02340nam a22001697a 4500 0042000289 211 Russell, Bertrand Why I am Not a Christian : And Other Essays on Religion and Related Subjects Bertrand Russell London Unwin Paperbacks 1989 205 Pages 13x20 cm PB Include Appendix and Index. The 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. Dedicated 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. Free thought Religion--Philosophy Religion Atheism Philosophy and religion Christianity BK 6383 6383 0 0 0 211_000000000000000_R949W_1989 0 NFIC 6815 GPL GPL GEN 2016-12-26 MSL 202.50 211 R949W 1989 10219 2016-12-26 2016-12-26 BK