INGERSOLL'S VOW

Few have expressed their feelings of freedom from that dungeon, which is "revealed" religion, better than Robert G. Ingersoll. I only ask that while you read this courageous vow, you remember that Col. Ingersoll lived in the Free Thought era that would produce another great thinker who would evince the comparatively superior importance of imagination as a trail blazer for those pursuing knowledge, actual knowledge, based on objective facts; and this individual was concerned with actual science "the effort to get to the truth has to precede all other efforts", not the epistemological pretentiousness of faith, not the beliefs, traditions, or fictions inculcated from youth, when he stated:


"Imagination is more important than knowledge. Knowledge is limited; imagination encircles the world."—Albert Einstein

INGERSOLL'S VOW

Colonel Robert G. Ingersoll (1833-1899) was a famous attorney, served as attorney  general of Illinois, and orator whose brilliant lectures drew thousands. As a political figure, he came close to achieving the Republican party's nomination for governor of Illinois, but prejudice and intolerance denied him the opportunity because he was ostracized as an atheist by religious revivalists driven by capitalists and the bigoted reaction of Confederates to Reconstruction.

When I became convinced that the universe is natural—that all the ghosts and gods are myths, there entered into my brain, into my soul, into every drop of my blood, the sense, the feeling, the joy of freedom. The walls of my prison crumbled and fell, the dungeon was flooded with light, and all the bolts, and bars, and manacles became dust. I was no longer a servant, a serf, or a slave. There was for me no master in all the wide world—not even in infinite space.

I was free—free to think, to express my thoughts—free to live to my own ideal—free to use all my faculties, all my senses—free to spread imagination's wings—free to investigate, to guess and dream and hope—free to judge and determine for myself—free to reject all ignorant and cruel creeds, all the "inspired" books that savages have produced, and all the barbarous legends of the past—free from popes and priests—free from all the "called" and "set apart"—free from sanctified mistakes and holy lies—free from the fear of eternal pain—free from the winged monsters of the night—free from devils, ghosts, and gods.

For the first time, I was free. There were no prohibited places in all the realms of thought—no air, no space, where fancy could not spread her painted wings—no chains for my limbs—no lashes for my back—no fires for my flesh—no master's frown or threat—no following another's steps—no need to bow, or cringe, or crawl, or utter lying words. I was free. I stood erect and fearlessly, joyously, faced all worlds.

And then my heart was filled with gratitude, with thankfulness, and went out in love to all the heroes, the thinkers who gave their lives for the liberty of hand and brain—for the freedom of labor and thought—to those who proudly mounted scaffold's stairs—to those whose flesh was scarred and torn—to those by fire consumed—to all the wise, the good, the brave of every land, whose thoughts and deeds have given freedom to the sons of men. And then I vowed to grasp the torch that they had held, and hold it high, that light might conquer darkness still.

Colonel Robert G. Ingersoll—so much for that lie about atheists in foxholes—here expresses better than most, the feeling of shedding those shackles, or should I say mind vice (vise works well, too), but it is a memetic virus, a cultural meme that spreads like an STD, debilitates and deranges the thinking, and is as addictive as the worst of drugs. And, like all addictive substances, it serves only the purposes of the pusher while sapping the life from the user. From a time long before I realized just how different I was from most others, for I have always been an atheist, I know the tragedy that is the change in once bright minds that comes from inculcation into these superstitions. From almost the day the addiction takes hold, that all too familiar dishonesty predominates. 

Imagine what humanity could have achieved, the suffering that could have been eliminated, if only our thoughts were free to soar without the shackles of superstition, without the limits of tradition, and without the retrogressive reaction of conservatism anchoring our institutions, or dragging us all back, to some primitive past.

Reject religion. Reject tradition. Reject conservatism. Reject any and every attempt by authority to impose structure upon society. Our society can only grow to attain and maintain balance and stability when our social structure is built through mutually supportive interests, cooperative and collaborative interactions, and global beneficence. 

In a country quickly sinking into the depths of Nazism, becoming a failed democracy,  with nationalistic vultures circling overhead and quickening the country's demise where they can, the facts were never more important. So, why do so many in this country reject facts? Why do so many follow fascist frauds like lost sheep? Besides being a white supremacist, neo-nazi, narcissist, fascist, capitalist, corporatist, themselves, perhaps religious conservatives fear freedom. To understand this psychological state try reading Escape from Freedom, by Erich Fromm. I found it helpful.

Thanks for reading.