''Why I Am Not a Christian'' is an

essay An essay is, generally, a piece of writing that gives the author's own argument, but the definition is vague, overlapping with those of a letter, a paper, an article, a pamphlet, and a short story. Essays have been sub-classified as formal a ...

by the

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies. ** Britishness, the British identity and common culture * British English, ...

philosopher

Bertrand Russell Bertrand Arthur William Russell, 3rd Earl Russell, (18 May 1872 – 2 February 1970) was a British mathematician, philosopher, logician, and public intellectual. He had a considerable influence on mathematics, logic, set theory, linguistics, ...

. Originally a talk given 6 March 1927 at Battersea Town Hall, under the auspices of the South London Branch of the

National Secular Society The National Secular Society (NSS) is a British campaigning organisation that promotes secularism and the separation of church and state. It holds that no one should gain advantage or disadvantage because of their religion or lack of it. It was ...

, it was published that year as a pamphlet and has been republished several times in English and in translation.

Russell begins by defining what he means by the term Christian and sets out to explain why he does not "believe in God and in immortality" and why he does not "think that Christ was the best and wisest of men", the two things he identifies as "essential to anybody calling himself a Christian". He considers a number of

logic Logic is the study of correct reasoning. It includes both formal and informal logic. Formal logic is the science of deductively valid inferences or of logical truths. It is a formal science investigating how conclusions follow from premise ...

al arguments for the

existence of God The existence of God (or more generally, the existence of deities) is a subject of debate in theology, philosophy of religion and popular culture. A wide variety of arguments for and against the existence of God or deities can be categorize ...

and goes into specifics about Christian theology. He argues against the "

argument from design The teleological argument (from ; also known as physico-theological argument, argument from design, or intelligent design argument) is an argument for the existence of God or, more generally, that complex functionality in the natural world wh ...

", and favours a naturalistic explanation. Russell also questions the morality of religion, which is, in his view, predominantly based on fear.

History

The first German edition was published in 1932 by ''Kreis der Freunde monistischen Schrifttums'', a monist association in

Dresden Dresden (, ; Upper Saxon: ''Dräsdn''; wen, label= Upper Sorbian, Drježdźany) is the capital city of the German state of Saxony and its second most populous city, after Leipzig. It is the 12th most populous city of Germany, the fourth ...

inspired by Ernst Haeckel. In 1957, Paul Edwards preferred Russell over the then more trendy

Ludwig Wittgenstein Ludwig Josef Johann Wittgenstein ( ; ; 26 April 1889 – 29 April 1951) was an Austrian-British philosopher who worked primarily in logic, the philosophy of mathematics, the philosophy of mind, and the philosophy of language. He is con ...

and published the essay and further texts referring to the background of ''

The Bertrand Russell Case ''The Bertrand Russell Case'', known officially as ''Kay v. Board of Higher Education'', was a case concerning the appointment of Bertrand Russell as Professor of Philosophy of the College of the City of New York, as well as a collection of arti ...

''. Russell had been denied a professorship in New York for his political and secular views, tolerance for gay and lesbian behaviour, and support of eugenics, particularly directed toward sterilizing "feeble-minded women". Some countries banned the book, including South Africa. The enhanced version has been republished in various editions since the 1960s. The New York Public Library listed it among the most influential books of the 20th century.New York Public Library website
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'' * ''Why I Am Not a Buddhist'', book by Evan Thompson, publ. 2020, Yale Univ. Press, criticizes what he calls ''Buddhist exceptionalism'', the idea in contemporary culture that (among other things) falsely views Buddhism as a kind of science, a mind science. Author mentions Russell's essay on p.22. Chapter 2 takes specific aim at '' Why Buddhism is True'' by Robert Wright. Instead of science or Buddhism, Thompson advocates the cosmopolitanism approach of Kwame Anthony Appiah, among others.

References

External links

Text of essay
at the Bertrand Russell Society website

{{DEFAULTSORT:Why I am not a Christian 1927 essays Essays by Bertrand Russell Books critical of Christianity Books critical of religion Books about atheism Censored books Censorship in South Africa Irreligion Skepticism Freethought Philosophy of religion literature Pamphlets

Contents

History

Similarly titled works by other authors

References

External links