Thomas Edison Attacked by Pastors, Denies Atheism

1910

GOOD CHANCE AS PASTORS FOR HEAVEN

Inventor Edison Denies Charge of Atheism and Says Preachers are Out for the Money

WEST ORANGE, N. J., Nov. 29. — That he is not an atheist, but that, on the other hand, he has as good a chance of going to heaven as any minister of the gospel, was the declaration of Thomas Alva Edison, the inventor about whose white head the war of religions is raging.

Edison declared some time ago that he did not believe in a hereafter in which crowns and harps and golden slippers would figure. Since then he has been attacked and defended. One of his notable assailants was Rev. Charles P. Aked, of the Fifth Avenue Baptist church — the Rockefeller church.

"I'm not an atheist — never have been — never said I was," said Edison today, "and those people who have called me one have not read what said. I believe in a supreme intelligence, but I have grave doubts as to whether the good folk of this earth are going to be roused from their graves to go to some beautiful, shining place up aloft. Don't see it, can't understand it, and neither can these ministers of fashionable churches. They don't even say what they think. Often they don't even think. It's all business with them. They tell me I am heading straight for hell. May be I am, but I'll take my chances with the fashionable minister and if there is such a spot as heaven I'll bet I get there first — yes, even before Dr. Aked.

"Here's what 'those' will do. A poor reporter, who had a leg shot off in the war when he was a correspondent for his paper, came to me for an interview. He writes a splendid story and I gave him the interview, because I wanted to help him. A certain clergyman read what I said and made some kind of a comment. The reporter went to him for an interview. Now what do you suppose that man of God answered? He said: 'Yes I will give you the interview — for $200.'"

—Lincoln Evening News, Lincoln, NE, Nov. 29, 1910, p. 3.