The Works of Robert G. Ingersoll Volume V Part 36

_Question_. Why, then, did he make them?

_Answer_. He made them for his own glory, and no man should disgrace his parents by denying it.

_Question_. Were the people after the flood just as bad as they were before?

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_Answer_. About the same.

_Question_. Did they try to circ.u.mvent G.o.d?

_Answer_. They did.

_Question_. How?

_Answer_. They got together for the purpose of build- ing a tower, the top of which should reach to heaven, so that they could laugh at any future floods, and go to heaven at any time they desired.

_Question_. Did G.o.d hear about this?

_Answer_. He did.

_Question_. What did he say?

_Answer_. He said: "Go to; let us go down," and see what the people are doing; I am satisfied they will succeed.

_Question_. How were the people prevented from succeeding?

_Answer_. G.o.d confounded their language, so that the mason on top could not cry "mort'!" to the hod-carrier below; he could not think of the word to use, to save his life, and the building stopped.

_Question_. If it had not been for the confusion of tongues at Babel, do you really think that all the people in the world would have spoken just the same language, and would have p.r.o.nounced every word precisely the same?

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_Answer_. Of course.

_Question_. If it had not been, then, for the con- fusion of languages, spelling books, grammars and dictionaries would have been useless?

_Answer_. I suppose so.

_Question_. Do any two people in the whole world speak the same language, now?

_Answer_. Of course they don't, and this is one of the great evidences that G.o.d introduced confusion into the languages. Every error in grammar, every mistake in spelling, every blunder in p.r.o.nunciation, proves the truth of the Babel story.

_Question_. This being so, this miracle is the best attested of all?

_Answer_. I suppose it is.

_Question_. Do you not think that a confusion of tongues would bring men together instead of separa- ting them? Would not a man unable to converse with his fellow feel weak instead of strong; and would not people whose language had been con- founded cling together for mutual support?

_Answer_. According to nature, yes; according to theology, no; and these questions must be answered according to theology. And right here, it may be well enough to state, that in theology the unnatural

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is the probable, and the impossible is what has always happened. If theology were simply natural, anybody could be a theologian.

_Question_. Did G.o.d ever make any other special efforts to convert the people, or to reform the world?

_Answer_. Yes, he destroyed the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah with a storm of fire and brimstone.

_Question_. Do you suppose it was really brim- stone?

_Answer_. Undoubtedly.

_Question_. Do you think this brimstone came from the clouds?

_Answer_. Let me tell you that you have no right to examine the Bible in the light of what people are pleased to call "science." The natural has nothing to do with the supernatural. Naturally there would be no brimstone in the clouds, but supernaturally there might be. G.o.d could make brimstone out of his "omnipotence." We do not know really what brimstone is, and n.o.body knows exactly how brim- stone is made. As a matter of fact, all the brimstone in the world might have fallen at that time.

_Question_. Do you think that Lot's wife was changed into salt?

_Answer_. Of course she was. A miracle was per-

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formed. A few centuries ago, the statue of salt made by changing Lot's wife into that article, was standing.

Christian travelers have seen it.

_Question_. Why do you think she was changed into salt?

_Answer_. For the purpose of keeping the event fresh in the minds of men.

_Question_. G.o.d having failed to keep people in- nocent in a garden; having failed to govern them outside of a garden; having failed to reform them by water; having failed to produce any good result by a confusion of tongues; having failed to reform them with fire and brimstone, what did he then do?

_Answer_. He concluded that he had no time to waste on them all, but that he would have to select one tribe, and turn his entire attention to just a few folks.

_Question_. Whom did he select?

_Answer_. A man by the name of Abram.

_Question_. What kind of man was Abram?

_Answer_. If you wish to know, read the twelfth chapter of Genesis; and if you still have any doubts as to his character, read the twentieth chapter of the same book, and you will see that he was a man who made merchandise of his wife's body. He had had

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such good fortune in Egypt, that he tried the experi- ment again on Abimelech.

_Question_. Did Abraham show any grat.i.tude?