(1881.)
I. Col. Ingersoll's Opening Paper--Statement of the Fundamental Truths
of Christianity--Reasons for Thinking that Portions of the Old Testament
are the Product of a Barbarous People--Passages upholding
Slavery, Polygamy, War, and Religious Persecution not Evidences of
Inspiration--If the Words are not Inspired, What Is?--Commands of
Jehovah compared with the Precepts of Pagans and Stoics--Epictetus,
Cicero, Zeno, Seneca, Brahma--II. The New Testament--Why were
Four Gospels Necessary?--Salvation by Belief--The Doctrine of
the Atonement--The Jewish System Culminating in the Sacrifice of
Christ--Except for the Crucifixion of her Son, the Virgin Mary would be
among the Lost--What Christ must have Known would Follow the Acceptance
of His Teachings--The Wars of Sects, the Inquisition, the Fields of
Death--Why did he not Forbid it All?--The Little that he Revealed--The
Dogma of Eternal Punishment--Upon Love's Breast the Church has Placed
the Eternal Asp--III. The "Inspired" Writers--Why did not God furnish
Every Nation with a Bible?
II. Judge Black's Reply--His Duty that of a Policeman--The Church not
in Danger--Classes who Break out into Articulate Blasphemy--The
Sciolist--Personal Remarks about Col. Ingersoll--Chief-Justice Gibson of
Pennsylvania Quoted--We have no Jurisdiction or Capacity to Rejudge the
Justice of God--The Moral Code of the Bible--Civil Government of the
Jews--No Standard of Justice without Belief in a God--Punishments for
Blasphemy and Idolatry Defended--Wars of Conquest--Allusion to Col.
Ingersoll's War Record--Slavery among the Jews--Polygamy Discouraged by
the Mosaic Constitution--Jesus of Nazareth and the Establishment of
his Religion--Acceptance of Christianity and Adjudication upon its
Divinity--The Evangelists and their Depositions--The Fundamental Truths
of Christianity--Persecution and Triumph of the Church--Ingersoll's
Propositions Compressed and the Compressions Answered--Salvation as a
Reward of Belief--Punishment of Unbelief--The Second Birth, Atonement,
Redemption, Non-resistance, Excessive Punishment of Sinners, Christ and
Persecution, Christianity and Freedom of Thought, Sufficiency of the
Gospel, Miracles, Moral Effect of Christianity.
III. Col. Ingersoll's Rejoinder--How this Discussion Came About--Natural
Law--The Design Argument--The Right to Rejudge the Justice even of a
God--Violation of the Commandments by Jehovah--Religious Intolerance
of the Old Testament--Judge Black's Justification of Wars of
Extermination--His Defence of Slavery--Polygamy not "Discouraged" by the
Old Testament--Position of Woman under the Jewish System and under that
of the Ancients--a "Policeman's" View of God--Slavery under Jehovah
and in Egypt--The Admission that Jehovah gave no Commandment against
Polygamy--The Learned and Wise Crawl back in Cribs--Alleged Harmony of
Old and New Testaments--On the Assertion that the Spread of Christianity
Proves the Supernatural Origin of the Gospel--The Argument applicable to
All Religions--Communications from Angels ana Gods--Authenticity of
the Statements of the Evangelists--Three Important Manuscripts--Rise
of Mormonism--Ascension of Christ--The Great Public Events alleged
as Fundamental Truths of Christianity--Judge Black's System
of "Compression"--"A Metaphysical Question"--Right and
Wrong--Justice--Christianity and Freedom of Thought--Heaven and
Hell--Production of God and the Devil--Inspiration of the Bible
dependent on the Credulity of the Reader--Doubt of Miracles--The
World before Christ's Advent--Respect for the Man Christ--The Dark
Ages--Institutions of Mercy--Civil Law.