Why did he go dumbly to his death, leaving the world to misery and to doubt? I will tell you why. He was a man, and did not know.

Priceless.

DoF: For some reason he was touched upon only lightly at the Christian college I attended.

I’m surprised he was touched on at all.
I must say, as one who’d never heard of the man, although Dad had, that I’ve thoroughly enjoyed reading some of his exquisitely written talks.
Yesterday, amongst others, I read the The Circulation Of Obscene Literature where he suggested all obscene tracts of the bible needed to be expunged.

… we are in favor of such postal laws as will allow the free transportation through the mails of the United States of all books, pamphlets, and papers, irrespective of the religious, irreligious, political, and scientific views they may contain, so that the literature of science may be placed upon an equality with that of superstition.
… we call upon the Christian world to expunge from the so-called “sacred” Bible every passage that cannot be read without covering the cheek of modesty with the blush of shame and until such passages are expunged, we demand that the laws against the dissemination of obscene literature be impartially enforced. 

He jerks their chain and foils his detractors masterfully, time and time again with non-discriminatory simple logic.

Have to agree with you, Buzz, about the essay on the Bible.  Another use would be to require all first-year seminary students to read it.  Many would thus be saved discovering the same doubts after so much had been invested in the falsehood.  Those who remained in the program could be thought to “have the calling”.

I love the part where Ingersoll asks; why did Christ, whom we assume to have known the future, the monstrosities that would one day be committed in His name, not adjure His followers to refrain from persecuting others?

Why did he go dumbly to his death, leaving the world to misery and to doubt? I will tell you why. He was a man, and did not know.

Les; I had heard of Ingersoll, but never read anything by him.  For some reason he was touched upon only lightly at the Christian college I attended.  (heads off to Amazon.com…)

Thanks for the info and links. Great stuff – real food for thought. I’ll be refering to him in some up-comming talks I will be giving to various groups.

If anyone is interested in hearing audio of some of his speeches you can find them here: Ingersoll Podcast.  I’m not sure who did the reading, but he does a great job of it (I think).  I recently stumbled upon them and I’ve been able to absorb more of his speeches as a result (I don’t have a lot of sit down and read time generally…I need to make more time for that).

LH: It is not just the subject that I read. His construction of the passage is brilliant.

Yes indeed. It’s beautiful stuff.

What an amazing orator he must have been.  The quality of the above quotes show that (hopefully he had the voice to go with it!).

It is not just the subject that I read.  His construction of the passage is brilliant.  It i sthe sort of stuff you can admire the syntax even if you dis agree with the semantics.

… given the shift towards religious belief the majority of people in this country have undertaken since Ingersoll’s time

Has there actually been such a shift?  Especially compared to the 1870s?

I did clip a number of those quotes for my database.  Good stuff.

His essay, “About the Holy Bible” should be required reading these days I think.  It could be relevant in a history class (early middle-eastern history), or more appropriately a comparative religion course.  Of course, Ingersoll himself states in the beginning of the essay why this will never actually occur.

Have some Project Gutenberg, e.g. this and that.