Bertrand Russell’s Why I am not a Christian led me on a voyage of discovery, not only into the writings of this extraordinary man, but also to think very deeply about our blind faith in God and religion.
The line “If I were granted omnipotence and millions of years to experiment in, I should not think Man much to boast of as the final result of all my efforts”, stuck out then and resonates now, almost daily.
I thought neither God nor religion have delivered this far on promises or claims. In fact, in the face of man’s very real achievements, God seems to be a serious underachiever.
Consider these
- Science tells us that the universe is 14.7 billion years old, and the Earth is 5.6 billion years old
- Modern Man or Homo sapiens have been around for a relatively short 300,000 years
- All known religions today started a mere 2,000 years ago or later.
- Why did God wait this long to announce his arrival to us mortals- the final perfection of his creation?
- If he is omnipotent why did he create so many religions?
- One god, one religion = Peace. Surely He could have figured that out.
- If in his wisdom he did created different religions, why does he allow
- Christians to fight with Muslims, Muslims with Hindus, and Buddhists with Muslims?
- Catholics with Protestants, Shiites with Sunnis, Shaivites with Vaishnavites, Mahayana with Theravada, Namdaris with Nirankaris.
Good God?
“One is often told that is it very wrong to attack religion, because religion makes men virtuous. So, I am told. I have not noticed it”. Russell
Russell’s extraordinary life ended in 1970 at the age of 98 by which time he had written 75 books and about 40,000 thousand articles, among which the book, In Praise of Idleness.
Wrong man to write it I thought when I first saw the cover. But it soon became my favourite. I suggest that you read this first as a kind of an” amuse-bouche for your brain” as the Australian humourist Bradley Trevor Grieve described it.
By the way, BTGs edition of this book is itself the best amuse-bouche for those uninitiated or intimidated by Russell eminence – he makes Russell much more accessible with his delightful wit and intelligence.
