Started: March 13
Finished: March 14
Notes: Thought I'd see what famed liberal philosopher Bertrand Russell had to say about religion, Christianity specifically. Published in 1927.
Mini review: It turns out "Why I Am Not a Christian" is only a small part of this book, the rest being made up of lectures and writings from Russell, all pertaining to religion and his thoughts on the matter. "Why I Am Not a Christian" was indeed originally published in 1927, but the rest of this book dates from 1903 to about 1961 as far as I can tell. In fairness to Russell, he was writing during an earlier time and philosophy and theology have grown since then, but I must say I found most of his argument fairly weak, at least by modern standards. Most of his issues with religion in general and Christianity in particular were based off personal feelings about the lack of morals in people who are religious and/or Christian. I'm sure many an atheist or agnostic feels that way today, but I'd argue it's not a logical reason to disavow religion especially considering Christianity takes such things into account. I'm not opposed to strong arguments against religion, but they have to be strong in the first place. Also, Russell is still under the liberal notion that education alone can solve all the world's problems, and personally I believe the modern world has shown this not to be the case, especially as no small number of supposedly educated people have proven it otherwise.
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