"Civil War veteran, successful lawyer, spellbinding orator and controversial iconoclast, Robert G. Ingersoll (1833-1899) was one of the best-known intellectuals of the nineteenth century. He rose to national prominence through his oratorical skills, which he publicly displayed on numerous lecture circuit tours. For almost twenty years this dedicated popularizer of progressive thinking and staunch critic of superstition would regularly address huge audiences, opening their minds to ideas that often provoked guarded whispers in private. Ingersoll was a man far ahead of his time, who advocated agnosticism, birth control, voting rights for women, the advancement of science, and civil rights for all races. Though eloquent on a wide variety of topics, he became most famous, and notorious, for his provocative lectures questioning the traditional, Bible-based Christian worldview of the age." "In this volume are collected his best-known lectures on religion, the Bible, morality, and related subjects. This collection is indispensable for freethinkers, humanists, and open-minded people of all persuasions."--BOOK JACKET.