Religion is politics about the unknown

Why I am an Agnostic

Ingersoll delivered this speech in 1896, near the end of his career. It was a powerful and personal lecture that reflected on a lifetime spent fighting theocracy.

Have you ever modified any of your parents’ ideas?

Why or why not?

Background art:

  1. The Sermon, Gari Melchers, 1886.
  2. Sacrifice of Isaac, Caravaggio, c. 1603.
  3. George Whitefield Preaching, John Collet, c. 1768.
  4. A Methodist camp meeting in 1819 (handcolored engraving), Dubourg, M., engraver; Milbert, Jacques Gérard, artist, 1819.
  5. The Hussite Sermon, Carl Friedrich Lessing, 1836.
  6. The Baptism of Saint Prince Vladimir, Viktor Vasnetsov, 1890.
  7. Moses and the Brazen Serpent, Workshop of Anthony van Dyck, between 1618 and 1699.
  8. The Rich Man in Hell Seeing Lazarus in Abraham’s Lap, Jérôme David, c. 1640 – 1650.
  9. Queen Jezebel Being Punished by Jehu, Andrea Celesti, c. 1700.
  10. The Fall of the Rebel Angels, Luca Giordano, c. 1666.
  11. The Fall of Phaeton, Peter Paul Rubens, c. 1604-05.
  12. Tyrannosaurus with its prey, Edmontosaurus, Raul Martin, date unknown.
  13. Portrait of Jonathan Edwards, unknown artist, unknown date.
  14. Southern Ring Nebula, James Webb Space Telescope, 2022.
  15. The subsiding of the Waters of the Deluge, Thomas Cole, 1829.
  16. 1823, Mario Lanzas, 2023.
  17. David and Goliath, William Blake, c. 1805.
  18. The Tower of Babel, Pieter Brueghel the Elder, 1563.
  19. Thomas Paine, George Romney, 1792.
  20. The Judgment of Solomon, Nicholas Poussin, 1649.
  21. Meal fit for a King, Damir G. Martin, 2016.
  22. Man Proposes, God Disposes, Edwin Landseer, 1864.
  23. Aurora Borealis, Frederic Edwin Church, 1865.
  24. Composite of eight images in two sequences as a tornado formed north of Minneola, Kansas, May 24, 2016, JasonWeingart, Wikimedia Commons.
  25. Saint George and the Dragon, Raphael, 1503.
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