Bertrand Russell, the greatest philosopher
of the 20th century, was born on May 18, 1872. He is best known for
his works on logic, knowledge, and mathematics; his A History of Western Philosophy is an elegant and entertaining
overview of the thoughts and thinkers of the Western world from pre-Socratic
times down to his day. He received the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1950.
In 1927 Russell gave a speech in London
called “Why I Am Not a Christian.” He defined a Christian as one who a)
believes in God and immortality, and b) believes, at the very least, that Jesus
Christ was “if not divine, at least the best and wisest of men.”
Addressing the first condition, Russell laid
out some of the arguments for the existence of God. In short order he demolished:
·
The
First-cause Argument. “If everything must have a cause, then God must have a
cause,” Russell said. “If there can be anything without a cause, it may just as
well be the world as God.”
·
The Argument from Design. (Everything in the
world has been created so that we can live in it and appreciate it, and if it
weren’t made just so, we could not live in it.) “It is a most astonishing thing
that people can believe that this world…should be the best that omnipotence and
omniscience have been able to produce in millions of years,” Russell said.
·
The
Moral Argument. (There would be no right or wrong unless God existed.) Russell
pointed out that if God created both right and wrong, then there was no
difference in quality or truth between the two, and therefore it became
meaningless to say that God is good.
Turning to the
second condition, concerning the character of Christ, Russell first admitted
that Jesus said some wonderful things, among them “Turn the other cheek,”
“Judge not lest ye be judged,” and “Sell that which thou hast, and give to the
poor.” But he noted that he was consistently less than wise, as he firmly
believed that his second coming would happen within the lifetimes of those he
was addressing. And because he believed in hell, and angrily condemned those
who did not heed his warnings about eternal punishment, Russell judged Jesus to
be far less than a paragon of virtue. In fact he placed Socrates and Buddha
above him.
“The Christian
religion, as organized in its churches,” Russell concluded, “has been and still
is the principal enemy of moral progress in the world…
“When you hear
people in church debasing themselves…it seems contemptible and not worthy of
self-respecting human beings…"
And finally:
“A good world needs knowledge, kindliness and courage; it does not need…a fettering of the free intelligence by the words uttered long ago by ignorant men.”
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