To the question that retains its controversial power today-was the United States founded as a Christian nation?-Ingersoll answered an emphatic no. presidency had he been willing to mask his opposition to religion. When he died in 1899, even his religious enemies acknowledged that he might have aspired to the U.S. The Great Agnostic: Robert Ingersoll and American Freethought (Yale University Press, 2013)ĭuring the Gilded Age, which saw the dawn of America’s enduring culture wars, Robert Green Ingersoll was known as “the Great Agnostic.” The nation’s most famous orator, he raised his voice on behalf of Enlightenment reason, secularism, and the separation of church and state with a vigor unmatched since America’s revolutionary generation. –Rebecca Newberger Goldstein, author of Plato at the Googleplex He has found his perfect biographer in Susan Jacoby, who uses his story to provide deep insights not only into Ingersoll’s century but into our own.” “Robert Ingersoll used his wit to blast the absurdities of religion, while his warmth kept him close to his audiences.
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