The Jasper weekly courier. [volume] (Jasper, Ind.) 1858-1922, 1895-04-05
INGERSOLL'S UNFAIRNESS.

trOVersy, Out MS last lecture seems
to expose the unfairness Of his ar
gument SO much more fully than
some of his former ones that it at
tracts comment. What God is this
man condemning? What bible is
he criticising? The questions may
be asked of any Christian. He is
condemning a God of hatred, Of
malice, Of revenge, of cruelty. Is
this your God? Not one in ten
thousand will say it is. What is
your ideal Of God? God is love.
Where do you get that ideal? From
the bible. The same bible that he
criticises? Yes, and no; the same
book, but not the same thought. 1t
does not teach you hatred, and cru
city, and tyranny, and lust, and
murder, and slavery, and witch
craft? No. You interpret it differ
emily? Yes. Mr.. Ingersoll prob
ably would not question the right Of
Interpretation in anything else. He
would not pretend that another law
yer was bound by his Interpretation
of a statute. He would not claim
that a student Of literature was
bound by his Interpretation of
Shakespeare. But in religion he
makes a caricature of a God and
thrusts it under your nose with the
assertion, "This is your God"
And the Christian may answer him,
"Not at all. That may have been
the God of some men in the darker
ages, when it was believed that a
live frog split open and laid upon
the stomach would cure rheuma-
tism and the like. / believe that
men know more now, and that they
are better able to understand the
bible"
How does Mr.. lngersoll get his
ideals? He ransacks the old tesla
ment for oriental exaggerations in
the historical records of an ancient
people, and sets down each passagf
repugnant to finite ideas of justice
and mercy, and says, "These por
tray your God.' Then he turns t.
other religions and takes the scat
tered passages showing their noble
teachings, and says "These are bet
ter religions. He tells us tha
Osiris, personifed in bull, goo
Of phallicism, whose votaries re
garded even incest with com
placency, was nobler than Jehovah
He tells us that the Aztecs, whose
teocallis stank from the blood Of hu
man sacrifices whose hearts wer,
torn from their living bodies, had I
more merciful God than the Jews
Bah! Why does not Mr.. Ingersol
embrace some of these superior re
ligions, in any Of whose sacrec
books may be found a dozen repul'
sive teachings for any one that car
be perverted and twisted from tn,
bible? But he does more. H,
takes the acts of all the wicked, ane
foolish, and deluded men who hav,
called themselves Christians, ant
says the bible did their wicked acts
; The bible made slavery and pun
ishment for witchcraft! Both ex
isted before the bible. Both exist
ed under all the superior gods o
Mr.. Ingersoll, most of which, hap
PLY tor the human race, are nov
extinct. But note the difference
Under the teachings Of the bibl'
there grew up men who stamped
both out. Where do you fine
either to-day? Among the Moham
. medans, among the followers 0
: Confucius, among the fetish-wor
shippers Of Africa, but not in an,
: Christian country.
! 1t is a singular fact that the bibl'
has seemed to fit itself to all age
: and all civilizations with which !
has come in contact. II is phe
: nomenal in that it has supported
more strangely discordant sect
than any other religion. Why i
this? Its own teaching is that th'
, finite mind cannot comprehend tn
! infinite. We come in contact will
the infinite in nature, but no two
! men understand nature alike. 1t i
: too great, too many-sided tor Us t
. grasp it. The wisest man does no
pretend to do SO. A few month
ago if you had asked a scientist Q
what air was composed he woult
7 have told you with mathematical
nicely the amounts Of oxygen an'
nitrogen, with some impurities
To-day he will probably tell 20,
that it also contains argon, but h
is not sure Of it. Does he doub
g nature now? Not a particle. II
merely realizes that he knows NOR
e or probably will know more soon
: Such is the general attitude Of tn
$ believer in the bible now. He doe
\ not understand it all. He realize
/, that il it be true he cannot under