I had a good summer for reading. My ‘to read’ book pile, as usual, is deep. But my pendulum swing between periods of prolific reading and droughts of mindless TV has swung back to reading these last few months. Despite having several other books going at once, I recently picked up a thin volume while browsing Politics & Prose recently, I picked up a book titled, “What’s God Got to Do With It? Robert Ingersoll on Free Thought, Honest Talk & The Separation of Church & State”
Prior to the introduction, was this quote:
While I am opposed to all orthodox creeds, I have a creed myself; and my creed is this. Happiness is the only good. The time to be happy is now. The place to be happy is here. The way to be happy is to make others so. This creed is somewhat short, but is is long enough for this life, strong enough for this world. If there is another world, when we get there we can make another creed. But this creed certainly will do for this life.
Robert Green Ingersoll, 1882
I knew right away that I liked Robert Ingersoll and bought the book.
Robert Ingersoll was a famous politician and orator in the late 1800s. He was a strong advocate for freethought and humanism. The book contains excerpts from Ingersoll’s speeches and writings on topics including; God in the Constitution, Why I Am an Agnostic, Superstition, On Separation of Church and State, and How to Be Saved.
In the introduction, Tim Page, the editor of this thin volume wrote;
The present volume is intended to whet curiosity about the life and work of a most unusual American for a generation and a country that still has need of him. It is, unapologetically, a reading edition for a present-day audience; I have cut his speeches silently and generously, placing an emphasis on subjects that seem to have a continuing relevance.
He succeeded with me. It was wonderful and amazing to discover such writing that more than anything I can recall reading before more closely matched my own way of thinking on so many topics. I’ll be reading much more Ingersoll, and I recommend this volume to anyone who values my opinion.