What I Believe (Routledge Classics)
Along with Why I Am Not a Christian, this essay must rank as the most articulate example of Russell's famed atheism. It is also one of the most notorious. Used as evidence in a 1940 court case in which Russell was declared unfit to teach college-level philosophy, What I Believe was to become one of his most defining works. The ideas contained within were and are controversial, contentious and - to the religious - downright blasphemous. A remarkable work, it remains the best concise introduction to Russell's thought.
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Community Reviews
My version contains, “What I Believe,” “The Good Life,” “What is a Christian,” and “Fear, the Basis of Religion.”
The best of the bunch is “What I Believe.” Feminism! Consent! Birth control! In the 1920s! How can you not love Bertrand Russell?
I love his logic, and I agree with a lot of what he says, indeed for years that was all there was to it for me. However now, after much reading, I'm a Christian primarily because I believe in human rights, and justifying it all back through a number of steps that are perhaps not as logical as Bertrand, I arrive at God and agreement with the teachings of Christ. (I am told this is not good enough by my Evangelical friends, but luckily they don't get to decide who is and isn't a Christian. I am equally unimpressed by their version of Christianity.) Although clearly Russell is highly ethical, I don't think he really addresses ethics as the argument for God.
“The Good Life,” is solid but it feels very incomplete to me. “What is a Christian,” is both descriptive and an analysis and I didn’t find it particularly useful. Finally, “Fear,” brings up some solid points but seems to apply not to “religion” generally but Christianity specifically, and while I don’t disagree with his points, it seems unfair in its incompleteness.
The best of the bunch is “What I Believe.” Feminism! Consent! Birth control! In the 1920s! How can you not love Bertrand Russell?
I love his logic, and I agree with a lot of what he says, indeed for years that was all there was to it for me. However now, after much reading, I'm a Christian primarily because I believe in human rights, and justifying it all back through a number of steps that are perhaps not as logical as Bertrand, I arrive at God and agreement with the teachings of Christ. (I am told this is not good enough by my Evangelical friends, but luckily they don't get to decide who is and isn't a Christian. I am equally unimpressed by their version of Christianity.) Although clearly Russell is highly ethical, I don't think he really addresses ethics as the argument for God.
“The Good Life,” is solid but it feels very incomplete to me. “What is a Christian,” is both descriptive and an analysis and I didn’t find it particularly useful. Finally, “Fear,” brings up some solid points but seems to apply not to “religion” generally but Christianity specifically, and while I don’t disagree with his points, it seems unfair in its incompleteness.
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