Description

We have passed midnight in the great struggle between Fact and Faith, between Science and Superstition. The brand of intellectual inferiority is now upon the orthodox brain.

The history of intellectual progress is written in the lives of Infidels. Political rights have been preserved by traitors ? the liberty of the mind by heretics. To attack the king was treason ? to dispute the priest was blasphemy. The sword and cross were allies. They defended each other. The throne and altar were twins ? vultures from the same egg.

Infidels are intellectual discoverers. They sail the unknown seas and find new isles and continents in the infinite realms of thought. An Infidel is one who has found a new fact, who has an idea of his own, and who in the mental sky has seen another star. He is an intellectual capitalist, and for that reason excites the envy and hatred of the theological pauper.

About the Author

Robert Green Ingersoll (1833-99) was an American orator. Son of a Congregationalist minister, he was trained in law and admitted to the Bar in 1854, and he rapidly showed promise of becoming one of the most brilliant attorneys in America. His title of Colonel belongs to the Civil War, when he served in the cavalry. He began in 1860 to give Rationalist lectures, and during the next 30 years his vibrant oratory, warm sentiment, and impressive personality made him the most effective force for progress in the New World. His direct and trenchant criticism of Christianity, enlivened by wit and satire and infused with the rich and fine emotionalism of his character, instead of alienating believers, drew crowded audiences in nearly every town in America.

Joseph McCabe, A Rationalist Encyclopaedia

Details

ISBN-13:?9780910309080
Publisher:?American Atheist Press
Page Count:?68