"Well," replied the old man; "that may be for the best, but I don't see
it this morning."
The Rev. Mr. Hamlin has the goodness to say that my influence is on
the wane. This is an admission that I have some, for which I am greatly
obliged to him. He further states that all my arguments are easily
refuted, but fails to refute them on the ground that such refutation
might be an advertisement for me.
Now, if Mr. Hamlin would think a little, he would see that there are
some things in the lecture on "Superstition" worth the while even of a
Methodist minister to answer.
Does Mr. Hamlin believe in the existence of the devil? If he does, will
he Have the goodness to say who created the devil? He may say that God
created him, as he is the creator of all. Then I ask Mr. Hamlin this
question: Why did God create a successful rival? When God created the
devil, did he not know at that time that he was to make this world? That
he was to create Adam and Eve and put them in the Garden of Eden, and
did he not know that this devil would tempt this Adam and Eve? That
in consequence of that they would fall? That in consequence of that
he would have to drown all their descendants except eight? That in
consequence of that he himself would have to be born into this world as
a Judean peasant? That he would have to be crucified and suffer for
the sins of these people who had been misled by this devil that he
deliberately created, and that after all he would be able only to save a
few Methodists?
Will the Rev. Mr. Hamlin have the goodness to answer this? He can
answer it as mildly as he pleases, so that in any event it will be no
advertisement for him.
The Rev. Mr. F. J. Belcher pays me a great compliment, for which I
now return my thanks. He has the goodness to say, "Ingersoll in many
respects is like Voltaire." I think no finer compliment has been paid me
by any gentleman occupying a pulpit, for many years, and again I thank
the Rev. Mr. Belcher.
The Rev. W. D. Buchanan, does not seem to be quite fair. He says that
every utterance of mine impresses men with my insincerity, and that
every argument I bring forward is specious, and that I spend my time in
ringing the changes on arguments that have been answered over and over
again for hundreds of years.
Now, Dr. Buchanan should remember that he ought not to attack motives;
that you cannot answer an argument by vilifying the man who makes it.
You must answer not the man, but the argument.
Another thing this reverend gentleman should remember, and that is that
no argument is old until it has been answered. An argument that has not
been answered, although it has been put forward for many centuries, is
still as fresh as a flower with the dew on its breast. It never is old
until it has been answered.
It is well enough for this gentleman to say that these arguments have
been answered, and if they have and he knows that they have, of course
it will be but a little trouble to him to repeat these answers.
Now, my dear Dr. Buchanan, I wish to ask you some questions. Do you
believe in a personal devil? Do you believe that the bodies of men and
women become tenements for little imps and goblins and demons? Do you
believe that the devil used to lead men and women astray? Do you believe
the stories about devils that you find in the Old and New Testaments?
Now, do not tell me that these questions have been answered long ago.
Answer them now. And if you say the devil does exist, that he is
a person, that he is an enemy of God, then let me ask you another
question: Why should this devil punish souls in hell for rebelling
against God? Why should the devil, who is an enemy of God, help punish
God's enemies? This may have been answered many times, but one more
repetition will do but little harm.
Another thing: Do you believe in the eternity of punishment? Do you
believe that God is the keeper of an eternal prison, the doors of which
open only to receive sinners, and do you believe that eternal punishment
is the highest expression of justice and mercy?
If you had the power to change a stone into a human being, and you
knew that that human being would be a sinner and finally go to hell and
suffer eternal torture, would you not leave it stone? And if, knowing
this, you changed the stone into a man, would you not be a fiend?
Now, answer this fairly. I want nothing spiritual; nothing with the
Presbyterian flavor; just good, honest talk, and tell us how that is.
I say to you that if there is a place of eternal torment or misery for
any of the children of men--I say to you that your God is a wild beast,
an insane fiend, whom I abhor and despise with every drop of my blood.
At the same time you may say whether you are up, according to Dr. Mac
Arthur, with the religious thinking of the hour.
The Rev. J. W. Campbell I rather like. He appears to be absolutely
sincere. He is orthodox--true blue. He believes in a devil; in an
acting, thinking devil, and a clever devil. Of course he does not think
this devil is as stout as God, but he is quicker; not quite as wise, but
a little more cunning.
According to Mr. Campbell, the devil is the bunco steerer of the
universe--king of the green goods men; but, after all, Mr. Campbell will
not admit that if this devil does not exist the Christian creeds all
crumble, but I think he will admit that if the devil does not exist,
then Christ was mistaken, or that the writers of the New Testament did
not truthfully give us his utterances.
Now, if Christ was mistaken about the existence of the devil, may be he
was mistaken about the existence of God. In other words, if Christ
made a mistake, then he was ignorant. Then we cannot say he was divine,
although ignorance has generally believed in divinity. So I do not see
exactly how Mr. Campbell can say that if the devil does not exist the
Christian creeds do not crumble, and when I say Christian creeds I mean
orthodox creeds. Is there any orthodox Christian creed without the devil
in it?
Now, if we throw away the devil we throw away original sin, the fall
of man, and we throw away the atonement. Of this arch the devil is the
keystone. Remove him, the arch falls.
Now, how can you say that an orthodox Christian creed remains intact
without crumbling when original sin, the fall of man, the atonement and
the existence of the devil are all thrown aside?
Of course if you mean by Christianity, acting like Christ, being
good, forgiving, that is another matter, but that is not Christianity.
Orthodox Christians say that a man must believe on Christ, must have
faith, and that to act as Christ did, is not enough; that a man who acts
exactly as Christ did, dying without faith, would go to hell. So when
Mr. Campbell speaks of a Christian, I suppose he means an orthodox
Christian.
Now, Dr. Campbell not only knows that the devil exists, but he knows
a good deal about him. He knows that he can assume every conceivable
disguise or shape; that he can go about like a roaring lion; that at
another time he is a god of this world; on another occasion a dragon,
and in the afternoon of the same day may be Lucifer, an angel of light,
and all the time, I guess, a prince of lies. So he often assumes the
disguise of the serpent.
So the Doctor thinks that when the devil invited Christ into the
wilderness to tempt him, that he adopted some disguise that made him
more than usually attractive. Does the Doctor think that Christ could
not see through the disguise? Was it possible for the devil with a mask
to fool God, his creator? Was it possible for the devil to tempt Christ
by offering him the kingdoms of the earth when they already belonged to
Christ, and when Christ knew that the devil had no title, and when the
devil knew that Christ knew that he had no title, and when the devil
knew that Christ knew that he was the devil, and when the devil knew
that he was Christ? Does the reverend gentleman still think that it was
the disguise of the devil that tempted Christ?
I would like some of these questions answered, because I have a very
inquiring mind.
So Mr. Campbell tells us--and it is very good and comforting of
him--that there is a time coming when the devil shall deceive the
nations no more. He also tells us that God is more powerful than the
devil, and that he is going to put an end to him.
Will Mr. Campbell have the goodness to tell me why God made the devil?
If he is going to put an end to him why did he start him? Was it not a
waste of raw material to make him? Was it not unfair to let this devil,
so powerful, so cunning, so attractive, into the Garden of Eden, and put
Adam and Eve, who were then scarcely half dry, within his power, and not
only Adam and Eve within his power, but their descendants, so that the
slime of the serpent has been on every babe, and so that, in consequence
of what happened in the Garden of Eden, flames will surround countless
millions in the presence of the most merciful God?
Now, it may be that the Rev. Dr. Campbell can explain all these things.
He may not care to do it for my benefit, but let him think of his own
congregation; of the lambs he is protecting from the wolves of doubt and
thought.
The Rev. Henry Frank appears to be a man of exceedingly good sense; one
who thinks for himself, and who has the courage of his convictions. Of
course I am sorry that he does not agree with me, but I have become used
to that, and so I thank him for the truths he utters.
He does not believe in the existence of a personal devil, and I guess by
following him up we would find that he did not believe in the existence
of a personal God, or in the inspiration of the Scriptures. In fact,
he tells us that he has given up the infallibility of the Bible. At the
same time, he says it is the most perfect compendium of religious and
moral thought. In that I think he is a little mistaken. There is a vast
deal of irreligion in the Bible, and there is a good deal of immoral
thought in the Bible; but I agree with him that it is neither inspired
nor infallible.
The Rev. E. C. J. Kraeling, pastor of the Zion Lutheran Church, declares
that those who do not believe in a personal God do not believe in a
personal Satan, and _vice versa_. The one, he says, necessitates the
other. In this I do not think he is quite correct. I think many people
believe in a personal God who do not believe in a personal devil, but I
know of none who do believe in a personal devil who do not also believe
in a personal God. The orthodox generally believe in both of them, and
for many centuries Christians spoke with great respect of the devil.
They were afraid of him.
But I agree with the Rev. Mr. Kraeling when he says that to deny a
personal Satan is to deny the infallibility of God's word. I agree with
this because I suppose by "God's word" he means the Bible.
He further says, and I agree with him, that a "Christian" needs no
scientific argument on which to base his belief in the personality of
Satan. That certainly is true, and if a Christian does need a scientific
argument it is equally true that he never will have one.
You see this word "Science" means something that somebody knows; not
something that somebody guesses, or wishes, or hopes, or believes, but
something that somebody knows.
Of course there cannot be any scientific argument proving the existence
of the devil. At the same time I admit, as the Rev. Mr. Kraeling says,
and I thank him for his candor, that the Bible does prove the existence
of the devil from Genesis to the. Apocalypse, and I do agree with him
that the "revealed word" teaches the existence of a personal devil,
and that all truly orthodox Christians believe that there is a personal
devil, and the Rev. Mr. Kraeling proves this by the fall of man, and he
proves that without this devil there could be no redemption for the
evil spirits; so he brings forward the temptation of Christ in the
wilderness. At the same time that Mr. Kraeling agrees with me as to what
the Bible says, he insists that I bring no arguments, that I blaspheme,
and then he drops into humor and says that if any further arguments are
needed to prove the existence of the devil, that I furnish them.
How a man believing the creed of the orthodox Mr. Kraeling can have
anything like a sense of humor is beyond even my imagination.
Now, I want to ask Mr. Kraeling a few questions, and I will ask him
the same questions that I ask all orthodox people in my lecture on
"Superstition."
Now, Mr. Kraeling believes that this world was created by a being of
infinite wisdom, power and goodness, and that the world he created has
been governed by him.
Now, let me ask the reverend gentleman a few plain questions, with
the request that he answer them without mist or mystery. If you, Mr.
Kraeling, had the power to make a world, would you make an exact copy of
this? Would you make a man and woman, put them in a garden, knowing that
they would be deceived, knowing that they would fall? Knowing that all
the consequences believed in by orthodox Christians would follow from
that fall? Would you do it? And would you make your world so as to
provide for earthquakes and cyclones? Would you create the seeds of
disease and scatter them in the air and water? Would you so arrange
matters as to produce cancers? Would you provide for plague and
pestilence? Would you so make your world that life should feed on life,
that the quivering flesh should be torn by tooth and beak and claw?
Would you?
Now, answer fairly. Do not quote Scripture; just answer, and be honest.
Would you make different races of men? Would you make them of different
colors, and would you so make them that they would persecute and enslave
each other? Would you so arrange matters that millions and millions
should toil through many generations, paid only by the lash on the back?
Would you have it so that millions and millions of babes would be sold
from the breasts of mothers? Be honest, would you provide for religious
persecution? For the invention and use of instruments of torture? Would
you see to it that the rack was not forgotten, and that the fagot was
not overlooked or unlighted? Would you make a world in which the wrong
would triumph? Would you make a world in which innocence would not be
a shield? Would you make a world where the best would be loaded with
chains? Where the best would die in the darkness of dungeons? Where the
best would make scaffolds sacred with their blood?
Would you make a world where hypocrisy and cunning and fraud should
represent God, and where meanness would suck the blood of honest
credulity?
Would you provide for the settlement of all difficulties by war? Would
you so make your world that the weak would bear the burdens, so that
woman would be a slave, so that children would be trampled upon as
though they were poisonous reptiles? Would you fill the woods with wild
beasts? Would you make a few volcanoes to overwhelm your children? Would
you provide for earthquakes that would swallow them? Would you make them
ignorant, savage, and fill their minds with all the phantoms of horror?
Would you?
Now, it will only take you a few moments to answer these questions, and
if you say you would, then I shall be satisfied that you believe in the
orthodox God, and that you are as bad as he. If you say you would not, I
will admit that there is a little dawn of intelligence in your brain.
At the same time I want it understood with regard to all these
ministers that I am a friend of theirs. I am trying to civilize their
congregations, so that the congregations may allow the ministers to
develop, to grow, to become really and truly intelligent. The process is
slow, but it is sure.