If all man needed upon earth was a "knowledge of G.o.d," then why the necessity of establishing educational inst.i.tutions?

Unless a child is taught to talk, it will never be able to speak the language of our tongue. Without teaching the child the rudiments of speech, he would be unable to communicate his thoughts to others.

Without proper training his "grunts" of expression would be meaningless, and the only way he could express himself would be by the primitive instinct of making signs and by pointing.

The brain needs the same kind of training as any other part of the body that requires exercise for development. Nourishment for the mind is just as necessary as nourishment for the body.

Just as there are some foods which have been so adulterated and refined that when eaten they add no nourishment to the body, so there are truths which have been adulterated by religion and superst.i.tion so as to be utterly valueless in nourishing the mind with intelligence.

Education becomes the primary object of civilization.

As Thomas Paine says: "Wisdom is not the purchase of a day."

The church knows that an educated man is an unbeliever.

That is why there is a continual struggle on the part of the clergy to adulterate education with superst.i.tion. To maintain their untenable position they must keep the people shackled to a form of mental slavery.

Both fear and superst.i.tion are forms of a contagious disease.

The ignorance of man produced natural fears of the elements of nature.

What he could not understand he attributed to malevolent spirits whose primary purpose was to punish and harm him. Under this spell it seems almost incredible that he ever advanced from his state of primitive ignorance.

His fears produced such fantastic monsters of the air that it was first necessary to relieve his tormented mind of these terrifying myths of ghosts and G.o.ds before he was able to acquire even the simplest rudiments of knowledge.

Man's ignorance and fears made him an easy prey of priests.

His gullibility was such that he believed everything he was told.

He soon became a slave to these liars and hypocrites.

And what did the priests tell him?

They told him that G.o.d had made a special revelation in a book called the Bible, and that it was necessary to believe every word in that book in order that he might save his soul. They told him that if he disobeyed their commands, he would suffer eternal d.a.m.nation in a h.e.l.l where "the fire never ceases, and where the worm never dies."

They also told him that it was a sin for him to read that book, and that the priest was especially ordained by G.o.d to interpret the meaning of each and every word.

And what was the priest's interpretation of the text of that book?

It was that man was a corrupt and sinful being, and that in order to be saved from punishment after death, he had to give a substantial part of the fruits of his labor to the priest to pray for him, and intercede with G.o.d on his behalf, so as to mitigate the punishment to which he had already been doomed.

What a diabolical scheme of fraud by which to live upon the sweat and labor of others.

It was such a profitable scheme that the priests began to maintain their power by the force of arms.

As a result there came into existence the twin tyrannies of church and state.

It seems incredible that such nonsense was ever imposed upon suffering humanity, and nonsense it would be were it not so tragic.

So fearful did he become that he thought that he could not live without the "protection" of the priests, and as Ingersoll said, "as long as people wanted Popes, plenty of hypocrites will be found to take their place...."

Ingersoll further declared: "The priests pretended to stand between the wrath of the G.o.ds and the helplessness of man. He was man's attorney at the court of heaven. He carried to the invisible world a flag of truce, a protest and a request. He came back with a command, with authority and power. Man fell upon his knees before his own servant, and the priest, taking advantage of the awe inspired by his supposed influence with the G.o.ds, made of his fellow-man a cringing hypocrite and slave."

As long as there is one person suffering an injustice; as long as one person is forced to bear an unnecessary sorrow; as long as one person is subject to an undeserved pain, the worship of a G.o.d is a demoralizing humiliation.

As long as there is one mistake in the universe; as long as one wrong is permitted to exist; as long as there is hatred and antagonism among mankind, the existence of a G.o.d is a moral impossibility.

Ingersoll said: "Injustice upon earth renders the justice of heaven impossible."

Man's inhumanity to man will continue as long as man loves G.o.d more than he loves his fellow man.

The love of G.o.d means wasted love.

"For G.o.d and Country" means a divided allegiance--a 50 per cent patriot.

The most abused word in the language of man is the word "G.o.d."

The reason for this is that it is subject to so much abuse.

There is no other word in the human language that is as meaningless and incapable of explanation as is the word "G.o.d."

It is the beginning and end of nothing.

It is the Alpha and Omega of Ignorance.

It has as many meanings as there are minds. And as each person has an opinion of what the word G.o.d ought to mean, it is a word without premise, without foundation, and without substance.

It is without validity.

It is all things to all people, and is as meaningless as it is indefinable.

It is the most dangerous in the hands of the unscrupulous, and is the joker that trumps the ace.

It is the poisoned word that has paralyzed the brain of man.

"The fear of the Lord" is not the beginning of wisdom; on the contrary, it has made man a groveling slave; it has made raving lunatics of those who have attempted to interpret what G.o.d "is" and what is supposed to be our "duty" to G.o.d.

It has made man prost.i.tute the most precious things of life--it has made him sacrifice wife, and child, and home.

"In the name of G.o.d" means in the name of nothing--it has caused man to be a wastrel with the precious elixir of life, because there is no G.o.d.

Ingersoll could not understand the mind of those who, once having been told the truth, preferred to remain under the spell of superst.i.tion and in ignorance. He could not understand why people would not accept "new truths with gladness."

He also knew, however, that once a person's mind had been poisoned with religious superst.i.tion, it was almost impossible to free it from the paralyzing fear which destroyed its ability to think.

It is now established by verifiable evidence that religion stultifies the brain and is the great obstacle in the path of intellectual progress.

The more religious a person is, the more he is steeped in ignorance and superst.i.tion, the less is his sense of moral responsibility. The more intelligent a person, the less religious he is. There is an old saying that "where there are three scientists, there are two atheists."

The countries whose governments are dominated by religion and religious inst.i.tutions are the most backward. By the same token, the countries whose people are the most enlightened, and whose governments are based upon the principle of secularism--the separation of church and state--are the most progressive.