Blue-grass blade., 1895-01-06
WHY INFIDELS
OUGHT to Be Prohibitionists and
Better People Than
Christians.

Good morals are nOtnlnR Out Soou sehse
and intelligence. Anybody can be
Christian by just floating along on the
tide of influence around him.
Nearly everybody is Christian, and
II does not require any thought or any
Intelligence to be a Christian, and that is
the popular thing OF course mean by
the word Christian one who claims to
believe the Bible, for as to practicing
the morals that Jesus Christ taught
none Of them do that.
There are exceptional instances of
Christians who are good people, OF
course but in it's general sense, and the
sense in which the word is currently |
understood, Christianity means simply
belief in the doctrines of the churches.
1t requires some independence OF
thought, and some courage of CONVICTION
to be an infdel. 1t does not require as
much of these as it once did, for there
are getting to be more inhdels, and INN
deity is getting to be more respectable,
and to be an infidei is generally taken
az AN evidence that the man is think
ing man, an honest man and reading
man.
If infidelity does not, in our Judgment
tend to make us and others, better men
and women, then we are silly to let it be
known that we are infdels, for as gen.
eral thing, we lose money and friends by
il. But as we believe morals are only
convertible term for intelligence and
sound reason, we believe the ignorance
and superstition that are necessary TO
make Christian are immoral, and there
fore, if we are acting wisely in proclaim
ing our iffidelity we are doing it for the
purpose of making ourselves happier, by
making others better and happier.
Every earnest and intelligent infidel
ought, therefore, to be continually
PROSECUTING: There are two ways OF
making converts to nfdelitv. OLe is
by argument against the truth of the BIZ
bic and of religion, and another is by
leading pure lives ourselves.
1t is not everybody who is earnestly
an infidel who is capable Of presenting
in a very forcible way, the argument
for infdelity but he can make the argu-
ment for infidelity by leading pure life,
and that argument not only helps 9th
ers but always helps the man who makes
it.
Really the fact that an infidel is a
good man does not prove that infidellty
Is true, any more than the fact that
Christian is good man proves that
Christianity is true, or that Mormon Is
a good man proves that Mormonism is
true. Dut Willie IL 10 q ioSe eh"s 49,
worst crimes in history have been per-
petrated by Christians and that the
church through all of its existence,
since it came into power, has been the
source of terrible crime and misery, II
is fact that the policy of the church
has always been to charge that 1nhdels
we're bad people; and while it is proba-
bly true that infidels, as general thing
are better people than Christians, the
Christians have SO much the advantage
of us in numbers that they are able to
make the young and unintelligent, es
pecially, believe that we are generally
bad people.
1t is probably true that as hypocrite:
naturally 60 into the church there are
instances of unintelligent and immora
men who claim to be inhdels, and with
out knowing anything about the argu
ment in the case, because they believe
as the Christians charge against us, tina
infidelity simply means license for i'm
mora lity,
We do not want that kind of men il
the infdel ranks. They do us harm
They do harm to any cause with which
thew are connected. and it is therefore
our true policy to keep all of these mel
in the church, so as to make the churcl
responsible for them, We ought to wei
come into our inhdel body men wht
have been excluded from the churches
because they do not believe in the Bible
but we ought not to take in men who
have been put out of the churches TO-
their immortality, and who claim to b'
, infidels simply to gain our favor.
We must make of inhdelity schoo
of aggressive moral and scientific phi
losophy. The fault with us, even in 81
prominent man as Ingersoll, has beer
that we have simply combatted the er
ror Of others, and did not propose an
substitute for that which we have beef
trying to destroy.
It is true that Ingersolls indlvidua
life is commonly recognized as being Ia
purer then the average life OF publ
men. In all the efforts that the churcl
has made to crush him we do not fin'
them charging against him any instanc
of personal immortality, as has beel
charged against Cleveland. Blaine, Car
Isle, Breckinridge, Blackburn, Beechel
Talmage and many other men who hav
been specially prominent. But, for al
this it is fact that Ingersoll has neve
distinguished himself as the champiol
of morals. In all that you read from hin
YOU never hear him say anything agains
gambling, or prize fighting, or polltica
corruption, or drunkenness or lechery
He is quite gallant to ladies but he ha
never said he thought woman ought t
have as mnch right to vote as man has
and, so far from saying word for Pro
hibition, he has damaged the cause G
infidelity by writing some silly eulog1e
on whisky, which Christian men VIII
sanction the whisky trade will us
against Ingersoll, and against all inf
dels.
No intelligent and thoroughly fair an
candid man can fail to see that tn
liquor traffic is great evil that does
great deal of harm. can not talk
Christian people, about this great evi
with much effect, because l am cut o
from them by reason of my diferin
with them il religious matters, but q
think iufidels ought to give me candi
and impartial bearing ON this point.
1t is not popular to be Prohibitiof
ist as it is not popular to be an infde
but it seems to ms that the same INTEL
gence and the same moral courage thu
are requisite to make man an avowe
infdel ought to make him Prohibitioi
ist.
When am trying tc make Prohib
zionist of man who believes the stor
of Noah's ark, and of Jonah whale an
of Elijah and Jesus sailing up throug
A. Il. Il, to 4