The Works of Robert G. Ingersoll Volume XI Part 37

There is still another side, and that is this: The Freethinker knows that all the priests and cardinals and popes know nothing of the supernatural--they know nothing about G.o.ds or angels or heavens or h.e.l.ls--nothing about inspired books or Holy Ghosts, or incarnations or atonements. He knows that all this is superst.i.tion pure and simple.

He knows also that these people--from pope to priest, from bishop to parson, do not the slightest good in this world--that they live upon the labor of others--that they earn nothing themselves--that they contribute nothing toward the happiness, or well-being, or the wealth of mankind.

He knows that they trade and traffic in ignorance and fear, that they make merchandise of hope and grief--and he also knows that in every religion the priest insists on five things--First: There is a G.o.d.

Second: He has made known his will. Third: He has selected me to explain this message. Fourth: We will now take up a collection; and Fifth: Those who fail to subscribe will certainly be d.a.m.ned.

The positive side of Freethought is to find out the truth--the facts of nature--to the end that we may take advantage of those truths, of those facts--for the purpose of feeding and clothing and educating mankind.

In the first place, we wish to find that which will lengthen human life--that which will prevent or kill disease--that which will do away with pain--that which will preserve or give us health.

We also want to go in partnership with these forces of nature, to the end that we may be well fed and clothed--that we may have good houses that protect us from heat and cold. And beyond this--beyond these simple necessities--there are still wants and aspirations, and free-thought will give us the highest possible in art--the most wonderful and thrilling in music--the greatest paintings, the most marvelous sculpture--in other words, free-thought will develop the brain to its utmost capacity. Freethought is the mother of art and science, of morality and happiness.

It is charged by the worshipers of the Jewish myth, that we destroy, that we do not build.

What have we destroyed? We have destroyed the idea that a monster created and governs this world--the declaration that a G.o.d of infinite mercy and compa.s.sion upheld slavery and polygamy and commanded the destruction of men, women, and babes. We have destroyed the idea that this monster created a few of his children for eternal joy, and the vast majority for everlasting pain. We have destroyed the infinite absurdity that salvation depends upon belief, that investigation is dangerous, and that the torch of reason lights only the way to h.e.l.l. We have taken a grinning devil from every grave, and the curse from death--and in the place of these dogmas, of these infamies, we have put that which is natural and that which commends itself to the heart and brain.

Instead of loving G.o.d, we love each other. Instead of the religion of the sky--the religion of this world--the religion of the family--the love of husband for wife, of wife for husband--the love of all for children. So that now the real religion is: Let us live for each other; let us live for this world, without regard for the past and without fear for the future. Let us use our faculties and our powers for the benefit of ourselves and others, knowing that if there be another world, the same philosophy that gives us joy here will make us happy there.

Nothing can be more absurd than the idea that we can do something to please or displease an infinite Being. If our thoughts and actions can lessen or increase the happiness of G.o.d, then to that extent G.o.d is the slave and victim of man.

The energies of the world have been wasted in the service of a phantom--millions of priests have lived on the industry of others and no effort has been spared to prevent the intellectual freedom of mankind.

We know, if we know anything, that supernatural religion has no foundation except falsehood and mistake. To expose these falsehoods--to correct these mistakes--to build the fabric of civilization on the foundation of demonstrated truth--is the task of the Freethinker. To destroy guide-boards that point in the wrong direction--to correct charts that lure to reef and wreck--to drive the fiend of fear from the mind--to protect the cradle from the serpent of superst.i.tion and dispel the darkness of ignorance with the sun of science--is the task of the Freethinker.

What constructive work has been done by the church? Christianity gave us a flat world a few thousand years ago--a heaven above it where Jehovah dwells and a h.e.l.l below it where most people will dwell. Christianity took the ground that a certain belief was necessary to salvation and that this belief was far better and of more importance than the practice of all the virtues. It became the enemy of investigation--the bitter and relentless foe of reason and the liberty of thought. It committed every crime and practiced every cruelty in the propagation of its creed. It drew the sword against the freedom of the world. It established schools and universities for the preservation of ignorance. It claimed to have within its keeping the source and standard of all truth. If the church had succeeded the sciences could not have existed.

Freethought has given us all we have of value. It has been the great constructive force. It is the only discoverer, and every science is its child.--The Truth Seeker, New York 1890.

THE IMPROVED MAN.

THE Improved Man will be in favor of universal liberty, that is to say, he will be opposed to all kings and n.o.bles, to all privileged cla.s.ses.

He will give to all others the rights he claims for himself. He will neither bow nor cringe, nor accept bowing and cringing from others. He will be neither master nor slave, neither prince nor peasant--simply man.

He will be the enemy of all caste, no matter whether its foundation be wealth, t.i.tle or power, and of him it will be said: "Blessed is that man who is afraid of no man and of whom no man is afraid."

The Improved Man will be in favor of universal education. He will believe it the duty of every person to shed all the light he can, to the end that no child may be reared in darkness. By education he will mean the gaining of useful knowledge, the development of the mind along the natural paths that lead to human happiness.

He will not waste his time in ascertaining the foolish theories of extinct peoples or in studying the dead languages for the sake of understanding the theologies of ignorance and fear, but he will turn his attention to the affairs of life, and will do his utmost to see to it that every child has an opportunity to learn the demonstrated facts of science, the true history of the world, the great principles of right and wrong applicable to human conduct--the things necessary to the preservation of the individual and of the state, and such arts and industries as are essential to the preservation of all.

He will also endeavor to develop the mind in the direction of the beautiful--of the highest art--so that the palace in which the mind dwells may be enriched and rendered beautiful, to the end that these stones, called facts, may be changed into statues.

The Improved Man will believe only in the religion of this world. He will have nothing to do with the miraculous and supernatural. He will find that there is no room in the universe for these things. He will know that happiness is the only good, and that everything that tends to the happiness of sentient beings is good, and that to do the things--and no other--that add to the happiness of man is to practice the highest possible religion. His motto will be: "Sufficient unto each world is the evil thereof." He will know that each man should be his own priest, and that the brain is the real cathedral. He will know that in the realm of mind there is no authority--that majorities in this mental world can settle nothing--that each soul is the sovereign of its own world, and that it cannot abdicate without degrading itself. He will not bow to numbers or force; to antiquity or custom. He, standing under the flag of nature, under the blue and stars, will decide for himself. He will not endeavor by prayers and supplication, by fastings and genuflections, to change the mind of the "Infinite" or alter the course of nature, neither will he employ others to do those things in his place. He will have no confidence in the religion of idleness, and will give no part of what he earns to support parson or priest, archbishop or pope. He will know that honest labor is the highest form of prayer. He will spend no time in ringing bells or swinging censers, or in chanting the litanies of barbarism, but he will appreciate all that is artistic--that is beautiful--that tends to refine and enn.o.ble the human race. He will not live a life of fear. He will stand in awe neither of man nor ghosts. He will enjoy not only the sunshine of life, but will bear with fort.i.tude the darkest days. He will have no fear of death. About the grave, there will be no terrors, and his life will end as serenely as the sun rises.

The Improved Man will be satisfied that the supernatural does not exist--that behind every fact, every thought and dream is an efficient cause. He will know that every human action is a necessary product, and he will also know that men cannot be reformed by punishment, by degradation or by revenge. He will regard those who violate the laws of nature and the laws of States as victims of conditions, of circ.u.mstances, and he will do what he can for the wellbeing of his fellow-men.

The Improved Man will not give his life to the acc.u.mulation of wealth.

He will find no happiness in exciting the envy of his neighbors. He will not care to live in a palace while others who are good, industrious and kind are compelled to huddle in huts and dens. He will know that great wealth is a great burden, and that to acc.u.mulate beyond the actual needs of a reasonable human being is to increase not wealth, but responsibility and trouble.

The Improved Man will find his greatest joy in the happiness of others and he will know that the home is the real temple. He will believe in the democracy of the fireside, and will reap his greatest reward in being loved by those whose lives he has enriched.

The Improved Man will be self-poised, independent, candid and free.

He will be a scientist. He will observe, investigate, experiment and demonstrate. He will use his sense and his senses. He will keep his mind open as the day to the hints and suggestions of nature. He will always be a student, a learner and a listener--a believer in intellectual hospitality. In the world of his brain there will be continuous summer, perpetual seed-time and harvest. Facts will be the foundation of his faith. In one hand he will carry the torch of truth, and with the other raise the fallen.--The World, New York, February 28,1890.

EIGHT HOURS MUST COME.

I HARDLY know enough on the subject to give an opinion as to the time when eight hours are to become a day's work, but I am perfectly satisfied that eight hours will become a labor day.

The working people should be protected by law; if they are not, the capitalists will require just as many hours as human nature can bear.

We have seen here in America street-car drivers working sixteen and seventeen hours a day. It was necessary to have a strike in order to get to fourteen, another strike to get to twelve, and n.o.body could blame them for keeping on striking till they get to eight hours.

For a man to get up before daylight and work till after dark, life is of no particular importance. He simply earns enough one day to prepare himself to work another. His whole life is spent in want and toil, and such a life is without value.

Of course, I cannot say that the present effort is going to succeed--all I can say is that I hope it will. I cannot see how any man who does nothing--who lives in idleness--can insist that others should work ten or twelve hours a day. Neither can I see how a man who lives on the luxuries of life can find it in his heart, or in his stomach, to say that the poor ought to be satisfied with the crusts and crumbs they get.

I believe there is to be a revolution in the relations between labor and capital. The laboring people a few generations ago were not very intellectual. There were no schoolhouses, no teachers except the church, and the church taught obedience and faith--told the poor people that although they had a hard time here, working for nothing, they would be paid in Paradise with a large interest. Now the working people are more intelligent--they are better educated--they read and write. In order to carry on the works of the present, many of them are machinists of the highest order. They must be reasoners. Every kind of mechanism insists upon logic. The working people are reasoners--their hands and heads are in partnership. They know a great deal more than the capitalists. It takes a thousand times the brain to make a locomotive that it does to run a store or a bank. Think of the intelligence in a steamship and in all the thousand machines and devices that are now working for the world. These working people read. They meet together--they discuss. They are becoming more and more independent in thought. They do not believe all they hear. They may take their hats off their heads to the priests, but they keep their brains in their heads for themselves.

The free school in this country has tended to put men on an equality, and the mechanic understands his side of the case, and is able to express his views. Under these circ.u.mstances there must be a revolution.

That is to say, the relations between capital and labor must be changed, and the time must come when they who do the work--they who make the money--will insist on having some of the profits.

I do not expect this remedy to come entirely from the Government, or from Government interference. I think the Government can aid in pa.s.sing good and wholesome laws--laws fixing the length of a labor day; laws preventing the employment of children; laws for the safety and security of workingmen in mines and other dangerous places. But the laboring people must rely upon themselves; on their intelligence, and especially on their political power. They are in the majority in this country.

They can if they wish--if they will stand together--elect Congresses and Senates, Presidents and Judges. They have it in their power to administer the Government of the United States.

The laboring man, however, ought to remember that all who labor are their brothers, and that all women who labor are their sisters, and whenever one cla.s.s of workingmen or working women is oppressed all other laborers ought to stand by the oppressed cla.s.s. Probably the worst paid people in the world are the working-women. Think of the sewing women in this city--and yet we call ourselves civilized! I would like to see all working people unite for the purpose of demanding justice, not only for men, but for women.

All my sympathies are on the side of those who toil--of those who produce the real wealth of the world--of those who carry the burdens of mankind.

Any man who wishes to force his brother to work--to toil--more than eight hours a day is not a civilized man.

My hope for the workingman has its foundation in the fact that he is growing more and more intelligent. I have also the same hope for the capitalist. The time must come when the capitalist will clearly and plainly see that his interests are identical with those of the laboring man. He will finally become intelligent enough to know that his prosperity depends on the prosperity of those who labor. When both become intelligent the matter will be settled.

Neither labor nor capital should resort to force.--The Morning Journal, April 27, 1890.

THE JEWS.

WHEN I was a child, I was taught that the Jews were an exceedingly hard-hearted and cruel people, and that they were so dest.i.tute of the finer feelings that they had a little while before that time crucified the only perfect man who had appeared upon the earth; that this perfect man was also perfect G.o.d, and that the Jews had really stained their hands with the blood of the Infinite.

When I got somewhat older, I found that nearly all people had been guilty of substantially the same crime--that is, that they had destroyed the progressive and the thoughtful; that religionists had in all ages been cruel; that the chief priests of all people had incited the mob, to the end that heretics--that is to say, philosophers--that is to say, men who knew that the chief priests were hypocrites--might be destroyed.

I also found that Christians had committed more of these crimes than all other religionists put together.