Robert G. Ingersoll Quotes
An infinite God ought to be able to protect Himself, without going in partnership with State Legislatures.
Ingersoll, Robert G. "Trial of C. B. Reynolds for Blasphemy." The Works of Robert G. Ingersoll, vol. 11, The Dresden Publishing Co., 1902, p. 94.
While most American leaders in 1776 advocated separation of church and state, others did not. There probably has been no better statement for religion in government than this one. Essentially, this view has been held by orthodox Christians, Jews, Muslims and has been at the heart of every theocracy such as Iran.
Stephani had written a legal analysis of the 1555 “Peace of Augsburg” and used the phrase of the quotation to describe the most basic and important legal agreement. It was that the recognized religion of a nation would be determined by the religion of the king or other ruler. Prior, Protestant and Catholic nations were constantly warring with each other and supporting insurrections in another country of its co-religionists and often warring with the other country where some towns were mostly Protestant and others, mostly Catholic. The treaty which dealt with Europe initially allowed Catholic citizens of a nation ruled by a Protestant to emigrate to a Catholic nation and the reverse. Those who chose to remain, would therefore be a minority of the country where their king was of a different faith. This principle is one of the reasons that English law requires the King or Queen to be the Head of the Church of England. In effect the Protestants controlling England at the time guaranteed that the sovereign was a Protestant and could not have a Catholic spouse in line for the throne. This then guaranteed that England would remain Protestant since the ruler was Protestant. Other European nations, Protestant and Catholic, had similar schemes and many still have them to this day.
Gabriel exaggerates in the sense that while the quotation is correct for many Muslims, it is by no means true of all. Iran for example is an Islamic theocracy, but Turkey is a 99 percent Muslim nation which is totally secular and in some ways is much more restrictive of Islamic teaching and practice than most secular democracies. The fundamentalist Muslim view of the state and religion is essentially the same as the ultra orthodox Jews and Christians. It is true that a greater proportion of Muslims believe in the merging of civil and religious law than Jews and Christians, but by no means all. The non Arab Muslims are much less likely to see the unity of state and religion.
This is a particularly interesting historical quotation because it succinctly gives a history of the various horrors of religious strife in British history—a history that was very well known to the American Founding Fathers and the general American Colonial population. This history was the major driver behind the public insistence for the Bill of Rights and the 1st Amendment which erected a wall of separation between church and state with government never favoring or abetting any particular religion.
The State of New Jersey reimbursed parents of public and private school children when the children took public transportation to school. Parents of religious school children wanted the same reimbursement. The Court would not allow that. The vote was 5-4.
Robert Green "Bob" Ingersoll was an American lawyer, a Civil War veteran, political leader, and orator of the United States during the Golden Age of Free Thought, noted for his broad range of culture and his defense of agnosticism. He was nicknamed "The Great Agnostic". Ingersoll was considered to be the greatest orator and political thinker of his day, but his overt atheistic views curtailed his elected political career.
