Robert G. Ingersoll popularizes the higher criticism…

Robert G. Ingersoll popularizes the higher criticism of the Bible, as well as a humanistic philosophy and a scientific rationalism.

A wealthy lawyer nationally known as a lecturer,  the red-haired "Bob" Ingersoll is in great demand and receives as much as thirty-five hundred dollars for a single evening's performance, in which he seeks to expose the orthodox superstitions of the times with brilliant oratory and wit.

Known as "the great agnostic", he speaks on every subject, from Shakespeare to Reconstruction, but his most popular subjects are agnosticism and the sanctity and refuge of the family.

He commits his speeches to memory although they are sometimes more than three hours long.

Ingersoll had served in the American Civil War, after which he became a staunch Republican, serving as Illinois attorney general (1867­-69) and as a party spokesman in presidential campaigns.

He dies from congestive heart failure at the age of sixty-five in 1899.