The Works of Robert G. Ingersoll Volume VIII Part 57

After conversion, it is not pretended that I will be any better so far as my actions are concerned; no more charitable, no more honest, no more generous. The great difference will be that I will believe more and think less.

After all, the converted people do not seem to be better than the sinners. I never heard of a poor wretch clad in rags, limping into a town and asking for the house of a Christian.

I think that I had better remain as I am. I had better follow the light of my reason, be true to myself, express my honest thoughts, and do the little I can for the destruction of superst.i.tion, the little I can for the development of the brain, for the increase of intellectual hospitality and the happiness of my fellow-beings.

One world at a time.

--_New York Journal_, December 15, 1895.

SPIRITUALISM.

There are several good things about Spiritualism. First, they are not bigoted; second, they do not believe in salvation by faith; third, they don't expect to be happy in another world because Christ was good in this; fourth, they do not preach the consolation of h.e.l.l; fifth, they do not believe in G.o.d as an infinite monster; sixth, the Spiritualists believe in intellectual hospitality. In these respects they differ from our Christian brethren, and in these respects they are far superior to the saints.

I think that the Spiritualists have done good. They believe in enjoying themselves--in having a little pleasure in this world.

They are social, cheerful and good-natured. They are not the slaves of a book. Their hands and feet are not tied with pa.s.sages of Scripture. They are not troubling themselves about getting forgiveness and settling their heavenly debts for a cent on the dollar. Their belief does not make then mean or miserable.

They do not persecute their neighbors. They ask no one to have faith or to believe without evidence. They ask all to investigate, and then to make up their minds from the evidence. Hundreds and thousands of well-educated, intelligent people are satisfied with the evidence and firmly believe in the existence of spirits. For all I know, they may be right--but----

_Question_. The Spiritualists have indirectly claimed, that you were in many respects almost one of them. Have you given them reason to believe so?

_Answer_. I am not a Spiritualist, and have never pretended to be. The Spiritualists believe in free thought, in freedom of speech, and they are willing to hear the other side--willing to hear me. The best thing about the Spiritualists is that they believe in intellectual hospitality.

_Question_. Is Spiritualism a religion or a truth?

_Answer_. I think that Spiritualism may properly be called a religion. It deals with two worlds--teaches the duty of man to his fellows--the relation that this life bears to the next. It claims to be founded on facts. It insists that the "dead" converse with the living, and that information is received from those who once lived in this world. Of the truth of these claims I have no sufficient evidence.

_Question_. Are all mediums impostors?

_Answer_. I will not say that all mediums are impostors, because I do not know. I do not believe that these mediums get any information or help from "spirits." I know that for thousands of years people have believed in mediums--in Spiritualism. A spirit in the form of a man appeared to Samson's mother, and afterward to his father.

Spirits, or angels, called on Abraham. The witch of Endor raised the ghost of Samuel. An angel appeared with three men in the furnace. The handwriting on the wall was done by a spirit. A spirit appeared to Joseph in a dream, to the wise men and to Joseph again.

So a spirit, an angel or a G.o.d, spoke to Saul, and the same happened to Mary Magdalene.

The religious literature of the world is filled with such things.

Take Spiritualism from Christianity and the whole edifice crumbles.

All religions, so far as I know, are based on Spiritualism--on communications received from angels, from spirits.

I do not say that all the mediums, ancient and modern, were, and are, impostors--but I do think that all the honest ones were, and are, mistaken. I do not believe that man has ever received any communication from angels, spirits or G.o.ds. No whisper, as I believe, has ever come from any other world. The lips of the dead are always closed. From the grave there has come no voice. For thousands of years people have been questioning the dead. They have tried to catch the whisper of a vanished voice. Many say that they have succeeded. I do not know.

_Question_. What is the explanation of the startling knowledge displayed by some so-called "mediums" of the history and personal affairs of people who consult them? Is there any such thing as mind-reading or thought-transference?

_Answer_. In a very general way, I suppose that one person may read the thought of another--not definitely, but by the expression of the face, by the att.i.tude of the body, some idea may be obtained as to what a person thinks, what he intends. So thought may be transferred by look or language, but not simply by will. Everything that is, is natural. Our ignorance is the soil in which mystery grows. I do not believe that thoughts are things that can been seen or touched. Each mind lives in a world of its own, a world that no other mind can enter. Minds, like ships at sea, give signs and signals to each other, but they do not exchange captains.

_Question_. Is there any such thing as telepathy? What is the explanation of the stories of mental impressions received at long distances?

_Answer_. There are curious coincidences. People sometimes happen to think of something that is taking place at a great distance.

The stories about these happenings are not very well authenticated, and seem never to have been of the least use to anyone.

_Question_. Can these phenomena be considered aside from any connection with, or form of, superst.i.tion?

_Answer_. I think that mistake, emotion, nervousness, hysteria, dreams, love of the wonderful, dishonesty, ignorance, grief and the longing for immortality--the desire to meet the loved and lost, the horror of endless death--account for these phenomena. People often mistake their dreams for realities--often think their thoughts have "happened." They live in a mental mist, a mirage. The boundary between the actual and the imagined becomes faint, wavering and obscure. They mistake clouds for mountains. The real and the unreal mix and mingle until the impossible becomes common, and the natural absurd.

_Question_. Do you believe that any sane man ever had a vision?

_Answer_. Of course, the sane and insane have visions, dreams.

I do not believe that any man, sane or insane, was ever visited by an angel or spirit, or ever received any information from the dead.

_Question_. Setting aside from consideration the so-called physical manifestations of the mediums, has Spiritualism offered any proof of the immortality of the soul?

_Answer_. Of course Spiritualism offers what it calls proof of immortality. That is its princ.i.p.al business. Thousands and thousands of good, honest, intelligent people think the proof sufficient. They receive what they believe to be messages from the departed, and now and then the spirits a.s.sume their old forms --including garments--and pa.s.s through walls and doors as light pa.s.ses through gla.s.s. Do these things really happen? If the spirits of the dead do return, then the fact of another life is established. It all depends on the evidence. Our senses are easily deceived, and some people have more confidence in their reason than in their senses.

_Question_. Do you not believe that such a man as Robert Dale Owen was sincere? What was the real state of mind of the author of "Footfalls on the Boundaries of Another World"?

_Answer_. Without the slightest doubt, Robert Dale Owen was sincere.

He was one of the best of men. His father labored all his life for the good of others. Robert Owen, the father, had a debate, in Cincinnati, with the Rev. Alexander Campbell, the founder of the Campbellite Church. Campbell was no match for Owen, and yet the audience was almost unanimously against Owen.

Robert Dale Owen was an intelligent, thoughtful, honest man. He was deceived by several mediums, but remained a believer. He wanted Spiritualism to be true. He hungered and thirsted for another life. He explained everything that was mysterious or curious by a.s.suming the interference of spirits. He was a good man, but a poor investigator. He thought that people were all honest.

_Question_. What do you understand the Spiritualist means when he claims that the soul goes to the "Summer land," and there continues to work and evolute to higher planes?

_Answer_. No one pretends to know where "heaven" is. The celestial realm is the blessed somewhere in the unknown nowhere. So far as I know, the "Summer land" has no metes and bounds, and no one pretends to know exactly or inexactly where it is. After all, the "Summer land" is a hope--a wish. Spiritualists believe that a soul leaving this world pa.s.ses into another, or into another state, and continues to grow in intelligence and virtue, if it so desires.

Spiritualists claim to prove that there is another life. Christians believe this, but their witnesses have been dead for many centuries.

They take the "hearsay" of legend and ancient gossip; but Spiritualists claim to have living witnesses; witnesses that can talk, make music; that can take to themselves bodies and shake hands with the people they knew before they pa.s.sed to the "other sh.o.r.e."

_Question_. Has Spiritualism, through its mediums, ever told the world anything useful, or added to the store of the world's knowledge, or relieved its burdens?

_Answer_. I do not know that any medium has added to the useful knowledge of the world, unless mediums have given evidence of another life. Mediums have told us nothing about astronomy, geology or history, have made no discoveries, no inventions, and have enriched no art. The same may be said of every religion.

All the orthodox churches believe in Spiritualism. Every now and then the Virgin appears to some peasant, and in the old days the darkness was filled with evil spirits. Christ was a Spiritualist, and his princ.i.p.al business was the casting out of devils. All of his disciples, all of the church fathers, all of the saints were believers in Spiritualism of the lowest and most ignorant type.

During the Middle Ages people changed themselves, with the aid of spirits, into animals. They became wolves, dogs, cats and donkeys.

In those day all the witches and wizards were mediums. So animals were sometimes taken possession of by spirits, the same as Balaam's donkey and Christ's swine. Nothing was too absurd for the Christians.

_Question_. Has not Spiritualism added to the world's stock of hope? And in what way has not Spiritualism done good?

_Answer_. The mother holding in her arms her dead child, believing that the babe has simply pa.s.sed to another life, does not weep as bitterly as though she thought that death was the eternal end. A belief in Spiritualism must be a consolation. You see, the Spiritualists do not believe in eternal pain, and consequently a belief in immortality does not fill their hearts with fear.

Christianity makes eternal life an infinite horror, and casts the glare of h.e.l.l on almost every grave.

The Spiritualists appear to be happy in their belief. I have never known a happy orthodox Christian.

It is natural to shun death, natural to desire eternal life. With all my heart I hope for everlasting life and joy--a life without failures, without crimes and tears.

If immortality could be established, the river of life would overflow with happiness. The faces of prisoners, of slaves, of the deserted, of the diseased and starving would be radiant with smiles, and the dull eyes of despair would glow with light.

If it could be established.