The Great Agnostic & the Indianapolis 500

Important to understanding the Indianapolis Motor Speedway and the Indianapolis 500 is learning the influences active in the mind of the leading founder of the institution: Carl Graham Fisher. Clearly, the momentum of his work in establishing the facility in 1909 and the great race in 1911 is far more relevant to any success they both enjoy today than anything the people currently taking up space in the facility's executive offices do now.
 
Fisher, whose father was an alcoholic who deserted the family, left a void in the boy's life. One of the ways Carl attempted to compensate for that absence was to become a voracious reader. Biographies about strong male leadership figures such as Abraham Lincoln and Napoleon Bonaparte were among his favorite topics.
 
No one had a stronger influence on Fisher than Colonel Robert Ingersoll, a hugely talented orator known popularly as, "The Great Agnostic." His was an American era known as, "The Golden Age of Free Thought," from the Civil War extending to the beginning of World War I. It was a time of enthusiasm for the discoveries of science such as Charles Darwin's work and progressivism highlighted by the Women's Suffrage Movement.
 
An exploding segment of the American population challenged religious dogma and societal convention to seek worldly explanations for life's challenges. This complemented the industrial revolution when innovators employed scientific discoveries to produce amazing products such as the automobile, the airplane and the light bulb.
 
Religious leaders, especially fundamentalists, then and now take umbrage with Ingersoll's message. He violently railed against literal interpretations of the Bible, insisting that the book had lost much of its original messaging through calculated translations. He believed the Bible was worth reading but dismissed any notions that it was a blueprint to salvation. Much of it, he said, was hateful, destructive and manipulative in the design of elitists invested in controlling society.
 
Ingersoll especially despised teachings of the penalties of Hell - and that anyone would seriously believe such a destination existed. He said he hated a God that would pass what he viewed as unfair judgements that sent people to eternal damnation. To this he urged people to reject much of the Bible and said any God of love would never behave in such a mean-spirited manner to his children. He believed good works within the world were what was important to improve the human condition - and not condemnation for never embracing a savior.
 
Fisher blasphemed constantly and built a church in Miami Beach to help a pastor friend. He womanized and drank excessively and was generous with his wife Jane even after their divorce. He treated her more like a daughter than the object of a failed intimate relationship. He was known for rewarding a man for his contributions regardless of his race as evidenced by his black personal assistant and the composition of the laborers that built his great speed complex.
 
To paraphrase Ingersoll, he said, "The time to be happy is now. The place to be happy is here. The best way to be happy is to make others so." You can listen to some of Ingersoll's books on YouTube.
 
This was a complex message in the day as many fundamentalists challenged products like the bicycle as an implement of Satan that would lead to frivolity on the Sabbath - not dutiful Church attendance. For Ingersoll and Fisher that was boulder dash. They believed there was no better time than the moment to spread joy. By today's sensibilities that seems innocuous but in this age of awakening those of orthodoxy saw it as a threat to religion - either as a challenge to their grip on power or, authentically due to their convictions, a seduction away for the Savior - and clearly the path to destruction, to Hell.
 
Curious after learning that Fisher was influenced by the Colonel's writings I listened to a podcast of a collection of his lectures. Ingersoll didn't mince words. The former Civil War union officer was pretty clear it was his view that God existed in the domain of man's ignorance. More kindly put, perhaps, God was man's refuge in the face of the unexplainable.
 
As for Fisher it's doubtful he explored such philosophy to the extent of the man whose writings simultaneously liberated and angered a generation. While their lives overlapped by 25 years (Ingersoll passed away in 1899) it's doubtful the two ever met. Their cross section was the printed word and Ingersoll's views helped shaped the views of Fisher and his generation as they marched through their lives to re-shape a fast-changing world.
 
The Indianapolis 500 was born of a man who saw bringing joy to others in the here and now made a ton of sense. Did you know there is a free biography book about Carl Fisher on First Super Speedway? It is the first one published about this marvelous character and written by his ex-wife Jane. Ingersoll gets a mention, which is clue enough to me to look further. You should too. Check it out at the link below.