- Paperback: 208 pages
- Publisher: Routledge; New Ed edition (31 Dec 1975)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0415079187
- ISBN-13: 978-0415079181
- Product Dimensions: 19.3 x 12.7 x 1.5 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (49 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 905,595 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- See Complete Table of Contents
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Review
'Devastating in its use of cold logic.' - The Independent
'The most robust as well as the most witty infidel since Voltaire and he can not fail to sharpen men's sense of what is entailed both in belief and unbelief.' - The Spectator
'What makes the book valuable is life-long uncompromising intellectual honesty.' - Times Literary Supplement
Product Description
While its tone is playful and frivolous, this book poses tough questions over the nature of religion and belief.
Religion provides comfortable responses to the questions that have always beset humankind - why are we here, what is the point of being alive, how ought we to behave? Russell snatches that comfort away, leaving us instead with other, more troublesome alternatives: responsibility, autonomy, self-awareness. He tells us that the time to live is now, the place to live is here, and the way to be happy is to ensure others are happy.
--This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
127 of 139 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I first came across this book when I was at school. Our divinity teacher, a clergyman, was asked about it and he told us not to read it because it was wicked. The result was that most of the class read it and, in my case, it was the first step to becoming an atheist.
Russell, in his fifteen essays, is humane, rational and tolerant. Indeed, he exhibits many of the qualities his christian critics appear to lack. Anyone who approaches this book with an open mind will be encouraged to think about beliefs and superstitions which from childhood many of us were encouraged to accept uncritically. The result, for some readers, will be to discover a freedom of thought and action outside the stultifying, and often nonsensical, strictures of religious belief. This is a stimulating book which has the capacity, if approached with an open mind, to change your life for the better. In reading it you have nothing to lose except what William Blake descibed as "mind forged manacles." Russell is a helpful step towards intellectual freedom.
74 of 84 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
A compilation of lectures and essays dating back to the 1920s, the contents of this book is liberating for any inquiring person feeling trapped in the nonsense of religious superstition. Years ago while attending college in the U.S., I came across this book and was captured by this quotation on the back cover:
"Religion, since it has its source in terror, has dignified certain kinds of fear and made people think them not disgraceful. In this it has done mankind a great disservice: all fear is bad..."
This book stripped the blindfold of religion from my eyes and opened the way toward rational thought. I never looked back. It's a good starting point for anybody wanting to step free of the muck that clutters too many minds, whether Christian or any other religion. Beyond this book are several others on a variety of subjects displaying Russell's compelling clarity of thought. The Basic Writings of Bertrand Russell is certainly one I can recommend. Give it a shot; you have nothing to lose but your chains.
29 of 33 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I snatched this book off the shelves when I saw it, eager to dive in, and it did not disappoint me at all. Living in the Bible Belt as I currently do, it is amazing to see the closed-mindedness of the local Bible-thumpers. Every other day the letters to the editor have some religious overtones to them. A profile of a prominent local atheist brought the same kind of ignorance and fear that Russell himself was forced to deal with. If anything else in the book doesn't make you question organized religion and its bid for world-dominance, the tragic story of Russell's failed bid to teach at the City College of NY will show you how afraid religion (specifically Christians) do not want anyone bucking the system and thinking for themselves. A must read for all people, followers of organized religion or not.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Very good
Very good read. Bertrand Russell expresses himself brilliantly, with both humour and intellect. A pleasure to read. Read more
Published 24 days ago by Dragongem
This shows how much progress humanity has made in the past 50 years
I was quite surprised how weak Russell's arguments are, as set out in his 1927 speech 'Why I am not a Christian'. Read more
Published 5 months ago by Ray Rational
Like having a best friend/ VIP round for tea
Bertrand Russell shares many good ideas in,' Why I am not a Christian'. I admire that he is not afraid to take an honest critical evaluation of religion, specifically Christianity. Read more
Published 11 months ago by A.
Essential reading for the new non-believer!
I thought I ought to try reading some Bertrand Russell and someone recommended this as a good starting point. She was quite right. Entertaining and thought-provoking.
Published 19 months ago by h1vac
Good but not quite Great...
One of the things I thought while reading The God Delusion is that:
"Surely this book is not unprecedented. Read more
"Surely this book is not unprecedented. Read more
Published 22 months ago by Magic Lemur
Outstanding
Betrand Russell's beautifully written, cogent arguments are always a pleasure to read! Amazingly timely although many of the essays were written 70-90 years ago. Read more
Published 22 months ago by G. Slade
How Can You Believe If You're Thinking?
This is a beautiful critique on the fallacy of religious belief and not just christianity. Simply, we believe because we are brought up to. Read more
Published on 9 May 2010 by demola
Why Russell wasn't a Christian
This is a fascinating book. I bought it primarily for Bertrand Russell's seminal public address of 1927, from which the book takes its title. Read more
Published on 29 Mar 2010 by K. Moss
Russell on the impact of religion and intelligibility of belief
This book is a collection of short essays on Russell's approach to Christianity, theological argument and the impact of religion on the world. Read more
Published on 20 Jan 2010 by Mr. Bde Wall
Prescient and lucid.
I am a dabbler and not a philosophy geek. I read widely for recreation only, in that I am not studying for anything, merely trying to widen my overall knowledge and appreciation of... Read more
Published on 20 April 2009 by R. E. Lee
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