By 1882, Ingersoll was a prominent public figure, a distinguished war hero, having campaigned for multiple US presidents and delivered several impactful, liberal, atheistic speeches.
To these, ministers responded in their pulpits. The Reverend Thomas De Witt Talmage, one of the most prominent Presbyterian ministers of the day, made a public dialogue with Ingersoll through six sermons, to which Ingersoll responded one after the other in a series of six interviews.
We lack Talmage’s full sermons; however, Ingersoll and interviewer I. Newton Baker represent him charitably, frequently and at length. As a the son of a Presbyterian preacher himself, Ingersoll was familiar with Talmage’s worldview, and so are we if we recognize the same apologetics going around today.
The six interviews on Talmage are a counterapologetics masterclass and well worth a read in their entirety. Below I have abridged some highlights and faithfully adapted their verbiage to the parlance of the current century.
Preface and first interview
Second interview
Third interview
Fourth interview
Fifth interview
Sixth interview
Do you recognize any of these arguments still playing out today?
Portraits of Robert Ingersoll, Thomas Talmage and Charles Spurgeon from Wikimedia Commons.
Religion is politics about the unknown 