I will follow my logic, no matter where it goes, after it has consulted with my heart. If you ever come to a conclusion without calling the heart in, you will come to a bad conclusion.
Robert Green IngersollRead
Tell me there is a God in the serene heavens that will damn his children for the expression of an honest belief! More men have died in their sins, judged by your orthodox creeds, than there are leaves in all the forests in the wide world ten thousand times over. Tell me these men are in Hell; that these men are in torment; that these children are in eternal pain, and that they are to be punished forever and forever! I denounce this doctrine as the most infamous of lies.
Interpretation
What this quote means
This quote challenges the morality of punishing individuals for their beliefs, asserting that such doctrine is fundamentally unjust.
In this powerful statement, Robert Green Ingersoll critiques the concept of divine punishment based on religious beliefs, arguing that it's morally reprehensible to condemn people for holding honest convictions. He emphasizes the tragedy of countless individuals who have faced eternal damnation according to orthodox religious doctrines, thus denouncing the idea of a loving God who would subject His children to eternal suffering. Ingersoll's message serves as a call to reconsider the implications of such beliefs and highlights the inconsistencies of punishing sincerity.
Themes
GodBeliefPunishmentOrthodoxyJustice
In practice
Example use cases
This quote can be shared in a discussion on religious tolerance and freedom of belief.
More from Robert Green Ingersoll
All quotes →If the guardians of society, the protectors of 'young persons,' could have had their way, we should have known nothing of Byron or Shelley. The voices that thrill the world would now be silent.
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The religion that has to be supported by law is without value, not only, but a fraud and a curse. The religious argument that has to be supported by a musket is hardly worth making.
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There is no slavery but ignorance.
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In all ages the people have honored those who dishonored them. They have worshiped their destroyers; they have canonized the most gigantic liars, and buried the great thieves in marble and gold. Under the loftiest monuments sleeps the dust of murder.
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I believe that there is something far nobler than loyalty to any particular man. Loyalty to the truth as we perceive it - loyalty to our duty as we know it - loyalty to the ideals of our brain and heart - is, to my mind, far greater and far nobler than loyalty to the life of any particular man or God. . . .
Robert Green IngersollRead
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