…the most cruel, heartless and bestial of all dogmas.
…a creed that would shock the heart of a hyena.
Is it possible that God delights in threatening and terrifying men?
According to the orthodox creeds, Christianity came with the tidings that the human race was totally depraved, and that all men were in a lost condition, and that all who rejected or failed to believe the new religion, would be tormented in eternal fire.
…It is a doctrine so abhorrent to every drop of my blood, so infinitely cruel, that it is impossible for me to respect... (It) is a proposition so monstrous that I am astonished it ever found lodgment in the brain of man.
Infinite punishment is infinite cruelty, endless injustice, immortal meanness.
(In criticizing orthodox religion) I have not torn the good down. I have only endeavored to trample out the ignorant and cruel fires of hell.
(From a biographer: Everlasting punishment of the "unrepenting sinner," of the "wicked," of anybody, was to Ingersoll’s mind and heart an unspeakable horror -- a frightful insanity. This doctrine it was that first opened his eyes to the falseness of Christian theology, and separated him forever from all confidence in, and sympathy with its teachings, and made him one of its most implacable foes.)
