02289nam a22001457a 4500020001500000082000800015100002200023245009900045260003500144300002800179505003200207520022500239520158200464650009702046  a0042000289  a211  aRussell, Bertrand  aWhy I am Not a Christian : And Other Essays on Religion and Related SubjectscBertrand Russell  aLondonbUnwin Paperbacksc1989  a205 Pagesb13x20 cmbPB  aInclude Appendix and Index.  aThe title-essay, with its incisive analysis of Christianity, is followed by a major statement of Russell's own beliefs, discussions of immortality, the misery caused by religion, and the danger of looking to it for help.  aDedicated as few men have been to the life of reason, Bertrand Russell has always been concerned with the basic questions to which religion also addresses itself -- questions about man's place in the universe and the nature of the good life, questions that involve life after death, morality, freedom, education, and sexual ethics. He brings to his treatment of these questions the same courage, scrupulous logic, and lofty wisdom for which his other work as philosopher, writer, and teacher has been famous. These qualities make the essays included in this book perhaps the most graceful and moving presentation of the freethinker's position since the days of Hume and Voltaire.
"I am as firmly convinced that religions do harm as I am that they are untrue," Russell declares in his Preface, and his reasoned opposition to any system or dogma which he feels may shackle man's mind runs through all the essays in this book, whether they were written as early as 1899 or as late as 1954.

The book has been edited, with Lord Russell's full approval and cooperation, by Professor Paul Edwards of the Philosophy Department of New York University. In an Appendix, Professor Edwards contributes a full account of the highly controversial "Bertrand Russell Case" of 1940, in which Russell was judicially declared "unfit" to teach philosophy at the College of the City of New York.

Whether the reader shares or rejects Bertrand Russell's views, he will find this book an invigorating challenge to set notions, a masterly statement of a philosophical position, and a pure joy to read.  aFree thoughtaReligion--PhilosophyaReligionaAtheismaPhilosophy and religionaChristianity