Ingersoll often spoke on progressive issues of the day: women’s suffrage, anti-slavery, and agnosticism.  His writing often denouned religious belief, and for this he was both popular and extremely controversial for his day.

 On this site, I often accuse Christians of accepting a Church Creed, through which they interpret their Scripture.  While I don’t think Ingersoll actually formulated a Creed, this short speech, entitled Secularism comes mighty close to one.

The next time you hear somebody ask “If there is no God, what is the purpose in life, and the point of living?”, point them to this:

                           SECULARISM.
     SEVERAL people have asked me the meaning of this term.

     Secularism is the religion of humanity; it embraces the
affairs of this world; it is interested in everything that touches
the welfare of a sentient being; it advocates attention to the
particular planet in which we happen to live; it means that each
individual counts for something; it is a declaration of
intellectual independence; it means that the pew is superior to the
pulpit, that those who bear the burdens shall have the profits and
that they who fill the purse shall hold the strings. It is a
protest against theological oppression, against ecclesiastical
tyranny, against being the serf, subject or slave of any phantom,
or of the priest of any phantom. It is a protest against wasting
this life for the sake of one that we know not of. It proposes to
let the gods take care of themselves. It is another name for common
sense; that is to say, the adaptation of means to such ends as are
desired and understood.

     Secularism believes in building a home here, in this world. It
trusts to individual effort, to energy, to intelligence, to
observation and experience rather than to the unknown and the
supernatural. It desires to be happy on this side of the grave.

     Secularism means food and fireside, roof and raiment,
reasonable work and reasonable leisure, the cultivation of the
tastes, the acquisition of knowledge, the enjoyment of the arts,
and it promises for the human race comfort, independence,
intelligence, and above all liberty. It means the abolition of
sectarian feuds, of theological hatreds. It means the cultivation
of friendship and intellectual hospitality. It means the living for
ourselves and each other; for the present instead of the past, for
this world rather than for another. It means the right to express
your thought in spite of popes, priests, and gods. It means that
impudent idleness shall no longer live upon the labor of honest
men. It means the destruction of the business of those who trade in
fear. It proposes to give serenity and content to the human soul.
It will put out the fires of eternal pain. It is striving to do
away with violence and vice, with ignorance, poverty and disease.
It lives for the ever present to-day, and the ever coming to-
morrow. It does not believe in praying and receiving, but in
earning and deserving. It regards work as worship, labor as prayer,
and wisdom as the savior of mankind. It says to every human being,
Take care of yourself so that you may be able to help others; adorn
your life with the gems called good deeds; illumine your path with
the sunlight called friendship and love.

     Secularism is a religion, a religion that is understood. It
has no mysteries, no mumblings, no priests, no ceremonies, no
falsehoods, no miracles, and no persecutions. It considers the
lilies of the field, and takes thought for the morrow. It says to
the whole world, Work that you may eat, drink, and be clothed; work
that you may enjoy; work that you may not want; work that you may
give and never need.

                         The Independent Pulpit, Waco, Texas, 1887.

I like the idea of putting the phantoms away,  and letting the gods take care of themselves.  It fits with the natural world we see around us everyday.  It makes sense of life.  It makes more sense than trying to force a mystery religion, which demands absolute trust and submission to the unknown, into my life.

It is just common sense.

You can read more of Ingersoll’s writings here.

Faith is a cop-out.  It is intellectual bankruptcy.  If the only way you can accept an assertion is by faith, then you are conceding that it can’t be taken on its own merits.

–Dan Barker, Losing Faith in Faith: From Preacher to Atheist

Confronted with the impossibility of remaining faithful to one’s beliefs, and the equal impossibility of becoming free of them, one can be driven to the most inhuman excesses.
-James Baldwin

Here is an oldie but a goodie -

Faith is believing what you know ain’t so.
-Mark Twain

The last gasp of desperation for a Christian apologist -

Belief is a wise wager. Granted that faith cannot be proved, what harm will come to you if you gamble on its truth and it proves false? If you gain, you gain all; if you lose, you lose nothing. Wager, then, without hesitation, that He exists.
Blaise Pascal

This really has nothing to do with faith, but I kind of dig it -

In a democracy dissent is an act of faith. Like medicine, the test of its value is not in its taste, but its effects.
-William Fulbright

St Thomas plagiarizing Hebrews again -

Faith has to do with things that are not seen, and hope with things that are not in hand.
-St Thomas Acquinas

I’d love to get these four guys together for a light and breezy afternoon chat -

Faith is a continuation of reason.
-William Adams

Faith is a higher faculty than reason.
-Henry Christopher Bailey

Faith is an oasis in the heart which will never be reached by the caravan of thinking.
-Kahlil Gibran

Faith is to believe what we do not see; and the reward of this faith is to see what we believe.
-St. Augustine

Tryon Edwards died in 1894, so I will forgive him the ignorance of this statement -

Science has sometimes been said to be opposed to faith, and inconsistent with it. But all science, in fact, rests on a basis of faith, for it assumes the permanence and uniformity of natural laws — a thing which can never be demonstrated.
-Tryon Edwards

I love this 19th century Romantic style of writing. Short, succinct and profound. Herman here is certainly one of the greats -

Faith, like a jackal, feeds among the tombs, and even from these dead doubts she gathers her most vital hope.
-Herman Melville

I am going to have to read the Apocrypha sometime -

A faithful friend is the medicine of life.
-Ecclesiasticus 6:16

and there has to be one black sheep of the bunch thrown in -

Cruel with guilt, and daring with despair, the midnight murderer bursts the faithless bar; invades the sacred hour of silent rest and leaves, unseen, a dagger in your breast.
-Samuel Johnson

And just for the record, yes I do use some of these cliches on occassion.  I dig them too!

Intelligent Design – Seeker friendly creationism

Evangelical Christian – I swear I hear this all the time, and I have no idea what it even means.

Jesus is my homeboy – I saw this on a T-Shirt once.  No comment.

Evolution violates the 2nd law of thermodynamics - This is not really a cliche, but I hear it in nearly every pro-Creationist argument.  And it is just flat out FALSE

Real men love Jesus - I just cannot think of an appropriate comment, but this just kinda makes me queeeezy.  See “personal relationship…”

Peace be with you - at some point during a Catholic mass I shake about 10 hands of people who mumble these words while they look urgently for the next hand to shake.  Followed closely by ”so sorry for your loss” while attending a funeral. 

I’m not perfect, just forgiven - I’m not perfect, I just have an excuse!

Personal relationship with Jesus - What shall we do today, Jesus?  gag 

What would Jesus do? – Nobody has ever actually asked me this.  But I have seen some keen bracelets with this friendly ethical reminder.

Praise the Lord – The only cliche here that is actually found in the Bible (it is all over the Psalms).  When introducing yourself to others, never use this phrase.  You name will do nicely.

in Jesus name, amen - Roger Wilco, God.  Signing off, over and out.