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The God Of Hell Should Be Held In Loathing, Contempt And Scorn. A God Who Threatens Eternal Pain Should Be Hated, Not Loved - Cursed, Not Worshiped. A Heaven Presided Over By Such A God Must Be Below The Lowest Hell.

-Robert Green Ingersoll

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The God Of Hell

Robert Green Ingersoll

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The God Of Hell Should Be Held In Loathing, Contempt And Scorn. A God Who Threatens Eternal Pain Should Be Hated, Not Loved - Cursed, Not Worshiped. A Heaven Presided Over By Such A God Must Be Below The Lowest Hell.

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It Seems To Me Impossible For A Civilized Man To Love Or Worship, Or Respect The God Of The Old Testament. A Really Civilized Man, A Really Civilized Woman, Must Hold Such A God In Abhorrence And Contempt... In The New Testament, Death Is Not The End, But The Beginning Of Punishment That Has No End. In The New Testament The Malice Of God Is Infinite And The Hunger Of His Revenge Eternal... This Frightful Dogma, This Infinite Lie, Made Me The Implacable Enemy Of Christianity. The Truth Is That This Belief In Eternal Pain Has Been The Real Persecutor.

The Old Man Has Been Long At The Fair. He Is Acquainted With The Jugglers At The Booths. His Curiosity Has Been Satisfied. He No Longer Cares For The Exceptional, The Monstrous, The Marvelous And Deformed. He Looks Through And Beyond The Gilding, The Glitter And Gloss, Not Only Of Things, But Of Conduct, Of Manners, Theories, Religions And Philosophies. He Sees Clearer. The Light No Longer Shines In His Eyes.

Meekness Is The Mask Of Malice.

My Principal Objections To Orthodox Religion Are Two: Slavery Here And Hell Hereafter.

If There Be Gods We Cannot Help Them, But We Can Assist Our Fellow Men. We Cannot Love The Inconceivable, But We Can Love Wife And Child And Friend.

If There Is A God

With Their Backs To The Sunrise They Worship The Night.

Age After Age, The Strong Have Trampled Upon The Weak; The Crafty And Heartless Have Ensnared And Enslaved The Simple And Innocent, And Nowhere, In All The Annals Of Mankind, Has Any God Succored The Oppressed

Martyrdom, As A Rule, Establishes The Sincerity Of The Martyr, Never The Correctness Of His Thought. Things Are True Or False In Themselves.

He Raised His Hands, Not To Strike, But In Benediction. Lincoln Was The Grandest Figure Of The Fiercest Civil War. He Is The Gentlest Memory Of Our World.

A Good Deed Is The Best Prayer.

A Few Years Ago The Deists Denied The Inspiration Of The Bible On Account Of Its Cruelty. At The Same Time They Worshiped What They Were Pleased To Call The God Of Nature. Now We Are Convinced That Nature Is As Cruel As The Bible; So That, If The God Of Nature Did Not Write The Bible, This God At Least Has Caused Earthquakes And Pestilence And Famine, And This God Has Allowed Millions Of His Children To Destroy One Another. So That Now We Have Arrived At The Question - Not As To Whether The Bible Is Inspired And Not As To Whether Jehovah Is The Real God, But Whether There Is A God Or Not.

In My Judgment, The Deists Were All Successfully Answered. The God Of Nature Is Certainly As Bad As The God Of The Old Testament. It Is Only When We Discard The Idea Of A Deity, The Idea Of Cruelty Or Goodness In Nature, That We Are Able Ever To Bear With Patience The Ills Of Life. I Feel That I Am Neither A Favorite Nor A Victim. Nature Neither Loves Nor Hates Me.

Epithets Are Not Arguments. Abuse Does Not Persuade.

We Can Be As Honest As We Are Ignorant. If We Are, When Asked What Is Beyond The Horizon Of The Known, We Must Say That We Do Not Know.

Take The Word Liberty From Human Speech And All The Other Words Become Poor, Withered, Meaningless Sounds - But With That Word Realized - With That Word Understood, The World Becomes A Paradise.

When I Became Convinced That The Universe Is Natural, That All The Ghosts And Gods Are Myths, There Entered Into My Brain, Into My Soul, Into Every Drop Of My Blood The Sense, The Feeling, The Joy Of Freedom. The Walls Of My Prison Crumbled And Fell. The Dungeon Was Flooded With Light And All The Bolts And Bars And Manacles Became Dust.

The Moment You Introduce A Despotism In The World Of Thought, You Succeed In Making Hypocrites - And You Get In Such A Position That You Never Know What Your Neighbor Thinks.

Kindness Is The Sunshine In Which Virtue Grows.

I Don't Want To Hurt People's Feelings If I Can Help It. I Don't Want Anyone Unnecessarily Humiliated, But I Say Whatever Stands Between You And Justice Must Give Way; And If You Have To Walk Over Reputations — And If They Become Pavement You Cannot Help It.

I Do Not Believe In Loving Enemies; I Have Pretty Hard Work To Love My Friends. Neither Do I Believe In Revenge. No Man Can Afford To Keep The Viper Of Revenge In His Heart. But I Believe In Justice, In Self-defense.

In The Presence Of Eternity, The Mountains Are As Transient As The Clouds.

It Is Labor That Has Made The World A Fit Habitation For The Human Race.

If Abuses Are Destroyed, Man Must Destroy Them. If Slaves Are Freed, Man Must Free Them. If New Truths Are Discovered, Man Must Discover Them. If The Naked Are Clothed; If The Hungry Are Fed; If Justice Is Done; If Labor Is Rewarded; If Superstition Is Driven From The Mind; If The Defenseless Are Protected, And If The Right Finally Triumphs, All Must Be The Work Of Man. The Grand Victories Of The Future Must Be Won By Man, And By Man Alone.

Great Virtues May Draw Attention From Defects, They Cannot Sanctify Them. A Pebble Surrounded By Diamonds Remains A Common Stone, And A Diamond Surrounded By Pebbles Is Still A Gem.

Language Is Not Subtle Enough, Tender Enough, To Express All That We Feel; And When Language Fails, The Highest And Deepest Longings Are Translated Into Music. Music Is The Sunshine - The Climate - Of The Soul, And It Floods The Heart With A Perfect June.

Liberty Cannot Be Sacrificed For The Sake Of Anything.

In Nature There Are Neither Rewards Nor Punishments; There Are Consequences.

Anger Is A Wind Which Blows Out The Lamp Of The Mind.

I Believe In The Gospel Of Cheerfulness, The Gospel Of Good Nature; The Gospel Of Good Health. Let Us Pay Some Attention To Our Bodies. Take Care Of Our Bodies, And Our Souls Will Take Care Of Themselves.

Even In The Business Of Corporations Honesty Is The Best Policy, And The Companies That Have Acted In Accordance With The Highest Standard, Other Things Being Equal, Have Reaped The Richest Harvest.

The First Step Is For Man To Cease To Be The Slave Of Man. The Second, Is To Cease To Be The Slave Of The Monsters Of His Own Creation, The Ghosts And Phantoms Of The Air.

The More Liberty You Give Away The More You Will Have.

Do Not Tell Me That You Have Got To Be Rich! We Have A False Standard Of Greatness In The United States. We Think Here That A Man Must Be Great, That He Must Be Notorious; That He Must Be Extremely Wealthy, Or That His Name Must Be Upon The Putrid Lips Of Rumor. It Is All A Mistake. It Is Not Necessary To Be Rich Or To Be Great, Or To Be Powerful, To Be Happy. The Happy Man Is The Successful Man. Happiness Is The Legal Tender Of The Soul.joy Is Wealth.

It Is A Thousand Times Better To Have Common Sense Without Education Than To Have Education Without Common Sense.

This Is My Creed: Happiness Is The Only Good; Reason The Only Torch; Justice The Only Worship, Humanity The Only Religion, And Love The Only Priest.

On Every Hand There Seems To Be Design To Defeat Design. If God Created Man - If He Is The Father Of Us All, Why Did He Make The Criminals, The Insane, The Deformed And Idiotic? Should The Mother, Who Clasps To Her Breast An Idiot Child, Thank God?

As A Matter Of Fact, No One Knows That God Exists And No One Knows That God Does Not Exist. To My Mind There Is No Evidence That God Exists - That This World Is Governed By A Being Of Infinite Goodness, Wisdom And Power, But I Do Not Pretend To Know.

In The Night Of Death, Hope Sees A Star, And Listening Love Can Hear The Rustle Of A Wing.

Nothing Discloses Real Character Like The Use Of Power. It Is Easy For The Weak To Be Gentle. Most People Can Bear Adversity. But If You Wish To Know What A Man Really Is, Give Him Power. This Is The Supreme Test. It Is The Glory Of Lincoln That, Having Almost Absolute Power, He Never Abused It, Except Upon The Side Of Mercy.

Commerce Is The Great Civilizer.

Had He Been Willing To Live A Hypocrite, He Would Have Been Respectable, He At Least Could Have Died Surrounded By Other Hypocrites, And At His Death There Would Have Been An Imposing Funeral, With Miles Of Carriages, Filled With Hypocrites, And Above His Hypocritical Dust There Would Have Been A Hypocritical Monument Covered With Lies.

I Do Not Believe That The Tendency Is To Make Men And Women Brave And Glorious When You Tell Them That There Are Certain Ideas Upon Certain Subjects That They Must Never Express; That They Must Go Through Life With A Pretence As A Shield; That Their Neighbors Will Think Much More Of Them If They Will Only Keep Still; And That Above All Is A God Who Despises One Who Honestly Expresses What He Believes.

Whenever A Man Believes That He Has The Exact Truth From God, There Is In That Man No Spirit Of Compromise. He Has Not The Modesty Born Of The Imperfections Of Human Nature; He Has The Arrogance Of Theological Certainty And The Tyranny Born Of Ignorant Assurance. Believing Himself To Be The Slave Of God, He Imitates His Master, And Of All Tyrants The Worst Is A Slave In Power.

Intellectual Liberty Is The Air Of The Soul, The Sunshine Of The Mind, And Without It, The World Is A Prison, The Universe Is A Dungeon.

The Idea Of Immortality, That Like A Sea Has Ebbed And Flowed In The Human Heart, With Its Countless Waves Of Hope And Fear, Beating Against The Shores And Rocks Of Time And Fate, Was Not Born Of Any Book, Nor Of Any Creed, Nor Of Any Religion. It Was Born Of Human Affection, And It Will Continue To Ebb And Flow Beneath The Mists And Clouds Of Doubt And Darkness As Long As Love Kisses The Lips Of Death. It Is The Rainbow -- Hope Shining Upon The Tears Of Grief.

Every Pulpit Is A Pillory, In Which Stands A Hired Culprit, Defending The Justice Of His Own Imprisonment.

I Believe In The Religion Of Reason -- The Gospel Of This World; In The Development Of The Mind, In The Accumulation Of Intellectual Wealth, To The End That Man May Free Himself From Superstitious Fear, To The End That He May Take Advantage Of The Forces Of Nature To Feed And Clothe The World.

The Superior Man Is The Providence Of The Inferior. He Is Eyes For The Blind, Strength For The Weak, And A Shield For The Defenseless. He Stands Erect By Bending Above The Fallen. He Rises By Lifting Others.

Liberty A Word Without Which All Other Words Are Vain.

The Catholic Church Is A Thousand Times Better Than Your Protestant Church Upon That Question [of Damnation]. The Catholic Church Believes In Purgatory - That Is, A Place Where A Fellow Can Get A Chance To Make A Motion For A New Trial.

Diderot Took The Ground That, If Orthodox Religion Be True Christ Was Guilty Of Suicide. Having The Power To Defend Himself He Should Have Used It.

Argument Cannot Be Answered With Insults. Kindness Is Strength; Anger Blows Out The Lamp Of The Mind.

The Hands That Help Are Better Far Than Lips That Pray.

I Know Of No Crime That Has Not Been Defended By The Church, In One Form Or Other. The Church Is Not A Pioneer; It Accepts A New Truth, Last Of All, And Only When Denial Has Become Useless.

He Loves His Country Best Who Strives To Make It Best.

Our Ignorance Is God; What We Know Is Science. When We Abandon The Doctrine That Some Infinite Being Created Matter And Force, And Enacted A Code Of Laws For Their Government ... The Real Priest Will Then Be, Not The Mouth-piece Of Some Pretended Deity, But The Interpreter Of Nature.

Intellect, Without Heart, Is Infinitely Cruel. . . . So That, After All, The Real Aristocracy Must Be That Of Goodness Where The Intellect Is Directed By The Heart.

If The Account Given In Genesis Is Really True, Ought We Not, After All, To Thank This Serpent? He Was The First Schoolmaster, The First Advocate Of Learning, The First Enemy Of Ignorance, The First To Whisper In Human Ears The Sacred Word Liberty, The Creator Of Ambition, The Author Of Modesty, Of Inquiry, Of Doubt, Of Investigation, Of Progress And Of Civilization.

At Thirty Most Men Have Prejudices Rather Than Opinions-that Is To Say, Rather Than Judgments-and Few Men Have Lived To Be Sixty Without Materially Modifying The Opinions They Held At Thirty.

It Is Impossible For Me To Conceive Of A Character More Utterly Detestable Than That Of The Hebrew God.

Justice Should Remove The Bandage From Her Eyes Long Enough To Distinguish Between The Vicious And The Unfortunate.

Justice For All

If A Man Wishes To Have God Recognized In The Constitution Of Our Country, Let Him Read The History Of The Inquisition, And Let Him Remember That Hundreds Of Millions Of Men, Women, And Children Have Been Sacrificed To Placate The Wrath, Or Win The Approbation Of This God.

I Have Had Some Trouble In Regarding Evil As Having Been Intended By Infinite Goodness.

I Hate Above All Things A Cross Man. What Right Has He To Murder The Sunshine Of A Day? What Right Has He To Assassinate The Joy Of Life? When You Go Home, You Ought To Go Like A Ray Of Light-so That It Will, Even In The Night, Burst Out Of The Doors And Windows And Illuminate The Darkness.

Arguments Cannot Be Answered By Personal Abuse; There Is No Logic In Slander, And Falsehood, In The Long Run, Defeats Itself.

Hope Is The Only Universal Liar Who Never Loses His Reputation For Veracity.

Only The Very Ignorant Are Perfectly Satisfied That They Know. To The Common Man The Great Problems Are Easy. He Has No Trouble In Accounting For The Universe. He Can Tell You The Origin And Destiny Of Man And The Why And Wherefore Of Things.

Abraham Lincoln Was, In My Judgment, In Many Respects, The Grandest Man Ever President Of The United States. Upon His Monument These Words Should Be Written: "here Sleeps The Only Man In The History Of The World Who, Having Been Clothed With Almost Absolute Power, Never Abused It, Except Upon The Side Of Mercy."

The Inventor Of The Plow Did More Good Than The Maker Of The First Rosary - Because, Say What You Will, Plowing Is Better Than Praying.

To Be Like Other People Is To Be Unlike Ourselves.

In The Republic Of Mediocrity, Genius Is Dangerous.

We All Know That Men In Moderate Circumstances Can Have Just As Comfortable Houses As The Richest, Just As Comfortable Clothing, Just As Good Food. They Can See Just As Fine Paintings, Just As Marvelous Statues, And They Can Hear Just As Good Music. They Can Attend The Same Theaters And The Same Operas. They Can Enjoy The Same Sunshine, And Above All, Can Love And Be Loved Just As Well As Kings And Millionaires.

Religion Has Not Civilized Man, Man Has Civilized Religion.

I Honestly Believe That The Doctrine Of Hell Was Born In The Glittering Eyes Of Snakes That Run In Frightful Coils Watching For Their Prey. I Believe It Was Born With The Yelping, Howling, Growling And Snarling Of Wild Beasts... I Despise It, I Defy It, And I Hate It.

Love Your Friends And Be Just To Your Enemies.

All That Is Necessary, As It Seems To Me, To Convince Any Reasonable Person That The Bible Is Simply And Purely Of Human Invention - Of Barbarian Invention - Is To Read It. Read It As You Would Any Other Book; Think Of It As You Would Of Any Other; Get The Bandage Of Reverence From Your Eyes; Drive From Your Heart The Phantom Of Fear; Push From The Throne Of Your Brain The Cowled Form Of Superstition - Then Read The Holy Bible, And You Will Be Amazed That You Ever, For One Moment, Supposed A Being Of Infinite Wisdom, Goodness And Purity, To Be The Author Of Such Ignorance And Of Such Atrocity.

Civilization Has Gotten Further And Further From The So-called 'natural' Man, Who Uses All His Faculties: Perception, Invention, Improvisation.

Let Every Man Teach His Son, Teach His Daughter, That Labor Is Honorable.

Today The Intelligence Of The World Denies The Miraculous. Ignorance Is The Soil Of The Supernatural. The Foundation Of Christianity Has Crumbled, Has Disappeared, And The Entire Fabric Must Fall. The Natural Is True. The Miraculous Is False.

If I Owe Smith Ten Dollars And God Forgives Me, That Doesn't Pay Smith.

The Most Important Thing In This World Is Liberty. More Important Than Food Or Clothes - More Important Than Gold Or Houses Or Lands - More Important Than Art Or Science - More Important Than All Religions, Is The Liberty Of Man.

Honest Investigation Is Utterly Impossible Within The Pale Of Any Church, For The Reason, That If You Think The Church Is Right You Will Not Investigate, And If You Think It Wrong, The Church Will Investigate You.

Upon The Great Questions Of Origin, Of Destiny, Of Immortality, Of . . . Other Worlds, Every Honest Man Must Say, 'i Do Not Know.' Upon These Questions, This Is The Creed Of Intelligence.

Religion Can Never Reform Mankind Because Religion Is Slavery.

How Any Human Being Ever Has Had The Impudence To Speak Against The Right To Speak, Is Beyond The Power Of My Imagination. Here Is A Man Who Speaks-who Exercises A Right That He, By His Speech, Denies. Can Liberty Go Further Than That? Is There Any Toleration Possible Beyond The Liberty To Speak Against Liberty-the Real Believer In Free Speech Allowing Others To Speak Against The Right To Speak?

For Ages, A Deadly Conflict Has Been Waged Between A Few Brave Men And Women Of Thought And Genius Upon The One Side, And The Great Ignorant Religious Mass On The Other. This Is The War Between Science And Faith. The Few Have Appealed To Reason, To Honor, To Law, To Freedom, To The Known, And To Happiness Here In This World. The Many Have Appealed To Prejudice, To Fear, To Miracle, To Slavery, To The Unknown, And To Misery Hereafter. The Few Have Said "think" The Many Have Said "believe!"

Heresy Is What The Minority Believe; It Is The Name Given By The Powerful To The Doctrines Of The Weak.

I Would Rather Live And Love Where Death Is King Than Have Eternal Life Where Love Is Not.

Love Is The Magician, The Enchanter, That Changes Worthless Things To Joy, And Makes Right Royal Kings And Queens Of Common Clay. It Is The Perfume Of That Wondrous Flower, The Heart, And Without That Sacred Passion, That Divine Swoon, We Are Less Than Beasts; But With It, Earth Is Heaven, And We Are Gods.

The Only Reason Why We Wish To Exchange Thoughts Is That We Are Different. If We Were All The Same, We Would Die Dumb. No Thought Would Be Expressed After We Found That Our Thoughts Were Precisely Alike. We Differ-our Thoughts Are Different. Therefore The Commerse That We Call Conversation.

Tell Me There Is A God In The Serene Heavens That Will Damn His Children For The Expression Of An Honest Belief! More Men Have Died In Their Sins, Judged By Your Orthodox Creeds, Than There Are Leaves In All The Forests In The Wide World Ten Thousand Times Over. Tell Me These Men Are In Hell; That These Men Are In Torment; That These Children Are In Eternal Pain, And That They Are To Be Punished Forever And Forever! I Denounce This Doctrine As The Most Infamous Of Lies.

Grant Others The Same Rights As You Claim For Yourself.

Think Of The Egotism Of A Man Who Believes That An Infinite Being Wants His Praise!

If God Objected To [people With Various Handicaps], He Ought Not Have Created Such People.

Do Not Trust Those In Whom The Compulsion To Punish Is Strong.

I Am A Believer In Liberty . That Is My Religion To Give To Every Other Human Being Every Right That I Claim For Myself, And I Grant To Every Other Human Being, Not The Right Because It Is His Right But Instead Of Granting I Declare That It Is His Right, To Attack Every Doctrine That I Maintain, To Answer Every Argument That I May Urge In Other Words, He Must Have Absolute Freedom Of Speech.

Freedom Of Speech

Intelligence Is The Only Moral Guide.

Environment Is A Sculptor - A Painter. If We Had Been Born In Constantinople, Then Most Of Us Would Have Said: 'there Is No God But Allah, And Mohammed Is His Prophet.' If Our Parents Had Lived On The Banks Of The Ganges, We Would Have Been Worshipers Of Siva, Longing For The Heaven Of Nirvana. As A Rule, Children Love Their Parents, Believe What They Teach, And Take Great Pride In Saying That The Religion Of Mother Is Good Enough For Them.

When A Fact Can Be Demonstrated, Force Is Unnecessary; When It Cannot Be Demonstrated, Force Is Infamous.

In All Ages, Hypocrites, Called Priests, Have Put Crowns Upon The Heads Of Thieves, Called Kings.

One Laugh Of A Child Will Make The Holiest Day More Sacred Still.

If, With All The Time At My Disposal, With All The Wealth Of The Resources Of This Vast Universe, To Do With As I Will, I Could Not Produce A Better Scheme Of Life Than Now Prevails, I Would Be Ashamed Of My Efforts And Consider My Work A Humiliating Failure.

Twenty Years After The Death Of Luther There Were More Catholics Than When He Was Born. And Twenty Years After The Death Of Voltaire There Were Millions Less Than When He Was Born.

In A World Of Cruelty, Sympathy Is A Crime, And In A World Of Lies, Truth Is Blasphemy.

If The People Were A Little More Ignorant, Astrology Would Flourish - If A Little More Enlightened, Religion Would Perish.

As More People Become More Intelligent They Care Less For Preachers And More For Teachers.

There Are Some Truths, However, That We Should Never Forget: Superstition Has Always Been The Relentless Enemy Of Science; Faith Has Been A Hater Of Demonstration; Hypocrisy Has Been Sincere Only In Its Dread Of Truth, And All Religions Are Inconsistent With Mental Freedom.

All Religious Systems Enslave The Mind. Certain Things Are Demanded-certain Things Must Be Believed-certain Things Must Be Done-and The Man Who Becomes The Subject Or Servant Of This Superstition Must Give Up All Idea Of Indivuality Or Hope Of Intellectual Growth Or Progress.

The Ministers, Who Preached At These Revivals, Were In Earnest. They Were Zealous And Sincere. They Were Not Philosophers. To Them Science Was The Name Of A Vague Dread - A Dangerous Enemy. They Did Not Know Much, But They Believed A Great Deal.

I Thank Thee, Mother Nature, That Thou Hast Put Ingenuity Enough In The Brain Of A Child, When Attacked By A Brutal Parent, To Throw Up A Little Breastwork In The Shape Of A Lie.

If There Be An Infinite Being, He Does Not Need Our Help - We Need Not Waste Our Energies In His Defense.

It Is Perfectly Delightful To Take Advantage Of The Conscientious Labors Of Those Who Go Through And Through Volume After Volume, Divide With Infinite Patience The Gold From The Dross, And Present Us With The Pure And Shining Coin. Such Men May Be Likened To Bees Who Save Us Numberless Journeys By Giving Us The Fruit Of Their Own.

Not Only Are We Here To Protect The Public From Vicious Criminals In The Street But Also To Protect The Public From Harmful Ideas.

Blasphemy Is What An Old Dogma Screams At A New Truth.

They Say That When God Was In Jerusalem He Forgave His Murderers, But Now He Will Not Forgive An Honest Man For Differing With Him On The Subject Of The Trinity. They Say That God Says To Me, "forgive Your Enemies." I Say, "i Do;" But He Says, "i Will Damn Mine." God Should Be Consistent. If He Wants Me To Forgive My Enemies He Should Forgive His. I Am Asked To Forgive Enemies Who Can Hurt Me. God Is Only Asked To Forgive Enemies Who Cannot Hurt Him. He Certainly Ought To Be As Generous As He Asks Us To Be.

It Is Hard For Many People To Give Up The Religion In Which They Were Born; To Admit That Their Fathers Were Utterly Mistaken, And That The Sacred Records Of Their Country Are But Collections Of Myths And Fables.

There Is In All Artists A Little Of The Vagabond.

...in Every Religion The Priest Insists On Five Things - First: There Is A God. 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 Damned.

Man Must Learn To Rely Upon Himself. Reading Bibles Will Not Protect Him From The Blasts Of Winter, But Houses, Fires. And Clothing Will. To Prevent Famine, One Plow Is Worth A Million Sermons, And Even Patent Medicines Will Cure More Diseases Than All The Prayers Uttered Since The Beginning Of The World.

Why Should We Postpone Our Joy To Another World? Let Us Get All We Can Of The Good Between The Cradle And The Grave, All That We Can Of The Truly Dramatic. If, When Death Comes, That Is The End, We Have At Least Made The Best Of This Life.

I Will Not Attack Your Doctrines Nor Your Creeds If They Accord Liberty To Me. If They Hold Thought To Be Dangerous - If They Aver That Doubt Is A Crime, Then I Attack Them One And All, Because They Enslave The Minds Of Men.

The Closer I'm Bound In Love To You, The Closer I Am To Free.

The Greatest Superstition Now Entertained By Public Men Is That Hypocrisy Is The Royal Road To Success.

The Hands That Help Are Better Far / Than Lips That Pray. / Love Is The Ever Gleaming Star / That Leads The Way, / That Shines, Not On Vague Worlds Of Bliss, / But On A Paradise In This.

If All The Historic Books Of The Bible Were Blotted From The Memory Of Mankind, Nothing Of Value Would Be Lost.

The Ideas Of Right And Wrong Change With The Experience Of The Race, And This Change Is Wrought By The Gradual Ascertaining Of Consequences - Of Results.

Just To The Extent That The Bible Was Appealed To In Matters Of Science, Science Was Retarded; And Just To The Extent That Science Has Been Appealed To In Matters Of Religion, Religion Has Advanced - So That Now The Object Of Intelligent Religionists Is To Adopt A Creed That Will Bear The Test And Criticism Of Science.

I Would Rather Be A Beggar And Spend My Money Like A King, Than Be A King And Spend Money Like A Beggar.

I Am Not So Much For The Freedom Of Religion As I Am For The Religion Of Freedom.

Freedom Of Religion

The Falling Leaf That Tells Of Autumn's Death Is, In A Subtler Sense, A Prophecy Of Spring.

By Physical Liberty I Mean The Right To Do Anything Which Does Not Interfere With The Happiness Of Another. By Intellectual Liberty I Mean The Right To Think And The Right To Think Wrong.

You Cannot Show Real Respect To Your Parents By Perpetuating Their Errors.... Do You Consider That The Inventor Of A Steel Plow Cast A Slur Upon His Father Who Scratched The Ground With A Wooden One? I Do Not Consider That An Invention By The Son Is A Slander Upon The Father; I Regard Each Invention Simply As An Improvement; And Every Father Should Be Exceedingly Proud Of An Ingenious Son. If Mr. Talmage Has A Son, It Will Be Impossible For Him To Honor His Father Except By Differing With Him.

Music Expresses Feeling And Thought, Without Language; It Was Below And Before Speech, And It Is Above And Beyond All Words.

There Is Something Wrong In A Government Where They Who Do The Most Have The Least. There Is Something Wrong When Honesty Wears A Rag, And Rascality A Robe; When The Loving, The Tender, East A Crust, While The Infamous Sit At Banquets.

Prayer Is Of No Avail. The Lightning Falls On The Just And The Unjust In Accordance With Natural Laws.

Let Us Put Theology Out Of Religion. Theology Has Always Sent The Worst To Heaven, The Best To Hell.

In Our Era, The Road To Holiness Necessarily Passes Through The World Of Action.

Religion Supports Nobody. It Has To Be Supported. It Produces No Wheat, No Corn; It Ploughs No Land; It Fells No Forests. It Is A Perpetual Mendicant. It Lives On The Labors Of Others, And Then Has The Arrogance To Pretend That It Supports The Giver.

For The Most Part We Inherit Our Opinions. We Are The Heirs Of Habits And Mental Customs. Our Beliefs, Like The Fashion Of Our Garments, Depend On Where We Were Born. We Are Molded And Fashioned By Our Surroundings.

The Credulity Of The Church Is Decreasing, And The Most Marvelous Miracles Are Not Either 'explained,' Or Allowed To Take Refuge Behind The Mistakes Of The Translators, Or Hide In The Drapery Of Allegory.

Creationists Use Facts The Same Way A Drunk Uses A Lightpost: For Support Instead Of Illumination

He Who Dishonors Himself [by Lying About His Opinions] For The Sake Of Being Honored By Others Will Find That Two Mistakes Have Been Made - One By Himself, And The Other, By The People.

The Man Who Finds A Truth Lights A Torch.

As Long As Woman Regards The Bible As The Charter Of Her Rights, She Will Be The Slave Of Man. The Bible Was Not Written By A Woman. Within Its Leaves There Is Nothing But Humiliation And Shame For Her.

There Are Treasures In Books That All The Money In The World Cannot Buy, But The Poorest Laborer Can Have For Nothing.

If The Reason I Give Is A Good One, You Will Act Upon It. If It Is A Bad One I Cannot Make It Better By Piling Epithet Upon Epithet. There Is No Logic In Abuse; There Is No Argument In An Epithet.

The Few Took Advantage Of The Ignorant Many. They Pretended To Have Received Messages From The Unknown. They Stood Between The Helpless Multitude And The Gods. They Were The Carriers Of Flags Of Truce. At The Court Of Heaven They Presented The Cause Of Man, And Upon The Labor Of The Deceived They Lived.

Nothing Could Be More Dangerous To The Existence Of This Republic Than To Introduce Religion Into Politics

Every Sect Is A Certificate That God Has Not Plainly Revealed His Will To Man. To Each Reader The Bible Conveys A Different Meaning.

Not One Of The Orthodox Ministers Dare Preach What He Thinks If He Knows A Majority Of His Congregation Think Otherwise. He Knows That Every Member Of His Church Stands Guard Over His Brain With A Creed, Like A Club, In His Hand. He Knows That He Is Not Expected To Search After The Truth, But That He Is Employed To Defend The Creed. Every Pulpit Is A Pillory, In Which Stands A Hired Culprit, Defending The Justice Of His Own Imprisonment.

The Priests Of One Religion Never Credit The Miracles Of Another Religion. Is This Because Priests Instinctively Know Priests?

Nothing Discloses Real Character Like The Use Of Power.

I Have Always Noticed That The People Who Have The Smallest Souls Make The Most Fuss About Getting Them Saved.

I Want No Heaven For Which I Must Give My Reason; No Happiness In Exchange For My Liberty, And No Immortality That Demands The Surrender Of My Individuality. Better Rot In The Windowless Tomb, To Which There Is No Door But The Red Mouth Of The Pallid Worm, Than To Wear The Jeweled Collar Of A God.

The Combined Wisdom And Genius Of All Mankind Cannot Possibly Conceive Of An Argument Against Liberty Of Thought.

If You Have Ever Clothed Another With Woe, As With A Garment Of Pain, You Will Never Be Quite As Happy As Though You Had Not Done That Thing.

Give To Every Human Being Every Right That You Claim For Yourself.

All I Have To Say Is, Love One Another - That Is The Height Of All Philosophy. It Is Beyond All Religions. It Is The Secret Of Joy - The Fountain Of Perpetual Youth - The Only Rainbow On Life's Dark Cloud.

Reason, Observation, And Experience; The Holy Trinity Of Science.

Scientific Method

If We Admit That Some Infinite Being Has Controlled The Destinies Of Persons And Peoples, History Becomes A Most Cruel And Bloody Farce.

Is There An Intelligent Man Or Woman Now In The World Who Believes In The Garden Of Eden Story? If You Find Any Man Who Believes It, Strike His Forehead And You Will Hear An Echo. Something Is For Rent.

Only A Few Years Ago There Was No Person Too Ignorant To Successfully Answer Charles Darwin; And The More Ignorant He Was The More Cheerfully He Undertook The Task.

Colleges Are Places Where Pebbles Are Polished And Diamonds Are Dimmed.

There Is More Real Devotional Feeling Summoned From The Temple Of The Mind By Great Music Than By Any Sermon Ever Delivered.

In Making Up My Mind As To What Mr. Lincoln Really Believed, I Do Not Take Into Consideration The Evidence Of Unnamed Persons Or The Contents Of Anonymous Letters; I Take The Testimony Of Those Who Knew And Loved Him, Of Those To Whom He Opened His Heart And To Whom He Spoke In The Freedom Of Perfect Confidence.

All The Professors In All The Religious Colleges In This Country Rolled Into One, Would Not Equal Charles Darwin.

The Only Thing That Makes Life Endurable In This World Is Human Love, And Yet, According To Christianity, That Is The Very Thing That We Are Not To Have In The Other World. We Are To Be So Taken Up With Jesus And Angels, That We Shall Care Nothing About Our Brothers And Sisters That Have Been Damned. We Shall Be So Carried Away With The Music Of The Harp That We Shall Not Even Hear The Wail Of Father And Mother. Such A Religion Is A Disgrace To Human Nature.

Life Is A Narrow Vale Between The Cold And Barren Peaks Of Two Eternities. We Strive In Vain To Look Beyond The Heights. We Cry Aloud

It Is A Splendid Thing To Think That The Woman You Really Love Will Never Grow Old To You. Through The Wrinkles Of Time, Through The Mask Of Years, If You Really Love Her, You Will Always See The Face You Love And Won. And A Woman Who Really Loves A Man Does Not See That He Grows Old; He Is Not Decrepit To Her; She Always Sees The Same Gallant Gentleman Who Won Her Hand And Heart.

As Far As I Am Concerned I Wish To Be Out On The High Seas. I Wish To Take My Chances With Wind, And Wave, And Star. And I Had Rather Go Down In The Glory And Grandeur Of The Storm, Than Rot In Any Orthodox Harbor.

All Prayers Die In The Air Which They Uselessly Agitate.

The Destroyer Of Weeds, Thistles, And Thorns Is A Benefactor Whether He Soweth Grain Or Not.

Making A Difference

All Of The Ten Commandments That Are Good Were Old; All That Were New Art Foolish. If Jehovah Had Been Civilized He Would Have Left Out The Commandment About Keeping The Sabbath, And In Its Place Would Have Said: "thou Shalt Not Enslave Thy Fellow-men." He Would Have Omitted The One About Swearing, And Said: "the Man Shall Have But One Wife, And The Woman But One Husband." He Would Have Left Out The One About Graven Images, And In Its Stead Would Have Said: "thou Shalt Not Wage Wars Of Extermination, And Thou Shalt Not Unsheathe The Sword Except In Self-defence.

The History Of The World Shows That When A Mean Thing Was Done, Man Did It; When A Good Thing Was Done, Man Did It.

I Will Follow My Logic, No Matter Where It Goes, After It Has Consulted With My Heart. If You Ever Come To A Conclusion Without Calling The Heart In, You Will Come To A Bad Conclusion.

A False Friend, An Unjust Judge, A Braggart, Hypocrite, And Tyrant, Sincere In Hatred, Jealous, Vain And Revengeful, False In Promise, Honest In Curse, Suspicious, Ignorant, Infamous And Hideous-such Is The God Of The Pentateuch.

The Man Who Accepts Opinions Because They Have Been Entertained By Distinguished People, Is A Mental Snob.

God So Loved The World That He Made Up His Mind To Damn A Large Majority Of The Human Race.

Is Not The History Of Real Civilization The Slow And Gradual Emancipation Of The Intellect, Of The Judgment, From The Mastery Of Passion? Is Not That Man Civilized Whose Reason Sits The Crowned Monarch Of His Brain - Whose Passions Are His Servants?

Why Should We Desire The Destruction Of Human Passions? Take Passions From Human Beings And What Is Left? The Great Object Should Be Not To Destroy Passions, But To Make Them Obedient To The Intellect. To Indulge Passion To The Utmost Is One Form Of Intemperance - To Destroy Passion Is Another. The Reasonable Gratification Of Passion Under The Domination Of The Intellect Is True Wisdom And Perfect Virtue.

No Man Should Kill Himself As Long As He Can Be Of The Least Use To Anybody, And If You Cannot Find Some Person That You Are Willing To Do Something For, Find A Good Dog And Take Care Of Him. You Have No Idea How Much Better You Will Feel.

Christianity Has Made More Lunatics Than It Ever Provided Asylums For.

Fear Paints Pictures Of Ghosts And Hangs Them In The Gallery Of Ignorance.

Intellectual Liberty [is] The Right To Think Right And The Right To Think Wrong. Thought Is The Means By Which We Endeavor To Arrive At Truth.

The Careful Reader Of The New Testament Will Find Three Christs Described: - One Who Wished To Preserve Judaism - One Who Wished To Reform It, And One Who Built A System Of His Own

I Would Rather Live With The Woman I Love In A World Full Of Trouble, Than To Live In Heaven With Nobody But Men.

Science Built The Academy, Superstition The Inquisition.

As We Become Civilized We Are Governed Less By Persons And More By Principles. . . . The Best Of All Leaders Is The Man Who Teaches People To Lead Themselves.

Fear Is Religion, Courage Is Science.

Like An Armed Warrior, Like A Plumed Knight, James G. Blaine Marched Down The Halls Of The American Congress And Threw His Shining Lance Full And Fair Against The Brazen Foreheads Of The Defamers Of His Country, And The Maligners Of His Honor.

Honesty Is The Mother Of Confidence; It Unites, Combines And Solidifies Society. Dishonesty Is Disintegration; It Destroys Confidence; It Brings Social Chaos. . . .

And What Is The Great Thing That The Stage Does? It Cultivates The Imagination. And . . . The Imagination Constitutes The Great Difference Between Human Beings. . . . The Imagination Is The Mother Of Pity, The Mother Of Generosity, The Mother Of Every Possible Virtue. It Is By The Imagination That You Are Enabled To Put Yourself In The Place Of Another.

Religion Is One Of The Phases Of Thought Through Which The World Is Passing.

According To The Celestial Multiplication Table, Once One Is Three, And Three Times One Is One, And According To Heavenly Subtraction If We Take Two From Three, Three Are Left. The Addition Is Equally Peculiar, If We Add Two To One We Have But One. Each One Is Equal To Himself And The Other Two.

A Man Is Not Moral Because He Is Obedient Through Fear Or Ignorance. Morality Lives In The Realm Of Perceived Obligation.

Many People Think They Have Religion When They Are Troubled With Dyspepsia.

Positive Atheism

And Yet This Same Deity Says To Me, Resist Not Evil; Pray For Those That Despitefully Use You; Love Your Enemies, But I Will Eternally Damn Mine. It Seems To Me That Even Gods Should Practice What They Preach.

But Honest Men Do Not Pretend To Know; They Are Candid And Sincere; They Love The Truth; They Admit Their Ignorance, And They Say, We Do Not Know.

It Is A Blessed Thing That In Every Age Some One Has Had The Individuality Enough And Courage Enough To Stand By His Own Convictions.

Liberty Sustains The Same Relation To Mind That Space Does To Matter.

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