Russell: What I believe

(Originally written September 3, 2005 in Book 2)

Why I am not a Christian
Bertrand Russell
1957

"What I believe"

Nature and man

Man is part of nature, not something contrasted with nature.

Man's thoughts and bodily movements follow the same laws as the motions of stars and atoms do.

The physical world is uninteresting and man is just a part of the physical world.

God and immortality find no support in science.

"I do not pretend to be able to prove that there is no God. I equally cannot prove that Satan is fiction. The Christian God may exist; so may the gods of Olympus, or of ancient Egypt, or of Babylon. But no one of these hypothesis is more probable than any other: they lie outside the region of probable knowledge, and therefore there is no reason to consider any of them" (Russell, 50-51).

The soul and body are not separate, that is a metaphysical superstition.

"Electrons and protons, like the soul, are logical fictions; each is really a history, a series of events, not a single persistent entity" (Russell, 52).

It is the fear of death that has created the idea of immortality.

If the world is controlled by God and God is moved by prayer, then the ones who are praying share in His omnipotence.

Immortality removes the fear of death.

All fear is bad. Religion has made certain fears acceptable.

We are "tiny parasites of this insignificant planet".

Man is the appraiser and arbitrator of value.

It is man's job to determine the good life, not nature or God.

The Good Life

"The good life is one inspired by love and guided by knowledge" (Russell, 56).

No matter how good a life may be, a better one can always be imagined.

Love is a range between pure delight in contemplation and pure benevolence.

Pure delight in contemplation is the love that deals with inanimate objects. Art is produced by this love. Pure benevolence is the side of love that has a genuine concern for another's well-being.

Love is an emotion. Love on principle is fallacious.

Love is an indissoluble combination of delight and well-wishing.

"In a perfect world, every sentient being would be to every other object of the fullest love, compounded o delight, benevolence, and understanding inextricably blended" (Russell, 59).

There are many in this world we cannot delight in because they are disgusting. If we love them we do violence to ourselves.

"Since all behavior springs from desire, ethics only has a part in influencing desire, not behavior.

Outside human desires there is no moral standard.

Moral Rules

Wars are acts of passion, not reason.

Morals arise through a conflict of interest, rather internally or externally.

Today's morality is the blending of superstition and utilitarianism.

Christianity uses moral laws to inflict cruelty upon sinners.

Clergy men make poor morals teachers because they condone acts that do harm while condemn acts that do no harm.

Russell uses this illustration to prove many points: The Church condemns the use of birth control but states it is good or rather, ok, for children to die because they were born with a venereal disease or that the parents were unable to provide financially.

Sex should be taught before puberty because in puberty teens are excitable. During puberty they should be taught morality and sex. This morality should be free of superstition. Sex must be wanted by both parties, but doesn't have to be in marriage.

Marital infidelity, if it is occasional is not necessarily a bad thing, besides there are worse things a man or woman can do. Divorce is sometimes a good thing. (Russell justifies his abuse of marriage).

Happiness is an instinct and morality should not encroach upon that instinct.

Criminals should be shown the compassion that diseased individuals are shown. Curing the "sickness of crime" is better than punishing the perpetrators. If we quarantined murders the way we isolate people with the plague we could cure their 'sick tendencies' through education.

Salvation: Individual and Social

One of the defects of religion is individualism or the duologue between one's soul and God.

Today's culture needs a concept of society's welfare as a whole, rather than the individual's welfare.

Justice is a wholly societal issue, not individual.

Any man that live individualistically is a parasite to society.

To live the good life man must have a good education, friends, love, children (if he desires them), a sufficient income to keep him from want, good health and a job which is interesting.

The good life requires a good society.

Personal salvation is an aristocratic ideal and an aristocratic society does not promote the good life. Therefore, personal salvation cannot be present in the good life.

The war to end war was caused by the Christian ideal of catastrophic conversion like Paul's.

Only a gradual movement through education, self-control and sympathy can create a change to the good life, not a knee-jerk conversion.

(If all mankind has active malevolence in their nature how can he unassisted rise above his nature to achieve the good life necessity of love as defined as pure benevolence?)

Science and Happiness

Active malevolence is the worst part of human nature. The causes of malevolence are partially social and partially physiological.

All things that increase security diminish cruelty.

Only justice brings security, when justice is used as the recognition of all men being equal in their humanness.

There is no limit to what science can do to increase courage and therefore increase security, diminishing cruelty.

Fear, envy and disappointment lead to malevolence.

To combat envy we must make the envious happier and give them a better life.

A better institution of society affords less envy.

Science, if used wisely can produce the good life and engineer humans to be more intelligent, artistic and benevolent.

Living a natural life imposes cruelty by thwarting their impulses.

Live should not be too closely regulated or too methodical; our impulses, when not positively destructive or injurious to others, ought if possible to have free play; there should be room for adventure.

Human nature and impulses and desires are what happiness is made of.

Science can mold our desires.