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Lectures - Why I Am An Agnostic
To stop the scourge, they tried to soften the heart of God by kneelings and
prostrations — by processions and prayers — by burning incense and by making ...
prostrations — by processions and prayers — by burning incense and by making ...
Unknown Binding
First published January 8, 2013
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About the author
Robert G. Ingersoll
994 books325 followers"On August 11, 1833, was born the greatest and noblest of the Western World; an immense personality, -- unique, lovable, sublime; the peerless orator of all time, and as true a poet as Nature ever held in tender clasp upon her loving breast, and, in words coined for the chosen few, told of the joys and sorrows, hopes, dreams, and fears of universal life; a patriot whose golden words and deathless deeds were worthy of the Great Republic; a philanthropist, real and genuine; a philosopher whose central theme was human love, -- who placed 'the holy hearth of home' higher than the altar of any god; an iconoclast, a builder -- a reformer, perfectly poised, absolutely honest, and as fearless as truth itself -- the most aggressive and formidable foe of superstition -- the most valiant champion of reason -- Robert G. Ingersoll." - Herman E. Kittredge
Robert Green Ingersoll, who became the best known advocate of freethought in the 19th-century, was born in Dresden, N.Y. The son of an impoverished itinerant pastor, he later recalled his formative church experiences: "The minister asked us if we knew that we all deserved to go to hell, and we all answered 'yes.' Then we were asked if we would be willing to go to hell if it was God's will, and every little liar shouted 'Yes!'" He became an attorney by apprenticeship, and a colonel in the Civil War, fighting in the Battle of Shiloh. In 1867, Ingersoll was appointed Illinois' first Attorney General. His political career was cut short by his refusal to halt his controversial lectures, but he achieved national political fame for his thrilling nomination speech for James G. Blaine for president at the national convention of the Republican Party in 1876. Ingersoll was good friends with three U.S. presidents. The distinguished attorney was known and admired by most of the leading progressives and thinkers of his day.
Ingersoll traveled the continent for 30 years, speaking to capacity audiences, once attracting 50,000 people to a lecture in Chicago—40,000 too many for the Exposition Center. His repertoire included 3 to 4-hour lectures on Shakespeare, Voltaire and Burns, but the largest crowds turned out to hear him denounce the bible and religion. He initially settled in Peoria, Illinois, then in Washington, D.C., where he successfully defended falsely accused men in the "Star Route" scandal, the most famous political trial of the 19th century. Religious rumors against Ingersoll abounded. One had it that Ingersoll's son was a drunkard who more than once had to be carried away from the table. Ingersoll wrote: "It is not true that intoxicating beverages are served at my table. It is not true that my son ever was drunk. It is not true that he had to be carried away from the table. Besides, I have no son!"
During the Civil War he was commissioned as Colonel and commander of the 11th Illinois Volunteer Cavalry, and was captured near Corinth, Mississippi. Although soon released, he still made time to treat his Confederate captors to a rousing anti slavery speech.
He hoped for but was never awarded a Cabinet post. The Republicans were afraid of his unorthodox religious views. He was told that he could progress politically if he hid his religious views, but Ingersoll refused on the charge that withholding information from the public would be immoral.
He strongly advocated equal rights for blacks and women. He defended Susan B. Anthony from hecklers when she spoke in Peoria; when every hotel in the city refused to house Frederick Douglass, he welcomed him into his home.
More: https://ffrf.org/news/day/dayitems/it...
http://infidels.org/library/historica...
http://www.robertgreeningersoll.org/8-2/
http://www.positiveatheism.org/tochin...
http://www.philosopedia.org/index.php...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_G...
Robert Green Ingersoll, who became the best known advocate of freethought in the 19th-century, was born in Dresden, N.Y. The son of an impoverished itinerant pastor, he later recalled his formative church experiences: "The minister asked us if we knew that we all deserved to go to hell, and we all answered 'yes.' Then we were asked if we would be willing to go to hell if it was God's will, and every little liar shouted 'Yes!'" He became an attorney by apprenticeship, and a colonel in the Civil War, fighting in the Battle of Shiloh. In 1867, Ingersoll was appointed Illinois' first Attorney General. His political career was cut short by his refusal to halt his controversial lectures, but he achieved national political fame for his thrilling nomination speech for James G. Blaine for president at the national convention of the Republican Party in 1876. Ingersoll was good friends with three U.S. presidents. The distinguished attorney was known and admired by most of the leading progressives and thinkers of his day.
Ingersoll traveled the continent for 30 years, speaking to capacity audiences, once attracting 50,000 people to a lecture in Chicago—40,000 too many for the Exposition Center. His repertoire included 3 to 4-hour lectures on Shakespeare, Voltaire and Burns, but the largest crowds turned out to hear him denounce the bible and religion. He initially settled in Peoria, Illinois, then in Washington, D.C., where he successfully defended falsely accused men in the "Star Route" scandal, the most famous political trial of the 19th century. Religious rumors against Ingersoll abounded. One had it that Ingersoll's son was a drunkard who more than once had to be carried away from the table. Ingersoll wrote: "It is not true that intoxicating beverages are served at my table. It is not true that my son ever was drunk. It is not true that he had to be carried away from the table. Besides, I have no son!"
During the Civil War he was commissioned as Colonel and commander of the 11th Illinois Volunteer Cavalry, and was captured near Corinth, Mississippi. Although soon released, he still made time to treat his Confederate captors to a rousing anti slavery speech.
He hoped for but was never awarded a Cabinet post. The Republicans were afraid of his unorthodox religious views. He was told that he could progress politically if he hid his religious views, but Ingersoll refused on the charge that withholding information from the public would be immoral.
He strongly advocated equal rights for blacks and women. He defended Susan B. Anthony from hecklers when she spoke in Peoria; when every hotel in the city refused to house Frederick Douglass, he welcomed him into his home.
More: https://ffrf.org/news/day/dayitems/it...
http://infidels.org/library/historica...
http://www.robertgreeningersoll.org/8-2/
http://www.positiveatheism.org/tochin...
http://www.philosopedia.org/index.php...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_G...
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Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews
January 16, 2024
The Great Agnostic
Ingersoll doesn’t touch on all that is wrong with the Old and New Testaments, but he crams as many fallacies as possible in his allotment of 78 pages.
on godly benevolence
“They knew all about the flood. They knew that God, with the exception of about eight people, drowned all his children - the old and young - the bowed patriarch and the dimpled babe - the young man and the merry maiden - the loving mother and the laughing child.”
on hell
Ingersoll, reflecting on the Christian concept of eternal damnation as a tool to indoctrinate neophytes and terrorize children, stated that “if it is a lie then I hate your religion and if it is true I hate your God.”
on biblical inerrancy
“In every way the clergy sought to evade the facts, to dodge the truth, to preserve the creed. At first they flatly denied the facts - then they belittled them - then they harmonized them - then they denied they had denied them - then they changed the meaning of the inspired book to fit the facts . . . Anything they could not dodge they swallowed and anything they could not swallow they dodged.”
There’s a faux marble bust of Robert Ingersoll sitting proudly on a shelf in my library. After reading this I feel compelled to splurge on the bronze one.
Ingersoll doesn’t touch on all that is wrong with the Old and New Testaments, but he crams as many fallacies as possible in his allotment of 78 pages.
on godly benevolence
“They knew all about the flood. They knew that God, with the exception of about eight people, drowned all his children - the old and young - the bowed patriarch and the dimpled babe - the young man and the merry maiden - the loving mother and the laughing child.”
on hell
Ingersoll, reflecting on the Christian concept of eternal damnation as a tool to indoctrinate neophytes and terrorize children, stated that “if it is a lie then I hate your religion and if it is true I hate your God.”
on biblical inerrancy
“In every way the clergy sought to evade the facts, to dodge the truth, to preserve the creed. At first they flatly denied the facts - then they belittled them - then they harmonized them - then they denied they had denied them - then they changed the meaning of the inspired book to fit the facts . . . Anything they could not dodge they swallowed and anything they could not swallow they dodged.”
There’s a faux marble bust of Robert Ingersoll sitting proudly on a shelf in my library. After reading this I feel compelled to splurge on the bronze one.
March 19, 2024
Robert Ingersoll’s Why I Am An Agnostic does not present systematic arguments. It, rather, is more like a personal testimonial of how he, a preacher’s son steeped in traditional, fundamentalist Christianity, came to leaving his faith behind and earning the moniker of “The Great Agnostic.”
I, too, was the son of a fundamentalist minister, and like Ingersoll forsook my childhood faith altogether. I find it fascinating that both he and I were principally motivated to reject the faith because of the unspeakably cruel doctrine of eternal hell. Ingersoll wrote:
For the first time I understood the dogma of eternal pain, appreciated the glad tidings of great joy. For the first time my imagination grasped the height and depths of the Christian horror. Then I said, “It is a lie and I hate your religion. If it is true, I hate your god.”
That was exactly the conclusion I had come to — that even on the wild chance that this doctrine was true, that the god who would create hell was a monster I wanted nothing to do with. Ingersoll noted how nothing but faith in these absurd and cruel doctrines accounted for anything —
All who doubted or denied, would be lost. To live a moral and honest life, to keep you contracts, to take care of wife and child, to make a happy home, to be a good citizen, a patriot, a just and thoughtful man, was simply a respectable way of going to Hell.
Ingersoll included many of the absurdities included in the so called sacred texts, but the infinite cruelty of eternal damnation was what he came back to again and again. He summarized in conclusion:
I gave up the Old Testament on account of its mistakes, its absurdities, its ignorance, and its cruelty. I gave up the New because it vouched for the truth of the Old. I gave it up on account of its miracles, its contradictions…I gave up the New Testament because it rewards credulity, and because it teaches the infinite horror of eternal pain.
I, too, was the son of a fundamentalist minister, and like Ingersoll forsook my childhood faith altogether. I find it fascinating that both he and I were principally motivated to reject the faith because of the unspeakably cruel doctrine of eternal hell. Ingersoll wrote:
For the first time I understood the dogma of eternal pain, appreciated the glad tidings of great joy. For the first time my imagination grasped the height and depths of the Christian horror. Then I said, “It is a lie and I hate your religion. If it is true, I hate your god.”
That was exactly the conclusion I had come to — that even on the wild chance that this doctrine was true, that the god who would create hell was a monster I wanted nothing to do with. Ingersoll noted how nothing but faith in these absurd and cruel doctrines accounted for anything —
All who doubted or denied, would be lost. To live a moral and honest life, to keep you contracts, to take care of wife and child, to make a happy home, to be a good citizen, a patriot, a just and thoughtful man, was simply a respectable way of going to Hell.
Ingersoll included many of the absurdities included in the so called sacred texts, but the infinite cruelty of eternal damnation was what he came back to again and again. He summarized in conclusion:
I gave up the Old Testament on account of its mistakes, its absurdities, its ignorance, and its cruelty. I gave up the New because it vouched for the truth of the Old. I gave it up on account of its miracles, its contradictions…I gave up the New Testament because it rewards credulity, and because it teaches the infinite horror of eternal pain.
November 12, 2021
Written in the 1800s but still appropriate for today. Some may think fundamental Christianity such as Ingersoll described is long gone, but live in Oklahoma for a day and you’d think there is no other form of Christianity.
November 13, 2012
Although I'm Muslim ,, but I really like the lecture ,, it was helpful in discovering some major defects in the old testament, I will never know without deep reading to the Bible. I also respect his denial attitude against all the unbelievable ideas in a brave & clear way.
April 5, 2015
This was a fascinating and fast read. Ingersoll was a master orator and his lecture was insightful and moving. I could summarize it with this quote from his lecture.
"We can be as honest as we are ignorant. If we are, when asked what is beyond the horizon of the known, we must say that we do not know. We can tell the truth, and we can enjoy the blessed freedom that the brave have won. We can destroy the monsters of superstition, the hissing snakes of ignorance and fear. We can drive from our minds the frightful things that tear and wound with beak and fang. We can civilize our fellowmen. We can fill our lives with generous deeds, with loving words, with art and song, and all the ecstasies of love. We can flood our years with sunshine with the divine climate of kindness, and we can drain to the last drop the golden cup of joy."
He also had the following to say on the matter.
"Is there a God? I do not know. Is man immortal? I do not know. One thing I do know, and that is, that neither hope, nor fear, belief, nor denial, can change the fact. It is as it is, and it will be as it must be. We wait and hope."
"I do not deny. I do not know - but I do not believe."
"We can be as honest as we are ignorant. If we are, when asked what is beyond the horizon of the known, we must say that we do not know. We can tell the truth, and we can enjoy the blessed freedom that the brave have won. We can destroy the monsters of superstition, the hissing snakes of ignorance and fear. We can drive from our minds the frightful things that tear and wound with beak and fang. We can civilize our fellowmen. We can fill our lives with generous deeds, with loving words, with art and song, and all the ecstasies of love. We can flood our years with sunshine with the divine climate of kindness, and we can drain to the last drop the golden cup of joy."
He also had the following to say on the matter.
"Is there a God? I do not know. Is man immortal? I do not know. One thing I do know, and that is, that neither hope, nor fear, belief, nor denial, can change the fact. It is as it is, and it will be as it must be. We wait and hope."
"I do not deny. I do not know - but I do not believe."
September 25, 2017
A good lecture from an author new to me. I look forward to reading many of his others. I didn't read this exact text, but rather the version contained in The Works of Robert G. Ingersoll, Dresden Edition, Volume 4 (C.P. Farrell, 1900; Dresden Publishing Company, 1901) from Archive.org: https://archive.org/details/worksrobe...
July 23, 2021
A fairly interesting treatise, given by a renowned Atheist-leaning agnostic (and enemy of organized religion) from the 19th century. Most of his arguments for rejecting organized religion seem rather weak and one-sided—but a decent portion of this can be pretty easily forgiven, considering the time and place in which Ingersoll lived. As far as I know, little existed within Western Christianity beyond religious fundamentalism in the 1800s, and much of the scientific “evidence” that Ingersoll sites has been overturned by more recent scientific discovery. I appreciate the fervor with which Ingersoll rejects the barbarity of an everlasting Hell, though, as this is an issue that I wholeheartedly concur with him about (at least pertaining to the traditional and most common renderings of the doctrine.) This piece was probably worth the half-hour that it took me to listen to, but I do not intend to follow Ingersoll further.
July 29, 2025
In this short read, Ingersoll delivers an interesting account of the evolution of his philosophical belief system, having grown up in the household of a Congregationalist preacher and later in life, coming to disavow Christianity.
The criticisms of Christianity delivered by Ingersoll are thought-provoking and raise questions about God’s character, responsibilities, and capabilities. He draws similarities to other religions that I was unaware of, and also highlights Christianity’s history of changing stances on new scientific discoveries.
Condescending and sarcastic at times, and not super in-depth, but overall a decent read.
The criticisms of Christianity delivered by Ingersoll are thought-provoking and raise questions about God’s character, responsibilities, and capabilities. He draws similarities to other religions that I was unaware of, and also highlights Christianity’s history of changing stances on new scientific discoveries.
Condescending and sarcastic at times, and not super in-depth, but overall a decent read.
September 18, 2017
This series of excerpts from Ingersoll's lectures [or from one lecture, that was unclear] is rather a tease - one is made hungry to read more. Ingersoll has sadly been mostly forgotten, but he remains one America's greatest intellectual orators. He seems to be making somewhat of a comeback, as I have heard him mentioned in a number of other works--and his statue (in Peoria, Ill.) has been in the news--in the last decade. About time. This short work is a nice introduction to this very special thinker/speaker. It remains, ~120 years after it was first published, an important and relevant work.
January 23, 2021
Even though I am an atheist I found this book terrible and of no worth. I do not like Ingersoll as a writer.
I was hoping for something more philosophically based than just statement after statement
I was hoping for something more philosophically based than just statement after statement
March 7, 2018
same!
August 23, 2014
"I do not deny. I do not know-but I do not believe." - Robert Ingersoll
Robert Ingersoll was a master orator in an age when people paid to be entertained by speakers. Why I Am an Agnostic is not an intellectual treatise. It is written as if it were a lecture designed to entertain a paying audience for two hours. Judged on those terms, this little book is an entertaining read.
Robert Ingersoll was a master orator in an age when people paid to be entertained by speakers. Why I Am an Agnostic is not an intellectual treatise. It is written as if it were a lecture designed to entertain a paying audience for two hours. Judged on those terms, this little book is an entertaining read.
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews