{
  "schema": "tga.work.v1",
  "identifier": "dresden:vol-11:a-look-backward-and-a-prophecy",
  "slug": "a-look-backward-and-a-prophecy",
  "title": "A Look Backward and a Prophecy",
  "subtitle": "Ingersoll's last essay.",
  "excerpt": "An essay written in the last year of Ingersoll's life — a survey of what the nineteenth century had achieved, and a prophecy of what the twentieth might yet do.",
  "year": 1899,
  "volume": 11,
  "category": "Essay",
  "author": {
    "name": "Robert G. Ingersoll",
    "wikidata": "Q360326",
    "viaf": "44331023"
  },
  "isPartOf": {
    "title": "The Works of Robert G. Ingersoll",
    "edition": "Dresden Edition",
    "publisher": "C. P. Farrell",
    "year": 1900
  },
  "license": "https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/",
  "url": "https://thegreatagnostic.com/works/a-look-backward-and-a-prophecy/",
  "wordCount": 4280,
  "body": "• Written for the Twenty-fifth Anniversary Number of  the\n    New York Truth Seeker, September 3, 1898.\n\nI CONGRATULATE The Truth Seeker on its twenty-fifth birthday. It has\nfought a good fight. It has always been at the front. It has carried the\nflag, and its flag is a torch that sheds light.\n\nTwenty-five years ago the people of this country, for the most part,\nwere quite orthodox. The great \"fundamental\" falsehoods of Christianity\nwere generally accepted. Those who were not Christians, as a rule,\nadmitted that they ought to be; that they ought to repent and join the\nchurch, and this they generally intended to do.\n\nThe ministers had few doubts. The most of them had been educated not\nto think, but to believe. Thought was regarded as dangerous, and the\nclergy, as a rule, kept on the safe side. Investigation was discouraged.\nIt was declared that faith was the only road that led to eternal joy.\n\nMost of the schools and colleges were under sectarian control, and the\npresidents and professors were defenders of their creeds. The people\nwere crammed with miracles and stuffed with absurdities. They were\ntaught that the Bible was the \"inspired\" word of God, that it was\nabsolutely perfect, that the contradictions were only apparent, and\nthat it contained no mistakes in philosophy, none in science. The great\nscheme of salvation was declared to be the result of infinite wisdom and\nmercy. Heaven and hell were waiting for the human race. Only those could\nbe saved who had faith and who had been born twice.\n\nMost of the ministers taught the geology of Moses, the astronomy of\nJoshua, and the philosophy of Christ. They regarded scientists as\nenemies, and their principal business was to defend miracles and deny\nfacts. They knew, however, that men were thinking, investigating in\nevery direction, and they feared the result. They became a little\nmalicious—somewhat hateful. With their congregations they relied\non sophistry, and they answered their enemies with epithets, with\nmisrepresentations and slanders; and yet their minds were filled with a\nvague fear, with a sickening dread. Some of the people were reading and\nsome were thinking. Lyell had told them something about geology, and in\nthe light of facts they were reading Genesis again. The clergy called\nLyell an Infidel, a blasphemer, but the facts seemed to care nothing\nfor opprobrious names. Then the \"called,\" the \"set apart,\" the \"Lord's\nanointed\" began changing the \"inspired\" word. They erased the word \"day\"\nand inserted \"period,\" and then triumphantly exclaimed: \"The world was\ncreated in six periods.\" This answer satisfied bigotry, hypocrisy, and\nhonest ignorance, but honest intelligence was not satisfied.\n\nMore and more was being found about the history of life, of living\nthings, the order in which the various forms had appeared and the\nrelations they had sustained to each other. Beneath the gaze of\nthe biologist the fossils were again clothed with flesh, submerged\ncontinents and islands reappeared, the ancient forest grew once more,\nthe air was filled with unknown birds, the seas with armored monsters,\nand the land with beasts of many forms that sought with tooth and claw\neach other's flesh.\n\nHaeckel and Huxley followed life through all its changing forms from\nmonad up to man. They found that men, women, and children had been on\nthis poor world for hundreds of thousands of years.\n\nThe clergy could not dodge these facts, this conclusion, by calling\n\"days\" periods, because the Bible gives the age of Adam when he died,\nthe lives and ages to the flood, to Abraham, to David, and from David to\nChrist, so that, according to the Bible, man at the birth of Christ had\nbeen on this earth four thousand and four years and no more.\n\nThere was no way in which the sacred record could be changed, but of\ncourse the dear ministers could not admit the conclusion arrived at by\nHaeckel and Huxley. If they did they would have to give up original sin,\nthe scheme of the atonement, and the consolation of eternal fire.\n\nThey took the only course they could. They promptly and solemnly, with\nupraised hands, denied the facts, denounced the biologists as irreverent\nwretches, and defended the Book. With tears in their voices they talked\nabout \"Mother's Bible,\" about the \"faith of the fathers,\" about the\nprayers that the children had said, and they also talked about the\nwickedness of doubt. This satisfied bigotry, hypocrisy, and honest\nignorance, but honest intelligence was not satisfied.\n\nThe works of Humboldt had been translated, and were being read; the\nintellectual horizon was enlarged, and the fact that the endless chain\nof cause and effect had never been broken, that Nature had never been\ninterfered with, forced its way into many minds. This conception of\nnature was beyond the clergy. They did not believe it; they could not\ncomprehend it. They did not answer Humboldt, but they attacked him with\ngreat virulence. They measured his works by the Bible, because the Bible\nwas then the standard.\n\nIn examining a philosophy, a system, the ministers asked: \"Does it agree\nwith the sacred book?\" With the Bible they separated the gold from the\ndross. Every science had to be tested by the Scriptures. Humboldt did\nnot agree with Moses. He differed from Joshua. He had his doubts about\nthe flood. That was enough.\n\nYet, after all, the ministers felt that they were standing on thin\nice, that they were surrounded by masked batteries, and that something\nunfortunate was liable at any moment to happen. This increased their\nefforts to avoid, to escape. The truth was that they feared the truth.\nThey were afraid of facts. They became exceedingly anxious for morality,\nfor the young, for the inexperienced. They were afraid to trust human\nnature. They insisted that without the Bible the world would rush to\ncrime. They warned the thoughtless of the danger of thinking. They knew\nthat it would be impossible for civilization to exist without the Bible.\nThey knew this because their God had tried it. He gave no Bible to the\nantediluvians, and they became so bad that he had to destroy them.\nHe gave the Jews only the Old Testament, and they were dispersed.\nIrreverent people might say that Jehovah should have known this without\na trial, but after all that has nothing to do with theology.\n\nAttention had been called to the fact that two accounts of creation are\nin Genesis, and that they do not agree and cannot be harmonized, and\nthat, in addition to that, the divine historian had made a mistake as\nto the order of creation; that according to one account Adam was made\nbefore the animals, and Eve last of all, from Adam's rib; and by the\nother account Adam and Eve were made after the animals, and both at the\nsame time. A good many people were surprised to find that the Creator\nhad written contradictory accounts of the creation, and had forgotten\nthe order in which he created.\n\nThen there was another difficulty. Jehovah had declared that on Tuesday,\nor during the second period, he had created the \"firmament\" to divide\nthe waters which were below the firmament from the waters above the\nfirmament. It was found that there is no firmament; that the moisture\nin the air is the result of evaporation, and that there was nothing to\ndivide the waters above, from the waters below. So that, according to\nthe facts, Jehovah did nothing on the second day or period, because the\nmoisture above the earth is not prevented from falling by the firmament,\nbut because the mist is lighter than air.\n\nThe preachers, however, began to dodge, to evade, to talk about\n\"oriental imagery.\" They declared that Genesis was a \"sublime poem,\"\na divine \"panorama of creation,\" an \"inspired vision;\" that it was\nnot intended to be exact in its details, but that it was true in a far\nhigher sense, in a poetical sense, in a spiritual sense, conveying a\ntruth much higher, much grander than simple, fact. The contradictions\nwere covered with the mantle of oriental imagery. This satisfied\nbigotry, hypocrisy, and honest ignorance, but honest intelligence was\nnot satisfied.\n\nPeople were reading Darwin. His works interested not only the\nscientific, but the intelligent in all the walks of life. Darwin was the\nkeenest observer of all time, the greatest naturalist in all the world.\nHe was patient, modest, logical, candid, courageous, and absolutely\ntruthful. He told the actual facts. He colored nothing. He was anxious\nonly to ascertain the truth. He had no prejudices, no theories, no\ncreed. He was the apostle of the real.\n\nThe ministers greeted him with shouts of derision. From nearly all the\npulpits came the sounds of ignorant laughter, one of the saddest of all\nsounds. The clergy in a vague kind of way believed the Bible account\nof creation; they accepted the Miltonic view; they believed that all\nanimals, including man, had been made of clay, fashioned by Jehovah's\nhands, and that he had breathed into all forms, not only the breath of\nlife, but instinct and reason. They were not in the habit of descending\nto particulars; they did not describe Jehovah as kneading the clay or\nmodeling his forms like a sculptor, but what they did say included these\nthings.\n\nThe theory of Darwin contradicted all their ideas on the subject, vague\nas they were. He showed that man had not appeared at first as man, that\nhe had not fallen from perfection, but had slowly risen through many\nages from lower forms. He took food, climate, and all conditions into\nconsideration, and accounted for difference of form, function, instinct,\nand reason, by natural causes. He dispensed with the supernatural. He\ndid away with Jehovah the potter.\n\nOf course the theologians denounced him as a blasphemer, as a dethroner\nof God. They even went so far as to smile at his ignorance. They said:\n\"If the theory of Darwin is true the Bible is false, our God is a myth,\nand our religion a fable.\"\n\nIn that they were right.\n\nAgainst Darwin they rained texts of Scripture like shot and shell.\nThey believed that they were victorious and their congregations were\ndelighted. Poor little frightened professors in religious colleges sided\nwith the clergy. Hundreds of backboneless \"scientists\" ranged themselves\nwith the enemies of Darwin. It began to look as though the church was\nvictorious.\n\nSlowly, steadily, the ideas of Darwin gained ground. He began to be\nunderstood. Men of sense were reading what he said. Men of genius were\non his side. In a little while the really great in all departments of\nhuman thought declared in his favor. The tide began to turn. The smile\non the face of the theologian became a frozen grin. The preachers began\nto hedge, to dodge. They admitted that the Bible was not inspired for\nthe purpose of teaching science—only inspired about religion, about the\nspiritual, about the divine. The fortifications of faith were crumbling,\nthe old guns had been spiked, and the armies of the \"living God\" were in\nretreat.\n\nGreat questions were being discussed, and freely discussed. People\nwere not afraid to give their opinions, and they did give their honest\nthoughts. Draper had shown in his \"Intellectual Development of Europe\"\nthat Catholicism had been the relentless enemy of progress, the bitter\nfoe of all that is really useful. The Protestants were delighted with\nthis book.\n\nBuckle had shown in his \"History of Civilization in England\" that\nProtestantism had also enslaved the mind, had also persecuted to the\nextent of its power, and that Protestantism in its last analysis was\nsubstantially the same as the creed of Rome.\n\nThis book satisfied the thoughtful.\n\nHegel in his first book had done a great work and it did great good in\nspite of the fact that his second book was almost a surrender. Lecky in\nhis first volume of \"The History of Rationalism\" shed a flood of\nlight on the meanness, the cruelty, and the malevolence of \"revealed\nreligion,\" and this did good in spite of the fact that he almost\napologizes in the second volume for what he had said in the first.\n\nThe Universalists had done good. They had civilized a great many\nChristians. They declared that eternal punishment was infinite revenge,\nand that the God of hell was an infinite savage.\n\nSome of the Unitarians, following the example of Theodore Parker,\ndenounced Jehovah as a brutal, tribal God. All these forces worked\ntogether for the development of the orthodox brain.\n\nHerbert Spencer was being read and understood. The theories of this\ngreat philosopher were being adopted. He overwhelmed the theologians\nwith facts, and from a great height he surveyed the world. Of course he\nwas attacked, but not answered.\n\nEmerson had sowed the seeds of thought—of doubt—in many minds, and\nfrom many directions the world was being flooded with intellectual\nlight. The clergy became apologetic; they spoke with less certainty;\nwith less emphasis, and lost a little confidence in the power of\nassertion. They felt the necessity of doing something, and they began to\nharmonize as best they could the old lies and the new truths. They tried\nto get the wreck ashore, and many of them were willing to surrender if\nthey could keep their side-arms; that is to say, their salaries.\n\nConditions had been reversed. The Bible had ceased to be the standard.\nScience was the supreme and final test.\n\nThere was no peace for the pulpit; no peace for the shepherds. Students\nof the Bible in England and Germany had been examining the inspired\nScriptures. They had been trying to find when and by whom the books of\nthe Bible were written. They found that the Pentateuch was not written\nby Moses; that the authors of Joshua, Judges, Ruth, Samuel, Kings,\nChronicles, Esther, and Job were not known; that the Psalms were\nnot written by David; that Solomon had nothing to do with Proverbs,\nEcclesiastes, or the Song; that Isaiah was the work of at least three\nauthors; that the prophecies of Daniel were written after the happening\nof the events prophesied. They found many mistakes and contradictions,\nand some of them went so far as to assert that the Hebrews had never\nbeen slaves in Egypt; that the story of the plagues, the exodus, and the\npursuit was only a myth.\n\nThe New Testament fared no better than the Old. These critics found that\nnearly all of the books of the New Testament had been written by unknown\nmen; that it was impossible to fix the time when they were written; that\nmany of the miracles were absurd and childish, and that in addition\nto all of this, the gospels were found filled with mistakes, with\ninterpolations' and contradictions; that the writers of Matthew, Mark,\nand Luke did not understand the Christian religion as it was understood\nby the author of the gospel according to John.\n\nOf course, the critics were denounced from most of the pulpits, and the\nreligious papers, edited generally by men who had failed as preachers,\nwere filled with bitter denials and vicious attacks. The religious\neditors refused to be enlightened. They fought under the old flag. When\ndogmas became too absurd to be preached, they were taught in the Sunday\nschools; when worn out there, they were given to the missionaries;\nbut the dear old religious weeklies, the Banners, the Covenants, the\nEvangelists, continued to feed their provincial subscribers with known\nmistakes and refuted lies.\n\nThere is another fact that should be taken into consideration. All\nreligions are provincial. Mingled with them all and at the foundation of\nall are the egotism of ignorance, of isolation, the pride of race, and\nwhat is called patriotism. Every religion is a natural product—the\nresult of conditions. When one tribe became acquainted with another,\nthe ideas of both were somewhat modified. So when nations and races come\ninto contact a change in thought, in opinion, is a necessary result.\n\nA few years ago nations were strangers, and consequently hated each\nother's institutions and religions. Commerce has done a great work in\ndestroying provincialism. To trade commodities is to exchange ideas.\nSo the press, the steamships, the railways, cables, and telegraphs\nhave brought the nations together and enabled them to compare their\nprejudices, their religions, laws and customs.\n\nRecently many scholars have been studying the religions of the world\nand have found them much the same. They have also found that there is\nnothing original in Christianity; that the legends, miracles, Christs,\nand conditions of salvation, the heavens, hells, angels, devils, and\ngods were the common property of the ancient world. They found that\nChrist was a new name for an old biography; that he was not a life, but\na legend; not a man, but a myth.\n\nPeople began to suspect that our religion had not been supernaturally\nrevealed, while others, far older and substantially the same, had been\nnaturally produced. They found it difficult to account for the fact that\npoor, ignorant savages had in the darkness of nature written so well\nthat Jehovah thousands of years afterwards copied it and adopted it as\nhis own. They thought it curious that God should be a plagiarist.\n\nThese scholars found that all the old religions had recognized the\nexistence of devils, of evil spirits, who sought in countless ways to\ninjure the children of men. In this respect they found that the sacred\nbooks of other nations were just the same as our Bible, as our New\nTestament.\n\nTake the Devil from our religion and the entire fabric falls. No Devil,\nno fall of man. No Devil, no atonement. No Devil, no hell.\n\nThe Devil is the keystone of the arch.\n\nAnd yet for many years the belief in the existence of the Devil—of\nevil spirits—has been fading from the minds of intelligent people. This\nbelief has now substantially vanished. The minister who now seriously\ntalks about a personal Devil is regarded with a kind of pitying\ncontempt.\n\nThe Devil has faded from his throne and the evil spirits have vanished\nfrom the air.\n\nThe man who has really given up a belief in the existence of the Devil\ncannot believe in the inspiration of the New Testament—in the divinity\nof Christ. If Christ taught anything, if he believed in anything, he\ntaught a belief in the existence of the Devil..His principal business\nwas casting out devils. He himself was taken possession of by the Devil\nand carried to the top of the temple.\n\nThousands and thousands of people have ceased to believe the account in\nthe New Testament regarding devils, and yet continue to believe in the\ndogma of \"inspiration\" and the divinity of Christ.\n\nIn the brain of the average Christian, contradictions dwell in unity.\n\nWhile a belief in the existence of the Devil has almost faded away, the\nbelief in the existence of a personal God has been somewhat weakened.\nThe old belief that back of nature, back of all substance and force, was\nand is a personal God, an infinite intelligence who created and\ngoverns the world, began to be questioned. The scientists had shown\nthe indestructibility of matter and force. Buechner's great work had\nconvinced most readers that matter and force could not have been\ncreated. They also became satisfied that matter cannot exist apart from\nforce and that force cannot exist apart from matter.\n\nThey found, too, that thought is a form of force, and that consequently\nintelligence could not have existed before matter, because without\nmatter, force in any form cannot and could not exist.\n\nThe creator of anything is utterly unthinkable.\n\nA few years ago God was supposed to govern the world. He rewarded the\npeople with sunshine, with prosperity and health, or he punished with\ndrought and flood, with plague and storm. He not only attended to the\naffairs of nations, but he watched the actions of individuals. He sank\nships, derailed trains, caused conflagrations, killed men and women with\nhis lightnings, destroyed some with earthquakes, and tore the homes and\nbodies of thousands into fragments with his cyclones.\n\nIn spite of the church, in spite of the ministers, the people began to\nlose confidence in Providence. The right did not seem always to triumph.\nVirtue was not always rewarded and vice was not always punished. The\ngood failed; the vicious succeeded; the strong and cruel enslaved the\nweak; toil was paid with the lash; babes were sold from the breasts of\nmothers, and Providence seemed to be absolutely heartless.\n\nIn other words, people began to think that the God of the Christians and\nthe God of nature were about the same, and that neither appeared to take\nany care of the human race.\n\nThe Deists of the last century scoffed at the Bible God. He was too\ncruel, too savage. At the same time they praised the God of nature. They\nlaughed at the idea of inspiration and denied the supernatural origin of\nthe Scriptures.\n\nNow, if the Bible is not inspired, then it is a natural production, and\nnature, not God, should be held responsible for the Scriptures. Yet the\nDeists denied that God was the author and at the same time asserted the\nperfection of nature.\n\nThis shows that even in the minds of Deists contradictions dwell in\nunity.\n\nAgainst all these facts and forces, these theories and tendencies, the\nclergy fought and prayed. It is not claimed that they were consciously\ndishonest, but it is claimed that they were prejudiced—that they were\nincapable of examining the other side—that they were utterly destitute\nof the philosophic spirit. They were not searchers for the facts,\nbut defenders of the creeds, and undoubtedly they were the product of\nconditions and surroundings, and acted as they must.\n\nIn spite of everything a few rays of light penetrated the orthodox mind.\nMany ministers accepted some of the new facts, and began to mingle\nwith Christian mistakes a few scientific truths. In many instances they\nexcited the indignation of their congregations. Some were tried for\nheresy and driven from their pulpits, and some organized new churches\nand gathered about them a few people willing to listen to the sincere\nthoughts of an honest man.\n\nThe great body of the church, however, held to the creed—not quite\nbelieving it, but still insisting that it was true.\n\nIn private conversation they would apologize and admit that the old\nideas were outgrown, but in public they were as orthodox as ever. In\nevery church, however, there were many priests who accepted the new\ngospel; that is to say, welcomed the truth.\n\nTo-day it may truthfully be said that the Bible in the old sense is\nno longer regarded as the inspired word of God. Jehovah is no longer\naccepted or believed in as the creator of the universe. His place\nhas been taken by the Unknown, the Unseen, the Invisible, the\nIncomprehensible Something, the Cosmic Dust, the First Cause, the\nInconceivable, the Original Force, the Mystery. The God of the Bible,\nthe gentleman who walked in the cool of the evening, who talked face to\nface with Moses, who revenged himself on unbelievers and who gave laws\nwritten with his finger on tables of stone, has abdicated. He has become\na myth.\n\nSo, too, the New Testament has lost its authority. People reason about\nit now as they do about other books, and even orthodox ministers\npick out the miracles that ought to be believed, and when anything is\nattributed to Christ not in accordance with their views, they take the\nliberty of explaining it away by saying \"interpolation.\"\n\nIn other words, we have lived to see Science the standard instead of the\nBible. We have lived to see the Bible tested by Science, and, what is\nmore, we have lived to see reason the standard not only in religion,\nbut in all the domain of science. Now all civilized scientists appeal to\nreason. They get their facts, and then reason from the foundation.\nNow the theologian appeals to reason. Faith is no longer considered a\nfoundation. The theologian has found that he must build upon the truth\nand that he must establish this truth by satisfying human reason.\n\nThis is where we are now.\n\nWhat is to be the result? Is progress to stop? Are we to retrace our\nsteps? Are we going back to superstition? Are we going to take authority\nfor truth?\n\nLet me prophesy.\n\nIn modern times we have slowly lost confidence in the supernatural\nand have slowly gained confidence in the natural. We have slowly lost\nconfidence in gods and have slowly gained confidence in man. For\nthe cure of disease, for the stopping of plague, we depend on the\nnatural—on science. We have lost confidence in holy water and religious\nprocessions. We have found that prayers are never answered.\n\nIn my judgment, all belief in the supernatural will be driven from the\nhuman mind. All religions must pass away. The augurs, the soothsayers,\nthe seers, the preachers, the astrologers and alchemists will all lie\nin the same cemetery and one epitaph will do for them all. In a little\nwhile all will have had their day. They were naturally produced and\nthey will be naturally destroyed. Man at last will depend entirely upon\nhimself—on the development of the brain—to the end that he may take\nadvantage of the forces of nature—to the end that he may supply the\nwants of his body and feed the hunger of his mind.\n\nIn my judgment, teachers will take the place of preachers and the\ninterpreters of nature will be the only priests.\n"
}