THOUGHTS FROM AN AGING PIZZA EVANGELIST AMERICAS MOST FAMOUS FORGOTTEN ATHEIST Published: December 21, 2014 8:00AM No, its not Madalyn Murray OHair, although many would like to forget her. The most famous American atheist lived during the nineteenth century and was at his peak during the late 1800s. Meet Robert Ingersoll, the most famous American atheist youve probably never heard of. A self-educated attorney and atheist, Ingersoll was a Victorian-era rock star who could pack theaters from Texas to New York with people who came from hundreds of miles around to hear The Great Agnostic lecture against religion. Politicians courted him, his likeness was carved in stone, and when he died in 1899, newspapers around the country carried his obituary. A Civil War veteran, he was buried in Arlington National Cemetery. Today, Ingersoll is largely unknown outside atheist circles. But hes enjoying a bit of a revival, with a critically acclaimed new biography, a walking tour of Ingersoll sites, a growing number of visitors to his birthplace and an oratory contest in his name. Ingersoll was born in 1833 in upstate New York, the son of a circuit-riding Methodist minister. Like Abraham Lincoln, he was largely self-taught. Yet unlike Lincoln, who also had unconventional ideas about organized religion, Ingersoll was public about his lack of faith, something historians believe curtailed his high political ambitions. Ingersoll mocked religion as some sort of made up myth created by ignorant and uneducated individuals perpetuated by clergy living off the uninformed ignorant laity. The climax of Ingersolls speeches was always the same. At the conclusion of his talk, Ingersoll would pull out his watch, look upward and say, God if you are there, youve got 60 seconds to strike me dead. He would then light up a big cigar while continuing to look at his watch. After sixty seconds, he would say Well God, I guess youre not there. He would the put his watch away and walk off the stage to thunderous applause. Bob, I know that you are not an atheist or an agnostic, so why would you resurrect this forgotten hater of Christianity, the Bible, and Religion? Many are unaware that atheism has been around America for a long time. Ms. OHair didnt invent it. As a matter of fact, Benjamin Franklin, an avowed Deist, once said, Christianity is all right for the uneducated and ignorant, but as for me I dont need it. When one becomes a Christian he is not required to park his brain. On the contrary, many of the worlds most intellectual and free thinkers have embraced the Bible and Christianity. There are more fragments of original documents concerning the Bible and its correct translation than any other book of ancient history. The following excerpt is from Jim McGuiggan titled Why are there atheists? (quoted with permission) Most of us like to think we believe what we believe because weve thought it through and have clear rational grounds for our convictions though why we should exalt reason above emotions isnt clear. Without going into needless details on that let me simply say that if its true at all its only true about a very few and very specific convictions. We draw conclusions not only based on facts but on the weight we give to some facts more than others. And we relate facts to other facts in different ways, dont we? If you live in a run-down area of high unemployment you dont deny the unemployment figures you insist on them! And they generate a higher level of passion with you than the same figures generate in a politician who lives on Silk-Stocking Row. The reasons for this arent surprising. But this passion (or lack of it) leads us to weigh differently any proposals on how to handle the problem. Emotions, personality, experiences, environment and a host of other factors affect and shape our beliefs. For good or ill were not breathing logic-boxes or human computers. (Im glad were not those.) Our parents shape us long before we know it. Friends we greatly admire, teachers we esteem, experiences weve been subjected to, dreams we dream, social conditions that frighten or sadden us these and more we cant fathom affect how we think and feel and come to believe. Should that surprise or worry us? It should not. Were human and theres no way for us to step outside of (our) humanity and see the whole spectrum of things. Should we despise our rationality because all this is true? That would make no sense and no one should be encouraged to park his or her brain or let it degenerate into mush for want of exercise. Though reasoning to conclusions is only a part of who and what we are its still a part of us and we ought to respect it--and why wouldnt we? Part of the reason Im a Christian is because I was born and raised in a part of the world where the Bible was revered and proclaimed. Closer to home, I am a Christian in part (chiefly) because of influences in my home and then because of other significant people who were Christians. Significant events occurring at critical moments, the right people or the right result at the right time all this and more has played its part in my being a Christian. (At this point I wont try to make the case that I believe God was at work in all this, bringing me to faith in Jesus Christ.) Non-believers are non-believers for similar reasons. In early childhood influences of home and the wider environment had their effect. Kind and caring people who were non-believers showed that you didnt have to be a believer in God to be gentle and socially useful. Perhaps parents never spoke of God and much less did they attend church assemblies so the child never went to Sunday school. Some painful disappointments at critical moments made the universe seem unfriendly and the thought of Gods non-existence began to nibble at the edges of the mind. The pain and suffering in the world that Christians keep explaining (rather than alleviating) add to the picture. Unanswered prayers (prayed at a time before faith was lost) made you wonder if any prayer, however selfless it appeared, would get a yes vote from the great Manager of Blessings in the sky. And then there was the disgraceful behavior and attitudes of a lot of church-going people. Add to all that some fearful doctrines like eternal conscious torment for all non-Christians and a hyper-Calvinism that says God created multiplied millions of humans for no other reason than to eternally torture them according to the good pleasure of his will. An atheist is made! See you next Sunday. Bob Fettes is a semi-retired Cambridge businessman and Columnist for The Sunday Jeffersonian. He can be reached at nancopiz@yahoo.
Posted on: Sun, 21 Dec 2014 13:38:28 +0000
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