"Why I am not a Christian and other religious essays" by Bertrand Russell
Introduction
Bertrand Russell was a British philosopher, logician, mathematician, historian, social critic and political activist. His strong condemnation of organized religion, imperialism, war, communism met with severe opposition from religious groups and governments alike. Another topic on which he was severely deprecated was on his liberal viewpoints on sexuality. On more than one occasion American press had termed him as " a desiccated, divorced and decadent advocate of sexual promiscuity... in this libertarian rules for loose living in matters of sex and promiscuous love and vagrant marriage...".
"His work has had a considerable influence on logic, mathematics, set theory, linguistics, artificial intelligence, cognitive science,computer science and philosophy, especially philosophy of language, epistemology and metaphysics[1]".
Read more about Russell here.
Essays I found interesting
1. Why I am not a Christian
2. Has religion made useful contributions to civilisation?
3. Can religion cure our troubles?
In these three classic essays Russell constructively presents his arguments in favor of his disbelief of organized religions. In the first essay, he is particularly critical about the Existence of God, Christianity and concept of salvation. He suggests fear to be the foundation of religion and that Church has retarded the progress of human consciousness and free thinking than elevating it. He also comments that Church's indoctrination of sex as a 'indulgence' and its firm opposition to birth control techniques are dangerous to the human welfare. He also decouples the idea of righteousness from religious dogma.
4. What I believe
In this essay Russell holds the view that : " The good life is one inspired by love and guided by knowledge". He discusses the idea of 'love' in depth. He maintains that love is a right mixture of delight and well wishing. It is stupidity, he says, to disseminate love from knowledge. He also notices that morality in its essence must arise out of scientific inquiry and not superstitions. He advocates that a society which works towards eradicating fear in people will flourish intellectually.
5. Our sexual ethics
This essay is a deep analysis of sexual morality in the context of modern society.
6. Freedom and colleges
Russell argues that academic freedom in America was threatened by Plutocracy and Church. In his view, minority opinions howsoever diverged they are from the majority opinion must be given due regard. This hold especially in the case of academia which is supposed to instill in students ability to weigh arguments without prejudice. Collective wisdom in his opinion, is not above individual intelligence. He proposes that in a working democracy there must freely exist independent bodies that criticizes the state. He also strongly condemns the taxpayers' demand for right to interfere in the nature and direction of education in universities simply because they are paying for it.
Other essays
Do we survive death, 'Seems,Madam? Nay, it is', On Catholic and Protestant Sceptics, Nice people, The existence of God- A debate, Religion and Morals.
I personally enjoyed reading Appendix too where the history of a particular instance of American opposition to Russell's appointment as Professor of Philosophy at City college, New York is accounted. It shows the strong opposition and denunciation faced by him from the zealots and the enthralling support he enjoyed from the intellectual community spanning the world.
Bottomline
Like most of his other works, this collection of essays are intellectually stimulating and food for deep thoughts. His authoritative reasoning is a joy to ruminate upon. I must however warn you that its not a easy bed time read. True to his nature as a mathematician, he will present you the most intricate reasoning which will demand some time and tease of your mind.
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