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Ingersoll on The HOLY BIBLE, from the Works of Robert G. Ingersoll, Volume 3, Lecture 9

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VI. JEHOVAH'S ADMINISTRATION. HE created the world, the hosts of heaven, a man and woman—placed them in a garden. Then the serpent deceived them, and they were cast out and made to earn their bread. Jehovah had been thwarted. Then he tried again. He went on for about sixteen hundred years trying to civilize the people. No schools, no churches, no Bible, no tracts—nobody taught to read or write. No Ten Commandments. The people grew worse and worse, until the merciful Jehovah sent the flood and drowned all the people except Noah and his family, eight in all. Then he started again, and changed their diet. At first Adam and Eve were vegetarians. After the flood Jehovah said: "Every moving thing that liveth shall be meat for you"—snakes and buzzards. Then he failed again, and at the Tower of Babel he dispersed and scattered the people. Finding that he could not succeed with all the people, he thought he would try a few, so he selected Abraham and his descendants. Again he failed, and his chosen people were captured by the Egyptians and enslaved for four hundred years. Then he tried again—rescued them from Pharaoh and started for Palestine. Then he changed their diet, allowing them to eat only the beasts that parted the hoof and chewed the cud. Again he failed. The people hated him, and preferred the slavery of Egypt to the freedom of Jehovah. So he kept them wandering until nearly all who came from Egypt had died. Then he tried again—took them into Palestine and had them governed by judges. This, too, was a failure—no schools, no Bible. Then he tried kings, and the kings were mostly idolaters. Then the chosen people were conquered and carried into captivity by the Babylonians. Another failure. Then they returned, and Jehovah tried prophets—howlers and wailers—but the people grew worse and worse. No schools, no sciences, no arts, no commerce. Then Jehovah took upon himself flesh, was born of a woman, and lived among the people that he had been trying to civilize for several thousand years. Then these people, following the law that Jehovah had given them in the wilderness, charged this Jehovah-man—this Christ—with blasphemy; tried, convicted and killed him. Jehovah had failed again. Then he deserted the Jews and turned his attention to the rest of the world. And now the Jews, deserted by Jehovah, persecuted by Christians, are the most prosperous people on the earth. Again has Jehovah failed. What an administration! <div style="break-after:column;"></div>

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