What Shall We Do To Be Saved?
Ingersoll's Answer To Prof. Swing, Dr. Thomas, And Others


INGERSOLL'S LECTURE ON GODS


Ladies and Gentlemen: An honest god is the noblest work of man. Each
nation has created a god, and the god has always resembled his creators.
He hated and loved what they hated and loved, and he was invariably
found on the side of those in power. Each god was intensely patriotic,
and detested all nations but his own. All these Gods demanded praise,
flattery, and worship. Most of them were pleased with sacrifice, and
the smell of innocent blood has ever been considered a divine perfume.
All these gods have insisted upon having a vast number of priests, and
the priests have always insisted upon being supported by the people, and
the principal business of these priests has been to boast about their
God, and to insist that he could easily vanquish all the other gods put
together.

These gods have been manufactured after numberless models, and according
to the most grotesque fashions. Some have a thousand arms, some a
hundred heads, some are adorned with necklaces of living snakes, some
are armed with clubs, some with sword and shield, some with bucklers,
and some with wings as a cherub; some were invisible, some would show
themselves entire, and some would only show their backs; some were
jealous, some were foolish, some turned themselves into men, some into
swans, some into bulls, some into doves, and some into holy ghosts, and
made love to the beautiful daughters of men. Some were married--all
ought to have been--and some were considered as old bachelors from all