The Works of Robert G. Ingersoll Volume XI Part 14

If G.o.d is allowed in the Const.i.tution, man must abdicate. There is no room for both. If the people of the great Republic become superst.i.tious enough and ignorant enough to put G.o.d in the Const.i.tution of the United States, the experiment of self-government will have failed, and the great and splendid declaration that "all governments derive their just powers from the consent of the governed" will have been denied, and in its place will be found this: All power comes from G.o.d; priests are his agents, and the people are their slaves.

Religion is an individual matter, and each soul should be left entirely free to form its own opinions and to judge of its accountability to a supposed supreme being. With religion, government has nothing whatever to do. Government is founded upon force, and force should never interfere with the religious opinions of men. Laws should define the rights of men and their duties toward each other, and these laws should be for the benefit of man in this world.

A nation can neither be Christian nor Infidel--a nation is incapable of having opinions upon these subjects. If a nation is Christian, will all the citizens go to heaven? If it is not, will they all be d.a.m.ned? Of course it is admitted that the majority of citizens composing a nation may believe or disbelieve, and they may call the nation what they please. A nation is a corporation. To repeat a familiar saying, "it has no soul." There can be no such thing as a Christian corporation. Several Christians may form a corporation, but it can hardly be said that the corporation thus formed was included in the atonement. For instance: Seven Christians form a corporation--that is to say, there are seven natural persons and one artificial--can it be said that there are eight souls to be saved?

No human being has brain enough, or knowledge enough, or experience enough, to say whether there is, or is not, a G.o.d. Into this darkness Science has not yet carried its torch. No human being has gone beyond the horizon of the natural. As to the existence of the supernatural, one man knows precisely as much, and exactly as little as another. Upon this question, chimpanzees and cardinals, apes and popes, are upon exact equality. The smallest insect discernible only by the most powerful microscope, is as familiar with this subject, as the greatest genius that has been produced by the human race.

Governments and laws are for the preservation of rights and the regulation of conduct. One man should not be allowed to interfere with the liberty of another. In the metaphysical world there should be no interference whatever, The same is true in the world of art. Laws cannot regulate what is or is not music, what is or what is not beautiful--and const.i.tutions cannot definitely settle and determine the perfection of statues, the value of paintings, or the glory and subtlety of thought.

In spite of laws and const.i.tutions the brain will think. In every direction consistent with the well-being and peace of society, there should be freedom. No man should be compelled to adopt the theology of another; neither should a minority, however small, be forced to acquiesce in the opinions of a majority, however large.

If there be an infinite Being, he does not need our help--we need not waste our energies in his defence. It is enough for us to give to every other human being the liberty we claim for ourselves. There may or may not be a Supreme Ruler of the universe--but we are certain that man exists, and we believe that freedom is the condition of progress; that it is the suns.h.i.+ne of the mental and moral world, and that without it man will go back to the den of savagery, and will become the fit a.s.sociate of wild and ferocious beasts.

We have tried the government of priests, and we know that such governments are without mercy. In the administration of theocracy, all the instruments of torture have been invented. If any man wishes to have G.o.d recognized in the Const.i.tution 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 G.o.d.

There has been in our country a divorce of church and state. This follows as a natural sequence of the declaration that "governments derive their just powers from the consent of the governed." The priest was no longer a necessity. His presence was a contradiction of the principle on which the Republic was founded. He represented, not the authority of the people, but of some "Power from on High," and to recognize this other Power was inconsistent with free government. The founders of the Republic at that time parted company with the priests, and said to them: "You may turn your attention to the other world--we will attend to the affairs of this." Equal liberty was given to all. But the ultra theologian is not satisfied with this--he wishes to destroy the liberty of the people--he wishes a recognition of his G.o.d as the source of authority, to the end that the church may become the supreme power.

But the sun will not be turned backward. The people of the United States are intelligent. They no longer believe implicitly in supernatural religion. They are losing confidence in the miracles and marvels of the Dark Ages. They know the value of the free school. They appreciate the benefits of science. They are believers in education, in the free play of thought, and there is a suspicion that the priest, the theologian, is destined to take his place with the necromancer, the astrologer, the worker of magic, and the professor of the black art.

We have already compared the benefits of theology and science. When the theologian governed the world, it was covered with huts and hovels for the many, palaces and cathedrals for the few. To nearly all the children of men, reading and writing were unknown arts. The poor were clad in rags and skins--they devoured crusts, and gnawed bones. The day of Science dawned, and the luxuries of a century ago are the necessities of to-day. Men in the middle ranks of life have more of the conveniences and elegancies than the princes and kings of the theological times. But above and over all this, is the development of mind. There is more of value in the brain of an average man of to-day--of a master-mechanic, of a chemist, of a naturalist, of an inventor, than there was in the brain of the world four hundred years ago.

These blessings did not fall from the skies, These benefits did not drop from the outstretched hands of priests. They were not found in cathedrals or behind altars--neither were they searched for with holy candles. They were not discovered by the closed eyes of prayer, nor did they come in answer to superst.i.tious supplication. They are the children of freedom, the gifts of reason, observation and experience--and for them all, man is indebted to man.

Let us hold fast to the sublime declaration of Lincoln. Let us insist that this, the Republic, is "A government of the people, by the people, and for the people."--The Arena, Boston, Ma.s.s., January, 1890.

A REPLY TO BISHOP SPALDING.

* An unfinished reply to Bishop J. L. Spalding's article "G.o.d in the Const.i.tution," which appeared in the Arena.

Boston, Ma.s.s., April, 1890.

BISHOP SPALDING admits that "The introduction of the question of religion would not only have brought discord into the Const.i.tutional convention, but would have also engendered strife throughout the land."

Undoubtedly this is true. I am compelled to admit this, for the reason that in all times and in all lands the introduction of the question of religion has brought discord and has engendered strife.

He also says: "In the presence of such danger, like wise men and patriots, they avoided irritating subjects"--the irritating subject being the question of religion. I admit that it always has been, and promises always to be, an "irritating subject," because it is not a subject decided by reason, but by ignorance, prejudice, arrogance and superst.i.tion. Consequently he says: "It was prudence, then, not skepticism, which induced them to leave the question of religion to the several States." The Bishop admits that it was prudent for the founders of this Government to leave the question of religion entirely to the States. It was prudent because the question of religion is irritating--because religious questions engender strife and hatred. Now, if it was prudent for the framers of the Const.i.tution to leave religion out of the Const.i.tution, and allow that question to be settled by the several States themselves under that clause preventing the establishment of religion or the free exercise thereof, why is it not wise still--why is it not prudent now?

My article was written against the introduction of religion into the Const.i.tution of the United States. I am opposed to a recognition of G.o.d and of Jesus Christ in that instrument; and the reason I am opposed to it is, that: "The introduction of the question of religion would not only bring discord, but would engender strife throughout the land." I am opposed to it for the reason that religion is an "irritating subject,"

and also because if it was prudent when the Const.i.tution was made, to leave G.o.d out, it is prudent now to keep him out.

The Bishop is mistaken--as bishops usually are--when he says: "Had our fathers been skeptics, or anti-theists, they would not have required the President and Vice-President, the Senators and Representatives in Congress, and all executive and judicial officers of the United States, to call G.o.d to witness that they intended to perform their duties under the Const.i.tution like honest men and loyal citizens."

The framers of the Const.i.tution did no such thing. They allowed every officer, from the President down, either to swear or to affirm, and those who affirmed did not call G.o.d to witness. In other words, our Const.i.tution allowed every officer to abolish the oath and to leave G.o.d out of the question.

The Bishop informs us, however, that: "The causes which would have made it unwise to introduce any phase of religious controversy into the Const.i.tutional convention have long since ceased to exist." Is there as much division now in the religious world as then? Has the Catholic Church thrown away the differences between it and the Protestants? Are we any better friends to-day than we were in 1789? As a matter of fact, is there not now a cause which did not to the same extent exist then?

Have we not in the United States, millions of people who believe in no religion whatever, and who regard all creeds as the work of ignorance and superst.i.tion?

The trouble about putting G.o.d in the Const.i.tution in 1789 was, that they could not agree on the G.o.d to go in; and the reason why our fathers did not unite church and state was, that they could not agree on which church was to be the bride. The Catholics of Maryland certainly would not have permitted the nation to take the Puritan Church, neither would the Presbyterians of Pennsylvania have agreed to this, nor would the Episcopalians of New York, or of any Southern State. Each church said: "Marry me, or die a bachelor."

The Bishop asks whether there are "still reasons why an express recognition of G.o.d's sovereignty and providence should not form part of the organic law of the land"? I ask, were there any reasons, in 1789, why an express recognition of G.o.d's sovereignty and providence should not form part of the organic law of the land? Did not the Bishop say, only a few lines back of that, "that the introduction of the question of religion into that body would have brought discord, and would have engendered strife throughout the land." What is the "question of religion" to which he referred? Certainly "the recognition of G.o.d's sovereignty and providence," with the addition of describing the G.o.d as the author of the supposed providence. Thomas Jefferson would have insisted on having a G.o.d in the Const.i.tution who was not the author of the Old and New Testaments. Benjamin Franklin would have asked for the same G.o.d; and on that question John Adams would have voted yes. Others would have voted for a Catholic G.o.d--others for an Episcopalian, and so on, until the representatives of the various creeds were exhausted.

I took the ground, and I still take the ground, that there is nothing in the Const.i.tution that cannot on occasion be enforced by the army and navy--that is to say, that cannot be defended and enforced by the sword.

Suppose G.o.d is acknowledged in the Const.i.tution, and somebody denies the existence of this G.o.d--what are you to do with him? Every man elected to office must swear or affirm that he will support the Const.i.tution. Can one who does not believe in this G.o.d, conscientiously take such oath, or make such affirmation?

The effect, then, of such a clause in the Const.i.tution would be to drive from public life all except the believers in this G.o.d, and this providence. The Government would be in fact a theocracy and would resort for its preservation to one of the old forms of religious persecution.

I took the ground in my article, and still maintain it, that all intelligent people know that no one knows whether there is a G.o.d or not.

This cannot be answered by saying, "that nearly all intelligent men in every age, including our own, have believed in G.o.d and have held that they had rational grounds for such faith." This is what is called a departure in pleading--it is a s.h.i.+fting of the issue. I did not say that intelligent people do not believe in the existence of G.o.d. What I did say is, that intelligent people know that no one knows whether there is a G.o.d or not.

It is not true that we know the conditions of thought. Neither is it true that we know that these conditions are unconditioned. There is no such thing as the unconditioned conditional. We might as well say that the relative is unrelated--that the unrelated is the absolute--and therefore that there is no difference between the absolute and the relative.

The Bishop says we cannot know the relative without knowing the absolute. The probability is that he means that we cannot know the relative without admitting the existence of the absolute, and that we cannot know the phenomenal without taking the noumenal for granted.

Still, we can neither know the absolute nor the noumenal for the reason that our mind is limited to relations.

CRIMES AGAINST CRIMINALS.

* "An Address delivered before the State Bar a.s.sociation at Albany, N. Y., January 1, 1890."

IN this brief address, the object is to suggest--there being no time to present arguments at length. The subject has been chosen for the reason that it is one that should interest the legal profession, because that profession to a certain extent controls and shapes the legislation of our country and fixes definitely the scope and meaning of all laws.

Lawyers ought to be foremost in legislative and judicial reform, and of all men they should understand the philosophy of mind, the causes of human action, and the real science of government.

It has been said that the three pests of a community are: A priest without charity; a doctor without knowledge, and, a lawyer without a sense of justice.

I.

All nations seem to have had supreme confidence in the deterrent power of threatened and inflicted pain. They have regarded punishment as the shortest road to reformation. Imprisonment, torture, death, const.i.tuted a trinity under whose protection society might feel secure.

In addition to these, nations have relied on confiscation and degradation, on maimings, whippings, brandings, and exposures to public ridicule and contempt. Connected with the court of justice was the chamber of torture. The ingenuity of man was exhausted in the construction of instruments that would surely reach the most sensitive nerve. All this was done in the interest of civilization--for the protection of virtue, and the well-being of states. Curiously it was found that the penalty of death made little difference. Thieves and highwaymen, heretics and blasphemers, went on their way. It was then thought necessary to add to this penalty of death, and consequently, the convicted were tortured in every conceivable way before execution. They were broken on the wheel--their joints dislocated on the rack. They were suspended by their legs and arms, while immense weights were placed upon their b.r.e.a.s.t.s. Their flesh was burned and torn with hot irons. They were roasted at slow fires. They were buried alive--given to wild beasts--molten lead was poured in their ears--their eye-lids were cut off and, the wretches placed with their faces toward the sun--others were securely bound, so that they could move neither hand nor foot, and over their stomachs were placed inverted bowls; under these bowls rats were confined; on top of the bowls were heaped coals of fire, so that the rats in their efforts to escape would gnaw into the bowels of the victims. They were staked out on the sands of the sea, to be drowned by the slowly rising tide--and every means by which human nature can be overcome slowly, painfully and terribly, was conceived and carried into execution. And yet the number of so-called criminals increased. Enough, the fact is that, no matter how severe the punishments were, the crimes increased.

For petty offences men were degraded--given to the mercy of the rabble.

Their ears were cut off, their nostrils slit, their foreheads branded.

They were tied to the tails of carts and flogged from one town to another. And yet, in spite of all, the poor wretches obstinately refused to become good and useful citizens.

Degradation has been thoroughly tried, with its maimings and brandings, and the result was that those who inflicted the punishments became as degraded as their victims.

Only a few years ago there were more than two hundred offences in Great Britain punishable by death. The gallows-tree bore fruit through all the year, and the hangman was the busiest official in the kingdom--but the criminals increased.

Crimes were committed to punish crimes, and crimes were committed to prevent crimes. The world has been filled with prisons and dungeons, with chains and whips, with crosses and gibbets, with thumbscrews and racks, with hangmen and headsmen--and yet these frightful means and instrumentalities and crimes have accomplished little for the preservation of property or life. It is safe to say that governments have committed far more crimes than they have prevented.

Why is it that men will suffer and risk so much for the sake of stealing? Why will they accept degradation and punishment and infamy as their portion? Some will answer this question by an appeal to the dogma of original sin; others by saying that millions of men and women are under the control of fiends--that they are actually possessed by devils; and others will declare that all these people act from choice--that they are possessed of free wills, of intelligence--that they know and appreciate consequences, and that, in spite of all, they deliberately prefer a life of crime.

II.