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About this quote

What does it mean?
Physical monuments and gatherings cannot prove supernatural events; they only show people believed in them.
In plain terms
Monuments prove belief not miracles.
What can you take from it?
Belief does not prove truth.

Where it applies

  • debating religion
  • analyzing historical claims

Putting it to work

  • critique of evidence
  • questioning dogma

Questions to consider

  • What counts as evidence for you?
  • Can belief create truth?

Another view

It dismisses the cultural value of monuments.

More from Robert G. Ingersoll

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  2. So far as I am concerned, I think more of reasons than of reputations, more of principles than of persons, more of nature than of names, more of facts, than of…

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  3. Prejudice, egotism, hatred, contempt, disdain, are the enemies of truth and progress.

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