Too great praise challenges attention, and often brings to light a thousand faults that otherwise the general eye would never see. Were we allowed to read the Bible as we do all other books, we would admire its beauties, treasure its worthy thoughts, and account for all its absurd, grotesque, and cruel things, by saying that its authors lived in rude, barbaric times. But we are told that it was written by inspired men; that it contains the will of God; that it is perfect, pure, and true in all its parts; the source and standard of all moral and religious truth; that it is the star and anchor of all human hope; the only guide for man, the only torch in Nature’s night. These claims are so at variance with every known recorded fact, so palpably absurd, that every free unbiased soul is forced to raise the standard of revolt.
— Robert Ingersoll, Some Mistakes of Moses, 1879
Bruce Gerencser, 67, lives in rural Northwest Ohio with his wife of 46 years. He and his wife have six grown children and sixteen grandchildren. Bruce pastored Evangelical churches for twenty-five years in Ohio, Texas, and Michigan. Bruce left the ministry in 2005, and in 2008 he left Christianity. Bruce is now a humanist and an atheist.
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Thank you, Bruce. I have never read Robert Ingersoll. On the basis of this quote and the one in the post before it, I’ll have to remedy that.
I put the complete works of Robert Ingersoll on my Kindle a few years ago and found his insights to be as relevant today as they were in his day. I imagine he and Bruce would have been good friends.
My mother-in-law often speaks in superlatives, as in “this is the BEST steak I have ever had” or “I have NEVER felt so welcome in someone’s home”. As a result, her family members tend to not think very much of her praises – even the grandchildren know that if they licked a rock, she would tell them it was the best rock-licking technique that had ever been done in the galaxy.
I had to read up on Ingersoll. Not only is he impressive, but so are his wife and family. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_G._Ingersoll
Nice to know that there were a number of openly godless freethinkers in our country during the Victorian era.