It's Time to Prove Bertrand Russell Wrong: Christians Awake!

By: John T Jones, Ph.D.
Submitted: 2007-01-17 11:22:48
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Bertrand Russell in his “Why I’m Not a Christian” essay, speeches and books states that the Christian Churches hinder rather than improve the social condition.

You can read his lecture delivered on March 6, 1927 to the National Secular Society, South London Branch, at Battersea Town Hall at http://users.drew.edu/~jlenz/whynot.html

Russell’s biography and a list of his writings can be read at http://nobelprize.org/literature/laureates/1950/russell-bio.html

Bertrand Russell’s life was not always a happy journey.

He was born at Trelleck on 18th May, 1872. His parents were Viscount Amberley and Katherine, daughter of 2nd Baron Stanley of Alderley. At age three he was orphaned, got into trouble with the military during World War II because of his pacifism, was criticized for his views because he spent some time in the Soviet Union, was divorced more than once, and went from pillar to post lecturing in various universities.

His moral views were challenged by critics that resulted in legal action to stop him from lecturing at City College in New York.

Russell received prestigious rewards for his writings including being elected a fellow of the Royal Society in 1908, and re-elected a fellow of Trinity College in 1944, the Sylvester medal of the Royal Society in 1934, the de Morgan medal of the London Mathematical Society in the same year, and the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1950.

The British philosopher, logician, and mathematician died 2 February 2, 1970.

Some Reasons Russell Was Not a Christian

1. He did not believe that the existence of God was provable by “Unaided Reason, First Cause, Natural Law, Design, Moral Arguments, or Remedy Injustice Arguments.”

2. He was doubtful that Christ ever existed, said some of Christ’s philosophy is not original, he was not the greatest and wisest of all men, and his best philosophy is not followed by Christians because it is too difficult to live.

3. Christ didn’t come when he said he would. Early Christians assumed that Christ would come very soon and lived accordingly from day to day. He never came.

4. Christ taught there was hell and judgment which is too negative for man’s proper development.

5. I quote the great writer: You find as you look around the world that every single bit of progress in humane feeling, every improvement in the criminal law, every step toward the diminution of war, every step toward better treatment of the colored races, or every mitigation of slavery, every moral progress that there has been in the world, has been consistently opposed by the organized churches of the world. I say quite deliberately that the Christian religion, as organized in its churches, has been and still is the principal enemy of moral progress in the world.

6. I quote again: Religion is based, I think, primarily and mainly upon fear. It is partly the terror of the unknown and partly, as I have said, the wish to feel that you have a kind of elder brother who will stand by you in all your troubles and disputes. Fear is the basis of the whole thing–fear of the mysterious, fear of defeat, fear of death. Fear is the parent of cruelty, and therefore it is no wonder if cruelty and religion have gone hand in hand.

7. My last quote: A good world needs knowledge, kindliness, and courage; it does not need a regretful hankering after the past or a fettering of the free intelligence by the words uttered long ago by ignorant men. It needs a fearless outlook and a free intelligence. It needs hope for the future, not looking back all the time toward a past that is dead, which we trust will be far surpassed by the future that our intelligence can create.

My Amazingly Brilliant Responses to Russell’s Reasons for Not Being Christian

I chose a dead philosopher to argue with instead of a living philosopher. He can't reply.

I’m an engineer, not a philosopher. I call myself the hack writer. No one will take me seriously here but I’m going to give you my two bits anyway.

The usual Christian response to a critic is to call him names and downgrade him by attacking his character. Let’s avoid that approach. I didn’t know the man but I’m sure that I would have no reason to dislike him. I think that his lecture in 1927 was not polished but he made his points. I’ll take them one by one:

1. No one can prove or disprove that God exists. Trying to prove that God exist by mental exercise is silly. God has to reveal himself. When he does, you must still decide if it was God or not.

2. It’s silly to say that Christ never lived. We generally accept historical records of stating the truth on such matters. There are plenty of accounts of Christ’s life by people who lived and traveled with him. Christ never said that all his thoughts were stated by him for the first time. Nobody else did either. Who was the wisest of all men is a value judgment. Russell never said who was the greatest or who even came close. He said that he had to go with Christ on some subjects. So, who was greater?

3. It’s true that the early Christians thought that Christ was coming very soon. This is very evident by Christ’s words and early Christian writings. But Christ said that only his Father knew when the second coming would occur. He said that not even the angels in heaven knew the answer to that question.

4. There are two sides to the argument that teachings about hell are detrimental to the advancement of mankind. Punishment and reward can change human behavior. If hell exists then it exists. I’ll take Christ’s word for it.

5. It’s true the church has fought science and social norms. That will not change. The church can be very intolerant. But the church has to progress in this areas as in all other areas. WE must not allow this to happen in our churches. I heard a Catholic priest in Japan say as he quoted from the New Testament that when we criticize other churches we stop “much good.” If you tell a Baptist that his church is wrong so he doesn’t go to church anymore, then the work he was doing in his church stops. I’ve visited different churches and I have heard Baptist blast the Catholics for playing bingo to raise money. I say that we should mind our own business.

6. Russell says that fear is the parent of cruelty. I don’t think that is always true. It’s one of those generalities that have little meaning. Greed and hate and envy are more aptly the parents of cruelty. If a crook mugs you on the street, he wants your money. If he rapes you, he envies your body. If he beats you to death with a club, he hates the sight of you. It’s true that a man might fight back because of fear or he might kill a rattlesnake because of fear, but he is more apt to run for his life.

7. I have no argument here. Russell prefers science to religion, or a fact-based philosophy. Today’s science will not be the science of the future. Scientific ”truths” wither under new investigation. It is the nature of the beast. But science changes for the better, always pursuing the truth. It should be the same for religion. Past religious persecution needs to be analyzed and not repeated. The obviously false must not be retained because of tradition or the writings of the ancients. I like the Golden Rule: Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. If we all obeyed that rule we would not have to worry about the future.

Do your children know the Golden Rule?

copyright®2006 John T. Jones, Ph.D.

John T. Jones, Ph.D. (tjbooks@hotmail.com, a retired VP of R&D for Lenox China, is author of detective & western novels, nonfiction (business, scientific, engineering, humor), poetry, etc. Former editor of Ceramic Industry Magazine. He is Executive Representative of IWS sellers of Tyler Hicks wealth-success books and kits. He also sells TopFlight flagpoles. He calls himself "Taylor Jones, the hack writer."

More info: http://www.tjbooks.com

Business web site: http://www.aaaflagpoles.com

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