Product Description

Why I am not a Christian is considered one of the most blasphemous philosophical documents ever written, and at a time when we have faith schools and wars over religious beliefs, its message today couldn't be more relevant.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #4958 in Books
• Published on: 2004-02-02
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 256 pages

Review

'Devastating in its use of cold logic.' - The Independent

'The most robust as well as the most witty infidel since Voltaire and he can not fail to sharpen men's sense of what is entailed both in belief and unbelief.' - The Spectator

'What makes the book valuable is life-long uncompromising intellectual honesty.' - Times Literary Supplement

Synopsis
Why I am not a Christian is considered one of the most blasphemous philosophical documents ever written, and at a time when we have faith schools and wars over religious beliefs, its message today couldn't be more relevant. If religion provides comfortable responses to the questions that have always beset humankind - why are we here, what is the point of being alive, how ought we to behave - then Russell snatches that comfort away, leaving us instead with other, more troublesome alternatives: responsibility, autonomy, self-awareness. If it were possible to sum up this book in a sentence, then it would be that the time to live is now, the place to live is here, and the way to be happy is to ensure others are happy. And what it all boils down to, is that disbelief is but a matter of believing. Ranked alongside Voltaire's Candide , Tom Paine's Age of Reason , Martin Scorsese's The Last Temptation of Christ , and Monty Python's The Life of Brian , Bertrand Russell's Why I am not a Christian has made some odd 1edfellows over the years. While its tone is playful and frivolous, it poses tough questions over the nature of religion and belief.

From the Back Cover

With a new introduction by Simon Blackburn

‘Devastating in its use of cold logic.’ – The Independent

While its tone is playful and frivolous, this book poses tough questions over the nature of religion and belief. Religion provides comfortable responses to the questions that have always beset humankind - why are we here, what is the point of being alive, how ought we to behave? Russell snatched that comfort away, leaving us instead with other, more troublesome alternatives: responsibility, autonomy, self-awareness. He tells us that the time to live is now, the place to live is here, and the way to be happy is to ensure the happiness of others. First published: 1927.

Customer Reviews

Sensible arguements by a logical thinker
A whole variety of essays put together in this interesting book. Russells clear thinking is as some others have said 'A breath of fresh air'. Never was it more so than in the transcript of the televised arguement of 1948 with Bishop Copeland. I could barely understand what the erudite bishop was talking about but Russell kept his calm and politely put him in his place on several occasions - oh to see this for myself, it sounds hilarious.

Russell was a champion of womens rights during some fairly sexist years. I like many of his thoughts on this matter ie. Girls should not consider having children before the age of 20, people in their 20s should be free to go in and out of relationships without hangups as long as children are not involved, thereby learning what they really want and that money and relashionships should not be mixed. It all makes a lot of sense to me though of course this is contrary to much religeous thinking where in many places women are virtually owned by men. What a shame BR is no longer around, what would he think of the present days? I hope he would be pleased that some progress is being made, in Uk at least we live in a secular state where there is much freedom, people do not feel the need to marry unless they really want to and the likes of Bishop Copeland with his convoluted thinking would be largely ignored.

A most important book
I read this book at Loughborough University in 1967. A friend (Andy) suggested I read it. I got it from the university library and was amazed. It changed my life. No more did I feel I was alone in my beliefs. From then on I read like a mad person. My most recent hero is of course Richard Dawkins, but it was Russell who first introduced me to atheism in this wonderful but very naughty book. If everyone read it, the world would be a safer place.

Lucid, provocative and utterly sensible
Bertrand Russell's greatest skill was to communicate complex and provocative ideas with clarity and logic. Why I Am Not A Christian includes a variety of essays, some more immediately accessible than others, but the title work is as calm and reasonable dismantling of Christianity as could possibly be written. There is no point me reiterating his arguments here, but Russell makes so persuasive a case that the only conclusion is thus: if you believe Christianity is what it claims to be, you clearly haven't given the subject proper consideration