Pertinent (and impertinent) Bertrand Russell Quotes

[MineralMan]

Last edited Sat Nov 10, 2018, 01:51 PM - Edit history (1)

Bertrand Russell, the noted philosopher and Nobel Prize Laureate, is much-maligned by religionists. That's not surprising, I suppose, since he had much to say about religion in general. Here are a few quotes on that subject from a prolific writer and skeptic:

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"The fact that an opinion has been widely held is no evidence whatever that it is not utterly absurd." from Marriage and Morals, 1929

"Cruel men believe in a cruel god and use their belief to excuse their cruelty. Only kindly men believe in a kindly god, and they would be kindly in any case." from “Last Philosophical Testament: 1943-68”

"We may define "faith" as the firm belief in something for which there is no evidence. Where there is evidence, no one speaks of "faith." We do not speak of faith that two and two are four or that the earth is round. We only speak of faith when we wish to substitute emotion for evidence. The substitution of emotion for evidence is apt to lead to strife, since different groups, substitute different emotions." from “The Quotable Bertrand Russell”

"My whole religion is this: do every duty, and expect no reward for it, either here or hereafter." from Bertrand Russell on God and Religion

"Religions, which condemn the pleasures of sense, drive men to seek the pleasures of power. Throughout history power has been the vice of the ascetic." from The New York Herald-Tribune Magazine, March 6, 1938.

"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." from “Why I Am Not a Christian: And Other Essays on Religion and Related Subjects”

And finally,

"One is often told that it is a very wrong thing to attack religion, because religion makes men virtuous. So I am told; I have not noticed it." from Why I Am Not a Christian