A Reply to the Rev. Dr. Plumb
Boston, 1898.

by Robert G. Ingersoll
(1898)

From The Works of Robert G. Ingersoll (Dresden Edition, 1900–1902), Volume 7.
Source: https://thegreatagnostic.com/works/a-reply-to-the-rev-dr-plumb/
Public domain. CC0 / Public Domain Mark 1.0.

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• Boston, 1898.

Question. Last Sunday the Rev. Dr. Plumb paid some attention to the
lecture which you delivered here on the 23rd of October. Have you read a
report of it, and what have you to say?

Answer. Dr. Plumb attacks not only myself, but the Rev. Mr. Mills. I
do not know the position that Mr. Mills takes, but from what Dr.
Plumb says, I suppose that he has mingled a little philosophy with his
religion and some science with his superstition. Dr. Plumb appears to
have successfully avoided both. His manners do not appear to me to be of
the best. Why should he call an opponent coarse and blasphemous, simply
because he does not happen to believe as he does? Is it blasphemous to
say that this "poor" world never was visited by a Redeemer from Heaven,
a majestic being—unique—peculiar—who "trod the sea and hushed the
storm and raised the dead"? Why does Dr. Plumb call this world a "poor"
world? According to his creed, it was created by infinite wisdom,
infinite goodness and infinite power. How dare he call the work of such
a being "poor"?

Is it not blasphemous for a Boston minister to denounce the work of the
Infinite and say to God that he made a "poor" world? If I believed
this world had been made by an infinitely wise and good Being, I should
certainly insist that this is not a poor world, but, on the contrary,
a perfect world. I would insist that everything that happens is for the
best. Whether it looks wise or foolish to us, I would insist that the
fault we thought we saw, lies in us and not in the infinitely wise and
benevolent Creator.

Dr. Plumb may love God, but he certainly regards him as a poor mechanic
and a failure as a manufacturer. There Dr. Plumb, like all religious
preachers, takes several things for granted; things that have not been
established by evidence, and things which in their nature cannot be
established.

He tells us that this poor world was visited by a mighty Redeemer from
Heaven. How does he know? Does he know where heaven is? Does he know
that any such place exists? Is he perfectly sure that an infinite God
would be foolish enough to make people who needed a redeemer?

He also says that this Being "trod the sea, hushed the storm and raised
the dead." Is there any evidence that this Being trod the sea? Any more
evidence than that Venus rose from the foam of the ocean? Any evidence
that he hushed the storm any more than there is that the storm comes
from the cave of AEolus? Is there any evidence that he raised the dead?
How would it be possible to prove that the dead were raised? How
could we prove such a thing if it happened now? Who would believe
the evidence? As a matter of fact, the witnesses themselves would
not believe and could not believe until raising of the dead became so
general as to be regarded as natural.

Dr. Plumb knows, if he knows anything, that gospel gossip is the only
evidence he has, or anybody has, that Christ trod the sea, hushed the
storm and raised the dead. He also knows, if he knows anything, that
these stories were not written until Christ himself had been dead for at
least four generations. He knows also that these accounts were written
at a time when the belief in miracles was almost universal, and
when everything that actually happened was regarded of no particular
importance, and only the things that did not happen were carefully
written out with all the details.

So Dr. Plumb says that this man who hushed the storm "spake as never man
spake." Did the Doctor ever read Zeno? Zeno, who denounced human slavery
many years before Christ was born? Did he ever read Epicurus, one of the
greatest of the Greeks? Has he read anything from Buddha? Has he read
the dialogues between Arjuna and Krishna? If he has, he knows that every
great and splendid utterance of Christ was uttered centuries before he
lived. Did he ever read Lao-tsze? If he did—and this man lived many
centuries before the coming of our Lord—he knows that Lao-tsze said "we
should render benefits for injuries. We should love our enemies, and
we should not resist evil." So it will hardly do now to say that Christ
spake as never man spake, because he repeated the very things that other
men had said.

So he says that I am endeavoring to carry people back to a dimly groping
Socrates or a vague Confucius. Did Dr. Plumb ever read Confucius? Only a
little while ago a book was published by Mr. For-long showing the origin
of the principal religion and the creeds that have been taught. In this
book you will find the cream of Buddha, of Christ, of Zoroaster, and you
will also find a few pages devoted to the philosophy of Confucius; and
after you have read the others, then read what Confucius says, and you
will find that his philosophy rises like a monolith touching the clouds,
while the creeds and sayings of the others appear like heaps of stone or
piles of rubbish. The reason of this is that Confucius was not simply
a sentimentalist. He was not controlled entirely by feeling, but he had
intelligence—a great brain in which burned the torch of reason. Read
Confucius, and you will think that he must have known the sciences of
to-day; that is to say, the conclusions that have been reached by modern
thinkers. It could have been easily said of Confucius in his day that he
spake as never man had spoken, and it may be that after you read him
you will change your mind just a little as to the wisdom and the
intelligence contained in many of the sayings of our Lord.

Dr. Plumb charges that Mr. Mills is trying to reconstruct theology.
Whether he is right in this charge I do not know, but I do know that I
am not trying to reconstruct theology. I am endeavoring to destroy it.
I have no more confidence in theology than I have in astrology or in
the black art. Theology is a science that exists wholly independent of
facts, and that reaches conclusions without the assistance of evidence.
It also scorns experience and does what little it can to do away with
thought.

I make a very great distinction between theology and real religion. I
can conceive of no religion except usefulness. Now, here we are, men
and women in this world, and we have certain faculties, certain senses.
There are things that we can ascertain, and by developing our brain we
can avoid mistakes, keep a few thorns out of our feet, a few thistles
out of our hands, a few diseases from our flesh. In my judgment, we
should use all our senses, gathering information from every possible
quarter, and this information should be only used for the purpose of
ascertaining the facts, for finding out the conditions of well-being, to
the end that we may add to the happiness of ourselves and fellows.

In other words, I believe in intellectual veracity and also in mental
hospitality. To me reason is the final arbiter, and when I say reason,
I mean my reason. It may be a very poor light, the flame small and
flickering, but, after all, it is the only light I have, and never with
my consent shall any preacher blow it out.

Now, Dr. Plumb thinks that I am trying to despoil my fellow-men of their
greatest inheritance; that is to say, divine Christ. Why do you call
Christ good? Is it because he was merciful? Then why do you put him
above mercy? Why do you call Christ good? Is it because he was just? Why
do you put him before justice? Suppose it should turn out that no such
person as Christ ever lived. What harm would that do justice or mercy?
Wouldn't the tear of pity be as pure as now, and wouldn't justice,
holding aloft her scales, from which she blows even the dust of
prejudice, be as noble, as admirable as now? Is it not better to love,
justice and mercy than to love a name, and when you put a name above
justice, above mercy, are you sure that you are benefiting your
fellow-men?

If Dr. Plumb wanted to answer me, why did he not take my argument
instead of my motive? Why did he not point out my weakness instead
of telling the consequences that would follow from my action? We have
nothing to do with the consequences. I said that to believe without
evidence, or in spite of evidence, was superstition. If that definition
is correct, Dr. Plumb is a superstitious man, because he believes at
least without evidence. What evidence has he that Christ was God? In
the nature of things, how could he have evidence? The only evidence
he pretends to have is the dream of Joseph, and he does not know that
Joseph ever dreamed the dream, because Joseph did not write an account
of his dream, so that Dr. Plumb has only hearsay for the dream, and the
dream is the foundation of his creed.

Now, when I say that that is superstition, Dr. Plumb charges me with
being a burglar—a coarse, blasphemous burglar—who wishes to rob
somebody of some great blessing. Dr. Plumb would not hesitate to tell a
Mohammedan that Mohammed was an impostor. He would tell a Mormon in
Utah that Joseph Smith was a vulgar liar and that Brigham Young was
no better. In other words, if in Turkey, he would be a coarse and
blasphemous burglar, and he would follow the same profession in Utah. So
probably he would tell the Chinese that Confucius was an ignorant
wretch and that their religion was idiotic, and the Chinese priest would
denounce Dr. Plumb as a very coarse and blasphemous burglar, and Dr.
Plumb would be perfectly astonished that a priest could be so low, so
impudent and malicious.

Of course my wonder is not excited. I have become used to it.

If Dr. Plumb would think, if he would exercise his imagination a
little and put himself in the place of others, he would think, in all
probability, better things of his opponents. I do not know Dr. Plumb,
and yet I have no doubt that he is a good and sincere man; a little
superstitious, superficial, and possibly, mingled with his many virtues,
there may be a little righteous malice.

The Rev. Mr. Mills used to believe as Dr. Plumb does now, and I suppose
he has changed for reasons that were sufficient for him. So I believe
him to be an honest, conscientious man, and so far as I am concerned, I
have no objection to Mr. Mills doing what little he can to get all the
churches to act together. He may never succeed, but I am not responsible
for that.

So I have no objection to Dr. Plumb preaching what he believes to be the
gospel. I admit that he is honest when he says that an infinitely good
God made a poor world; that he made man and woman and put them in the
Garden of Eden, and that this same God before that time had manufactured
a devil, and that when he manufactured this devil, he knew that he would
corrupt the man and woman that he had determined to make; that he could
have defeated the devil, but that for a wise purpose, he allowed his
Satanic Majesty to succeed; that at the time he allowed him to succeed,
he knew that in consequence of his success that he (God) in about
fifteen or sixteen hundred years would be compelled to drown the whole
world with the exception of eight people. These eight people he kept for
seed. At the time he kept them for seed, he knew that they were totally
depraved, that they were saturated with the sin of Adam and Eve, and
that their children would be their natural heirs. He also knew at the
time he allowed the devil to succeed, that he (God), some four thousand
years afterward, would be compelled to be born in Palestine as a babe,
to learn the carpenter's trade, and to go about the country for three
years preaching to the people and discussing with the rabbis of his
chosen people, and he also knew that these chosen people—these people
who had been governed and educated by him, to whom he had sent a
multitude of prophets, would at that time be so savage that they would
crucify him, although he would be at that time the only sinless being
who had ever stood upon the earth. This he knew would be the effect of
his government, of his education of his chosen people. He also knew at
the time he allowed the devil to succeed, that in consequence of that
success a vast majority of the human race would become eternal convicts
in the prison of hell.

All this he knew, and yet Dr. Plumb insists that he was and is
infinitely wise, infinitely powerful and infinitely good. What would
this God have done if he had lacked wisdom, or power, or goodness?

Of all the religions that man has produced, of all the creeds of
savagery, there is none more perfectly absurd than Christianity.
