To love justice, to long for the right, to love mercy, to pitty the suffering, to assist the weak, to forget wrongs, and remember the benefit-to love the truth, to be sincere, to utter honest words, to love liberty, to wage relentless war against slavery in all its forms, to love wife and child and friend, to make a happy home, to love the beautiful; in art, in nature, to cultivate the mind, to be familiar with the mighty thoughts that genius has expressed, the noble deeds of all world, to cultivate courage and cheerfulness, to make others happy, to fill life with splendor of generous act, the warmth of loving words, to discard error, to destroy prejudice, to receive new truth with gladness, to cultivate hope, to see calm beyond the night, to do the best can be done and then to be resigned. This is the religion of reason, the credit of science. This satisfies the brain and heart.
-from the 19th century freethinker Robert Ingersoll’s ” On Science and Reason, “in What’s God Got To Do With It? (Steerforth), A timely compendium of his writing, edited by “O” Magazine-
