The Conditionalist Faith of Our Fathers, vol. 2

VII. Agnostic Ingersoll-Embittered by Eternal Torment Dogma

It was the fearsome dogma of the Eternal Torment of the wicked that caused Robert G. Ingersoll ⁹⁷ (d. 1899) to write in protest in the North American Review in 1881: “A Being of infinite wisdom has no right to create a person destined to everlasting pain.” ⁹⁸ And he adds: “Only from the lowest and most debased could come this most cruel, heartless, and absurd of all dogmas.” ⁹⁹ CFF2 514.4

The facts reveal that this belief sprang from pagan, not originally Christian or Old Testament Jewish, sources, as literally hundreds of scholars through the centuries attest. Ingersoll’s was an off-key infidelic voice in the chorus of revolt, otherwise largely comprised of devout believers in the Inspired Word. This was another tragic angle in the current conflict. CFF2 515.1