Robert Green Ingersoll was a famous and influential proponent of secularism and religious skepticism during the mid- to late 19th century in America. He was a strong advocate both of the abolition of slavery and women’s rights, something that was rather unpopular. The position which really caused him problems, however was his strong defense of agnosticism and his stringent anticlericalism.
Ingersoll was one of the most sought-after orators of his day. He spoke widely, often, and on a variety of subjects — and whether people liked or hated him, they usually respected his great skill as as a public speaker.He probably would have gone quite far in politics had he only modified his position and weakened his critiques of religion. At that time, however, there was a growing fear of anarchism, widely believed to be encouraged and supported by atheist immigrants.
Through his travels he had a change to meet and befriend many of the most famous people of his day. Freethinkers, skeptics, advocates for women’s sufferage, and others who were critical of traditional social and religious structures thought very highly of him, his speeches, and his many books.
To understand Ingersoll’s ideas about agnosticism, it would probably be easiest to simply read a few key quotes from some of his work.
In Huxley And Agnosticism (1889), Robert Green Ingersoll wrote:
- The real difference is this: the Christian says that he has knowledge; the Agnostic admits that he has none; and yet the Christian accuses the Agnostic of arrogance, and asks him how he has the impudence to admit the limitations of his mind. To the Agnostic every fact is a torch, and by this light, and this light only, he walks.
- The Agnostic knows that the testimony of man is not sufficient to establish what is known as the miraculous. We would not believe to-day the testimony of millions to the effect that the dead had been raised. The church itself would be the first to attack such testimony. If we cannot believe those whom we know, why should we believe witnesses who have been dead thousands of years, and about whom we know nothing?
- The Agnostic takes the ground that human experience is the basis of morality. Consequently, it is of no importance who wrote the gospels, or who vouched or vouches for the genuineness of the miracles. In his scheme of life these things are utterly unimportant. He is satisfied that “the miraculous” is the impossible. He knows that the witnesses were wholly incapable of examining the questions involved, that credulity had possession of their minds, that “the miraculous” was expected, that it was their daily food.
The following comment was part of a speech that Robert Green Ingersoll made to the Unitarian Club in New York on January 15, 1892 (Original can be found at the Secular Web).
- Now, understand me! I do not say there is no God. I do not know. As I told you before, I have traveled but very little -- only in this world. I want it understood that I do not pretend to know. I say I think. And in my mind the idea expressed by Judge Wright so eloquently and so beautifully is not exactly true. I cannot conceive of the God he endeavors to describe, because he gives to that God will, purpose, achievement, benevolence, love, and no form — no organization — no wants. There’s the trouble. No wants. And let me say why that is a trouble. Man acts only because he wants. You civilize man by increasing his wants, or, as his wants increase he becomes civilized.
