{
  "schema": "tga.work.v1",
  "identifier": "dresden:vol-11:the-truth-of-history",
  "slug": "the-truth-of-history",
  "title": "The Truth of History",
  "subtitle": "Including \\\"Conversion of the Arch Atheist.\\\"",
  "excerpt": "An examination of the reliability of history itself — and a refutation of the perennial false claim that the 'arch atheist' has been converted on his deathbed.",
  "year": 1887,
  "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/the-truth-of-history/",
  "wordCount": 1385,
  "body": "THOUSANDS of Christians have asked: How was it possible for Christ and\nhis apostles to deceive the people of Jerusalem? How came the miracles\nto be believed? Who had the impudence to say that lepers had been\ncleansed, and that the dead had been raised? How could such impostors\nhave escaped exposure?\n\nI ask: How did Mohammed deceive the people of Mecca? How has the\nCatholic Church imposed upon millions of people? Who can account for the\nsuccess of falsehood?\n\nMillions of people are directly interested in the false. They live by\nlying. To deceive is the business of their lives. Truth is a cripple;\nlies have wings. It is almost impossible to overtake and kill and bury\na lie. If you do, some one will erect a monument over the grave, and the\nlie is born again as an epitaph. Let me give you a case in point.\n\nA few days ago the Matlock Register, a paper published in England,\nprinted the following:\n\nConversion of the Arch Atheist\n\n\"Mr. Isaac Loveland, of Shoreham, desires us to insert the following:—\n\n\"November 27, 1886.\n\n\"Dear Mr. Loveland.—A day or two since, I received from Mr.\nHine the exhilarating intelligence that through his lectures on the\n'Identity of the British Nation with Lost Israel,' in Canada and the\nUnited States, that Col. Bob Ingersoll, the arch Atheist, has been\nconverted to Christianity, and has joined the Episcopal Church. Praise\nthe Lord!!! 5,000 of his followers have been won for Christ through\nMr. Hine's grand mission work, the other side of the Atlantic. The\nColonel's cousin, the Rev. Mr. Ingersoll, wrote to Mr. Hine soon after\nhe began lecturing in America, informing him that his lectures had made\na great impression on the Colonel and other Atheists. I noted it at the\ntime in the Messenger. Bradlaugh will yet be converted; his brother has\nbeen, and has joined a British Israel Identity Association. This is\nprogress, and shows what an energetic, determined man (like Mr. Hine),\nwho is earnest in his faith, can do.\n\n\"Very faithfully yours,\n\n\"H. HODSON RUGG.\n\n\"Grove-road, St. John's Wood, London.\"\n\nHow can we account for an article like that? Who made up this story? Who\nhad the impudence to publish it?\n\nAs a matter of fact, I never saw Mr. Hine, never heard of him until this\nextract was received by me in the month of December. I never read a word\nabout the \"Identity of Lost Israel with the British Nation.\" It is a\nquestion in which I never had, and never expect to have, the slightest\npossible interest.\n\nNothing can be more preposterous than that the Englishman in whose veins\ncan be found the blood of the Saxon, the Dane, the Norman, the Piet, the\nScot and the Celt, is the descendant of \"Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.\" The\nEnglish language does not bear the remotest resemblance to the Hebrew,\nand yet it is claimed by the Reverend Hod-son Rugg that not only myself,\nbut five thousand other Atheists, were converted by the Rev. Mr. Hine,\nbecause of his theory that Englishmen and Americans are simply Jews in\ndisguise.\n\nThis letter, in my judgment, was published to be used by missionaries in\nChina, Japan, India and Africa.\n\nIf stories like this can be circulated about a living man, what may we\nnot expect concerning the dead who have opposed the church?\n\nCountless falsehoods have been circulated about all the opponents of\nsuperstition. Whoever attacks the popular falsehoods of his time will\nfind that a lie defends itself by telling other lies. Nothing is so\nprolific, nothing can so multiply itself, nothing can lay and hatch as\nmany eggs, as a good, healthy, religious lie.\n\nAnd nothing is more wonderful than the credulity of the believers in the\nsupernatural. They feel under a kind of obligation to believe everything\nin favor of their religion, or against any form of what they are pleased\nto call \"Infidelity.\"\n\nThe old falsehoods about Voltaire, Paine, Hume, Julian, Diderot and\nhundreds of others, grow green every spring. They are answered; they\nare demonstrated to be without the slightest foundation; but they\nrarely die. And when one does die there seems to be a kind of Caesarian\noperation, so that in each instance although the mother dies the child\nlives to undergo, if necessary, a like operation, leaving another child,\nand sometimes two.\n\nThere are thousands and thousands of tongues ready to repeat what the\nowners know to be false, and these lies are a part of the stock in\ntrade, the valuable assets, of superstition. No church can afford to\nthrow its property away. To admit that these stories are false now, is\nto admit that the church has been busy lying for hundreds of years, and\nit is also to admit that the word of the church is not and cannot be\ntaken as evidence of any fact.\n\nA few years ago, I had a little controversy with the editor of the New\nYork Observer, the Rev. Irenaeus Prime, (who is now supposed to be\nin heaven enjoying the bliss of seeing Infidels in hell), as to whether\nThomas Paine recanted his religious opinions. I offered to deposit a\nthousand dollars for the benefit of a charity, if the reverend doctor\nwould substantiate the charge that Paine recanted. I forced the New York\nObserver to admit that Paine did not recant, and compelled that paper\nto say that \"Thomas Paine died a blaspheming Infidel.\"\n\nA few months afterward an English paper was sent to me—a religious\npaper—and in that paper was a statement to the effect that the editor\nof the New York Observer had claimed that Paine recanted; that I had\noffered to give a thousand dollars to any charity that Mr. Prime might\nselect, if he would establish the fact that Paine did recant; and that\nso overwhelming was the testimony brought forward by Mr. Prime, that I\nadmitted that Paine did recant, and paid the thousand dollars.\n\nThis is another instance of what might be called the truth of history.\n\nI wrote to the editor of that paper, telling the exact facts, and\noffering him advertising rates to publish the denial, and in addition,\nstated that if he would send me a copy of his paper with the denial, I\nwould send him twenty-five dollars for his trouble. I received no reply,\nand the lie is in all probability still on its travels, going from\nSunday school to Sunday school, from pulpit to pulpit, from hypocrite\nto savage,—that is to say, from missionary to Hottentot—without the\nslightest evidence of fatigue—fresh and strong, and in its cheeks the\nroses and lilies of perfect health.\n\nSome person, expecting to add another gem to his crown of glory, put\nin circulation the story that one of my daughters had joined the\nPresbyterian Church,—a story without the slightest foundation—and\nalthough denied a hundred times, it is still being printed and\ncirculated for the edification of the faithful. Every few days I receive\nsome letter of inquiry as to this charge, and I have industriously\ndenied it for years, but up to the present time, it shows no signs of\ndeath—not even of weakness.\n\nAnother religious gentleman put in print the charge that my son, having\nbeen raised in the atmosphere of Infidelity, had become insane and died\nin an asylum. Notwithstanding the fact that I never had a son, the story\nstill goes right on, and is repeated day after day without the semblance\nof a blush.\n\nNow, if all this is done while I am alive and well, and while I have all\nthe facilities of our century for spreading the denials, what will be\ndone after my lips are closed?\n\nThe mendacity of superstition is almost enough to make a man believe in\nthe supernatural.\n\nAnd so I might go on for a hundred columns. Billions of falsehoods have\nbeen told and there are trillions yet to come. The doctrines of Malthus\nhave nothing to do with this particular kind of reproduction.\n\n\"And there are also many other falsehoods which the church has told, the\nwhich if they should be written every one, I suppose that even the world\nitself could not contain the books that should be written.\"—The Truth\nSeeker, New York, February, 19,1887.\n"
}