The Best of Robert Ingersoll

The Best of Robert Ingersoll PDF

Author: Roger E. Greeley

Publisher: Prometheus Books

Published: 2009-09-25

Total Pages: 206

ISBN-13: 1615921559

DOWNLOAD EBOOK →

Robert Ingersoll was America''s finest orator and foremost leader of freethinkers. Mark Twain, Thomas Edison, Eugene V. Debs, and Elizabeth Cady used to gather to hear the speeches of "the great agnostic."Roger E. Greeley has selected the best from speeches and essays of this iconoclastic orator who labored to destroy the superstition and hypocrisy of fundamentalism in America and who answered the Moral Majority in the last century.One hundred years after he advanced into the national spotlight, Ingersoll''s commentaries still retain their fresh, penetrating, and witty character. His pleas for civil rights, the rights of women and children, responsible and responsive government, and individual freedom of conscience and religious belief have placed him in the vanguard of enlightened thinkers.Today the legacy of Robert Ingersoll, prophet and pioneer, merits the attention of anyone who espouses humane, liberal, rational, or agnostic opinions.

Robert G. Ingersoll

Robert G. Ingersoll PDF

Author: Frank Smith

Publisher:

Published: 1990

Total Pages: 436

ISBN-13:

DOWNLOAD EBOOK →

Robert G. Ingersoll (1833-1899) was a complex figure - a brilliant lawyer and orator who courageously advanced the concept of freethought; a magnetic extrovert whose public esteem, eagerly sought, never earned him the private favors he so generously bestowed on others. Ingersoll was a staunch republican in the great tradition of Abraham Lincoln, and he vigorously championed such progressive causes as equal rights for blacks, women, and children; liberal divorce laws; and better wages and conditions for workers. Perhaps Ingersoll's greatest legacy derives from his daring rejection of religious superstition (during an era which saw a tremendous revival of spiritualism and religious fundamentalism) and his ardent belief in humanity: "When I became convinced that the Universe is natural - that all the ghosts and gods are myths, there entered into my brain, into my soul, into every drop of my blood, the sense, the feeling, the joy of freedom. The walls of my prison crumbled and fell, the dungeon was flooded with light and all the bolts and bars, and manacles became dust. I was no longer a servant, a serf, or a slave." Ingersoll is considered one of the most prominent figures of the 19th century. From about 1880 to his death in 1899, he probably spoke to more Americans in person than anyone before or since; he had daily audiences of as many as three thousand people while he was on tour, several months a year for many years. Despite this, Ingersoll's career has not yet received the attention it clearly merits. In this comprehensive work, Frank Smith explores the life and thought of this charismatic figure, using newspaper accounts of the time and extensive quotations from Ingersoll's correspondence. Ingersoll's words provide a vivid portrait of 19th-century America from the stormy antebellum period to the beginnings of modern industrialism. His life reflects the great current of his age and speaks forcefully to the problems of our own.

Some Mistakes of Moses

Some Mistakes of Moses PDF

Author: Robert Green Ingersoll

Publisher:

Published: 1879

Total Pages: 290

ISBN-13:

DOWNLOAD EBOOK →

There was a time when a falsehood, fulminated from the pulpit, smote like a sword; but, the supply having greatly exceeded the demand, clerical misrepresentation has at last become almost an innocent amusement. Remembering that only a few years ago men, women, and even children, were imprisoned, tortured and burned, for having expressed in an exceedingly mild and gentle way, the ideas entertained by me, I congratulate myself that calumny is now the pulpit's last resort. The old instruments of torture are kept only to gratify curiosity; the chains are rusting away, and the demolition of time has allowed even the dungeons of the Inquisition to be visited by light. The church, impotent and malicious, regrets, not the abuse, but the loss of her power, and seeks to hold by falsehood what she gained by cruelty and force, by fire and fear. Christianity cannot live in peace with any other form of faith. If that religion be true, there is but one savior, one inspired book, and but one little narrow grass-grown path that leads to heaven. Such a religion is necessarily uncompromising, unreasoning, aggressive and insolent. Christianity has held all other creeds and forms in infinite contempt, divided the world into enemies and friends, and verified the awful declaration of its founder -- a declaration that wet with blood the sword he came to bring, and made the horizon of a thousand years lurid with the fagots' flames.....Robert Green Ingersoll

What's God Got to Do With It?

What's God Got to Do With It? PDF

Author: Robert Ingersoll

Publisher: Steerforth

Published: 2011-12-13

Total Pages: 148

ISBN-13: 1586421972

DOWNLOAD EBOOK →

Robert Ingersoll (1833—1899) is one of the great lost figures in United States history, all but forgotten at just the time America needs him most. An outspoken and unapologetic agnostic, fervent champion of the separation of church and state, and tireless advocate of the rights of women and African Americans, he drew enormous audiences in the late nineteenth century with his lectures on “freethought.” His admirers included Mark Twain and Thomas A. Edison, who said Ingersoll had “all the attributes of a perfect man” and went so far as to make an early recording of Ingersoll’s voice. The publication of What’s God Got to Do with It? will return Robert Ingersoll and his ideas to American political discourse. Edited and with a biographical introduction by Pulitzer Prize winner Tim Page, this new popular collection of Ingersoll’s thought – distilled from the twelve-volume set of his works, his copious letters, and various newspaper interviews – promises to put Ingersoll back where he belongs, in the forefront of independent American thought.

The Great Agnostic

The Great Agnostic PDF

Author: Susan Jacoby

Publisher: Yale University Press

Published: 2013-01-08

Total Pages: 258

ISBN-13: 0300137257

DOWNLOAD EBOOK →

A biography that restores America's foremost 19th-century champion of reason and secularism to the still contested 21st-century public square.

American Infidel

American Infidel PDF

Author: Orvin Prentiss Larson

Publisher: Hassell Street Press

Published: 2021-09-09

Total Pages: 336

ISBN-13: 9781013476808

DOWNLOAD EBOOK →

This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work is in the public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. To ensure a quality reading experience, this work has been proofread and republished using a format that seamlessly blends the original graphical elements with text in an easy-to-read typeface. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.

The Works of Robert G. Ingersoll

The Works of Robert G. Ingersoll PDF

Author: Robert G. Ingersoll

Publisher: Cosimo, Inc.

Published: 2009-01-01

Total Pages: 532

ISBN-13: 160520885X

DOWNLOAD EBOOK →

As outspoken in his day as Richard Dawkins or Christopher Hitchens are today, ROBERT GREEN INGERSOLL (1833-1899) was a notorious radical whose uncompromising views on religion and slavery (they were bad, in his opinion), women's suffrage (a good idea, he believed), and other contentious matters of his era made him a wildly popular orator and critic of American culture and public life. Legendary as a speaker-he memorized his speeches and could talk for hours without notes-and as a proponent of freethought, Ingersoll is an American original whose words still ring with truth and power today. His most important works are gathered in this 12-volume collected edition, first published posthumously in 1901. Volume V features Ingersoll's "discussions": [ "Six Interviews on Talmage" (the American Presbyterian preacher Reverend Dr. Thomas De Witt Talmage) [ "The Talmagian Catechism" [ "A Vindication of Thomas Paine"

The Works Of Robert G. Ingersoll Vol.11

The Works Of Robert G. Ingersoll Vol.11 PDF

Author: Ingersoll Robert G

Publisher: Double 9 Books

Published: 2023-05

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 9789358711387

DOWNLOAD EBOOK →

Robert G. Ingersoll wrote the lectures and essays included in "The Works Of Robert G. Ingersoll Vol.11" in the nineteenth century. The book's preface is taken from Ingersoll's address "The Grant Banquet," which he delivered in 1885 in honor of former President Ulysses S. Grant. Ingersoll expresses his views on a variety of political and social issues, including free speech, the labor movement, and the role of government in society. He also discusses the importance of science and education while criticizing how religion affects society. Overall, "The Works Of Robert G. Ingersoll Vol.11" provides an intriguing peek into the ideas and views of one of the most well-known freethinkers of the 19th century, as well as his vision on a more rational and developed society.