BrianJarrett.com

SOMEBODY ought to tell the truth about the Bible. The preachers dare not, because they would be driven from their pulpits. Professors in colleges dare not, because they would lose their salaries. Politicians dare not. They would be defeated. Editors dare not. They would lose subscribers. Merchants dare not, because they might lose customers. Men of fashion dare not, fearing that they would lose caste. Even clerks dare not, because they might be discharged.

And so I thought I would do it myself.

And so begins About the Holy Bible, by Robert Green Ingersoll. I was recently turned on to Ingersoll, a 19th century lawyer and freethinker, on an episode of Freethought Radio.  Dan Barker read one of his works on the absurdity of the Holy Trinity over the air and it inspired me to check him out.  I became fascinated with his writing, both in style and content, and with his clear-headed devotion to liberty and science and his vehement hatred of lying clergy and tyrants.

With all the hubub surrounding the recent explosion of atheist books from authors such as Sam Harris, Christopher Hitchens, Daniel Dennett, and Richard Dawkins, it’s worth pointing out that Ingersoll died before any of them were born.  Ingersoll lived during a period of heavy religious influence and American slavery (slavery which was, by the way, endorsed by the Bible).  His detractors spouted the same rhetoric as their modern-day counterparts; hijacking morality and holding it hostage with fire and brimstone tongues.  Ingersoll spoke out, just as our current non-believing authors are doing, and made the undeniable case for logic and reason, for liberty and freedom of one’s body and mind.  Ingersoll called himself an agnostic but a freethinker of today would probably call him a humanist and atheist.  Regardless, his words are still relevant over a century later, their message as important as ever.

His works are now in the public domain and can be read freely here.  I encourange everyone to read About the Holy Bible and Myth and Miracle.  I think once you read those, however, you’ll be ready for more.

I heard this on Free Thought Radio and thought I’d find the text and post it.  Enjoy.

Christ, according to the faith, is the second person in the Trinity, the Father being the first and the Holy Ghost the third. Each of these persons is God. Christ is his own father and his own son. The Holy Ghost is neither father nor son, but both. The son was begotten by the father, but existed before he was begotten – just the same before as after.

So, it is declared that the Father is God, and the Son God, and the Holy Ghost God, and that these three Gods make one God.

According to the celestial multiplication table, once one is three, and three times one is one, and according to heavenly subtraction, if we take two from three, three are left. The addition is equally peculiar, if we add two to one, we have but one …

How is it possible to prove the existence of the Trinity? Is it possible for a human being, who has been born but once, to comprehend, or to imagine the existence of three beings, each of whom is equal to the three?

Think of one of these beings as the father of one, and think of that one as half human and all God, and think of the third as having proceeded from the other two, and then think of the three as one.

Think that after the father begot the son, the father was still alone, and after the Holy Ghost proceeded from the father and the son, the father was still alone - because there never was and never will be but one God. At this point, absurdity having reached its limit, nothing more can be said except: ‘Let us pray.’

-Robert G. Ingersoll