nor deny. Iwait
The immortality Of the soul neither af-
firm nor deny hope-hope for all the
children Of men. I have never denied
the existence of another world, nor the
immortality of the soul"
OF course appreciate that all iniidels
should greatly defer to Ingersoll. He is
today, without a single exception, the
most prominent man in the world, and
he has fairly won his spurs and his
laurels. No king, president or orator in
the world is his peer, and believe in
scattering now in his path, while he
lives, some of the flowers that are wait
ing to I've laid on his grave when he dies.
But for all this do not think that we
who work, more humbly in his depart
ment of thought, should merge our in
dividuality into his.
For a man who has seen the truth as
plainly as Ingersoll has, and who has
had the moral convictions that he has
had, he has been immensely conserva-
tive, and much of his success is Justly
attributable to that thorough self pos
session that enables him to receive, in
good humor, the vile and unjust thrusts
that the preachers and priests and their
satellites have continually made at him.
But while we can show ourselves, intel
1ectually and morally, the superiors of
these cattle, am by no means certain
that it is best for all infidels to submit
SO docilely to the bullragging of these
professional gospel singers.
i'll felt that in all cases they were
honestly ignorant, there is no man who
would, any more than I, plead for pa
thence with them, and from these back
woods people who write to me, 1 have
taken their criticisms as kindly as any
body ought to do, for their own good
and for the general good; but much that
is said TO us. and about us, by these bet
ter educated preachers, is simply cheek,
and insolence, that they gain from a
feeling that they are in the majority, and
j think it is wholesome to knock them
out, in the most summary style.
The more educated preachers in Lex
ington know that the stories of Noah's
ark and Jonah's whale, and all of that
kind Of stuff are simply lot of old lies,
just as we'll as l do, and am under no
obligation to be at all considerate oftheir
feelings, in my talking about these
things, when they know, and l know,
and everybody else knows, that they are
simply telling these old yarns towheedle
the ignorant out of their money.
But / started out to make some COM
plaint against Ingersolls expressions.
1t has been more than quarter a of centu-
ry since he began to champion infidel
thought, and 1t does seem to me that he
is not moving up his pegs as the world
advances.
IL think agnosticism is modest word,
and don't like the man who claims to
know it all; but take that first sentence
"The existence of God neither affirm
nor deny" and l exceedingly doubt if
that is proper utterance to come, just
fs he prints it, from recognized inhdel
lead .r at this day
tive, and he can not, in that sense, say
with big G as he prints it; but, with
Mr.. Ingersoll could say, "The existence
of witches neither affirm nor deny"
OF course he would not dare to affirm
their existence, and of course, logically
all he can do is to let some other man
affirm the existence of witches while he
answers the arguments of the other man,
and the burden of proof logically lying
upon him who affirms that which is con-
trary to human experience, the man who
affirms the existence OF witches loses his
case unless he adduces and sustains,
against competent opposition, evidence
of the existence of witches.
MIR. Ingersoll must know that the word,
"God," printed with big initial, is an
appropriated term, used by Jews, Chris
tians and infdels in this country, to des-
ignate certain impersonation and in
dividuality, that Jews and Christians be-
live in, and that this "God" has not only
had long conversations with Moses, but
that he did, on one occasion, expose to
Moses his "hinder parts" and that this
God" has very many of the distinguish
ing features of very bad men.
Col. Ingersoll certainly knows that we
have precisely the same kind of evidence
for the existence of ghosts and witches
that we have for the existence of this
"God," and that if he is not ready to af-
firm or deny the existence of God, which
can only mean the conventional God, un-
less there is accompanying explanation
to the contrary, he ought not to affirm
or deny the existence of ghosts and
witches, which is something that Col.
Ingersoll is, of course, not ready to say
For terseness and brevity we can not
always enter into minute explanation of
our Technology, and we frequently have
to leave much to the supposed under
standing of our readers to guard against |
cumbering our salient ideas with words, |
and if Col. Ingersoll would occasionally |
say to us that he does not mean by the |
word God" what is commonly meant by
it, we could take, without complaint, |
many utterances like this that am crit
icising. But if he has ever done this |
do not know about it, and consequently
when Col. Ingersoll says, without any
explanation, that he is not willing to
deny the existence of that great monster
and boss hobgoblin commonly called
God" it rather stuns me, and / feel
like rising to point of information.
That the origin of the universe, in
which the whole human race is just as
much of an accident as any clod that lies
in the road, is unthinkably wonderful,
and away beyond any mental stretch
that has yet been made, is by all wise
men readily admitted, and that what we
recognize as purely mechanical laws
NAV by repuler pradations merge into