{
  "schema": "tga.work.v1",
  "identifier": "dresden:vol-11:rev-dr-newton-on-a-new-religion",
  "slug": "rev-dr-newton-on-a-new-religion",
  "title": "Rev. Dr. Newton's Sermon on a New Religion",
  "subtitle": "Reply to a sermon.",
  "excerpt": "A reply to the Reverend Dr. Heber Newton's proposed reform of the old religion, and a sketch of what a genuinely new religion would have to look like.",
  "year": 1886,
  "volume": 11,
  "category": "Reply",
  "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/rev-dr-newton-on-a-new-religion/",
  "wordCount": 1657,
  "body": "I HAVE read the report of the Rev. R. Heber Newton's sermon and I\nam satisfied, first, that Mr. Newton simply said what he thoroughly\nbelieves to be true, and second, that some of the conclusions at which\nhe arrives are certainly correct. I do not regard Mr. Newton as a\nheretic or sceptic. Every man who reads the Bible must, to a greater or\nless extent, think for himself. He need not tell his thoughts; he has\nthe right to keep them to himself. But if he undertakes to tell them,\nthen he should be absolutely honest.\n\nThe Episcopal creed is a few ages behind the thought of the world. For\nmany, years the foremost members and clergymen in that church have been\ngiving some new meanings to the old words and phrases. Words are no\nmore exempt from change than other things in nature. A word at one time\nrough, jagged, harsh and cruel, is finally worn smooth. A word known\nas slang, picked out of the gutter, is cleaned, educated, becomes\nrespectable and finally is found in the mouths of the best and purest.\n\nWe must remember that in the world of art the picture depends not alone\non the painter, but on the one who sees it. So words must find some part\nof their meaning in the man who hears or the man who reads. In the old\ntimes the word \"hell\" gave to the hearer or reader the picture of a vast\npit filled with an ocean of molten brimstone, in which innumerable souls\nwere suffering the torments of fire, and where millions of devils were\nengaged in the cheerful occupation of increasing the torments of the\ndamned. This was the real old orthodox view.\n\nAs man became civilized, however, the picture grew less and less vivid.\nFinally, some expressed their doubts about the brimstone, and others\nbegan to think that if the Devil was, and is, really an enemy of God he\nwould not spend his time punishing sinners to please God. Why should\nthe Devil be in partnership with his enemy, and why should he inflict\ntorments on poor souls who were his own friends, and who shared with him\nthe feeling of hatred toward the Almighty?\n\nAs men became more and more civilized, the idea began to dawn in their\nminds that an infinitely good and wise being would not have created\npersons, knowing that they would be eternal failures, or that they were\nto suffer eternal punishment, because there could be no possible object\nin eternal punishment—no reformation, no good to be accomplished—and\ncertainly the sight of all this torment would not add to the joy of\nheaven, neither would it tend to the happiness of God.\n\nSo the more civilized adopted the idea that punishment is a consequence\nand not an infliction. Then they took another step and concluded that\nevery soul, in every world, in every age, should have at least the\nchance of doing right. And yet persons so believing still used the word\n\"hell,\" but the old meaning had dropped out.\n\nSo with regard to the atonement. At one time it was regarded as a kind\nof bargain in which so much blood was shed for so many souls. This was a\nbarbaric view. Afterward, the mind developing a little, the idea got in\nthe brain that the life of Christ was worth its moral effect. And yet\nthese people use the word \"atonement,\" but the bargain idea has been\nlost.\n\nTake for instance the word \"justice.\" The meaning that is given to that\nword depends upon the man who uses it—depends for the most part on the\nage in which he lives, the country in which he was born. The same is\ntrue of the word \"freedom.\" Millions and millions of people boasted that\nthey were the friends of freedom, while at the same time they enslaved\ntheir fellow-men. So, in the name of justice every possible crime has\nbeen perpetrated and in the name of mercy every instrument of torture\nhas been used.\n\nMr. Newton realizes the fact that everything in the world changes; that\ncreeds are influenced by civilization, by the acquisition of knowledge,\nby the progress of the sciences and arts—in other words, that there\nis a tendency in man to harmonize his knowledge and to bring about a\nreconciliation between what he knows and what he believes. This will be\nfatal to superstition, provided the man knows anything.\n\nMr. Newton, moreover, clearly sees that people are losing confidence in\nthe morality of the gospel; that its foundation lacks common sense; that\nthe doctrine of forgiveness is unscientific, and that it is impossible\nto feel that the innocent can rightfully suffer for the guilty, or that\nthe suffering of innocence can in any way justify the crimes of the\nwicked. I think he is mistaken, however, when he says that the early\nchurch softened or weakened the barbaric passions. I think the early\nchurch was as barbarous as any institution that ever gained a footing\nin this world. I do not believe that the creed of the early church, as\nunderstood, could soften anything. A church that preaches the eternity\nof punishment has within it the seed of all barbarism and the soil to\nmake it grow.\n\nSo Mr. Newton is undoubtedly right when he says that the organized\nChristianity of to-day is not the leader in social progress. No one now\ngoes to a synod to find a fact in science or on any subject. A man in\ndoubt does not ask the average minister; he regards him as behind the\ntimes. He goes to the scientist, to the library. He depends upon the\nuntrammelled thought of fearless men.\n\nThe church, for the most part, is in the control of the rich, of the\nrespectable, of the well-to-do, of the unsympathetic, of the men who,\nhaving succeeded themselves, think that everybody ought to succeed.\nThe spirit of caste is as well developed in the church as it is in the\naverage club. There is the same exclusive feeling, and this feeling in\nthe next world is to be heightened and deepened to such an extent that a\nlarge majority of our fellow-men are to be eternally excluded.\n\nThe peasants of Europe—the workingmen—do not go to the church for\nsympathy. If they do they come home empty, or rather empty hearted.\nSo, in our own country the laboring classes, the mechanics, are not\ndepending on the churches to right their wrongs. They do not expect the\npulpits to increase their wages. The preachers get their money from\nthe well-to-do—from the employeer class—and their sympathies are with\nthose from whom they receive their wages.\n\nThe ministers attack the pleasures of the world. They are not so much\nscandalized by murder and forgery as by dancing and eating meat on\nFriday. They regard unbelief as the greatest of all sins. They are not\ntouching the real, vital issues of the day, and their hearts do not\nthrob in unison with the hearts of the struggling, the aspiring, the\nenthusiastic and the real believers in the progress of the human race.\n\nIt is all well enough to say that we should depend on Providence, but\nexperience has taught us that while it may do no harm to say it, it will\ndo no good to do it. We have found that man must be the Providence of\nman, and that one plow will do more, properly pulled and properly held,\ntoward feeding the world, than all the prayers that ever agitated the\nair.\n\nSo, Mr. Newton is correct in saying, as I understand him to say, that\nthe hope of immortality has nothing to do with orthodox religion.\nNeither, in my judgment, has the belief in the existence of a God\nanything in fact to do with real religion. The old doctrine that God\nwanted man to do something for him, and that he kept a watchful eye upon\nall the children of men; that he rewarded the virtuous and punished\nthe wicked, is gradually fading from the mind. We know that some of the\nworst men have what the world calls success. We know that some of\nthe best men lie upon the straw of failure. We know that honesty goes\nhungry, while larceny sits at the banquet. We know that the vicious have\nevery physical comfort, while the virtuous are often clad in rags.\n\nMan is beginning to find that he must take care of himself; that special\nprovidence is a mistake. This being so, the old religions must go down,\nand in their place man must depend upon intelligence, industry, honesty;\nupon the facts that he can ascertain, upon his own experience, upon his\nown efforts. Then religion becomes a thing of this world—a religion to\nput a roof above our heads, a religion that gives to every man a home, a\nreligion that rewards virtue here.\n\nIf Mr. Newton's sermon is in accordance with the Episcopal creed, I\ncongratulate the creed. In any event, I think Mr. Newton deserves great\ncredit for speaking his thought. Do not understand that I imagine that\nhe agrees with me. The most I will say is that in some things I agree\nwith him, and probably there is a little too much truth and a little too\nmuch humanity in his remarks to please the bishop.\n\nThere is this wonderful fact, no man has ever yet been persecuted for\nthinking God bad. When any one has said that he believed God to be so\ngood that he would, in his own time and way, redeem the entire human\nrace, and that the time would come when every soul would be brought home\nand sit on an equality with the others around the great fireside of\nthe universe, that man has been denounced as a poor, miserable, wicked\nwretch.—New York Herald, December 13,1888.\n"
}