Bertrand Russell and Atheism

Bertrand Arthur William Russell (May 18, 1872 - February 2, 1970), the third Earl Russell, was a philosopher and influential logician, an important political liberal, activist and philosopher. Millions looked up to Russell as a sort of prophet of the creative and rational life; at the same time, his stance on many topics was extremely controversial.

Russell was a self-proclaimed atheist, meaning that he believed in no God or higher power.  In fact, he even went so far as to say that life is purposeless!  He stated:

That Man is the product of causes which had no prevision of the end they were achieving; that his origin, his growth, his hopes and fears, his loves and his beliefs, are but the outcome of accidental collocations of atoms; that no fire, no heroism, no intensity of thought and feeling, can preserve an individual life beyond the grave; that all the labours of the ages, all the devotion, all the inspiration, all the noonday brightness of human genius, are destined to extinction in the vast death of the solar system, and that the whole temple of Man's achievement must inevitably be buried beneath the debris of a universe in ruins--all these things, if not quite beyound dispute, are yet so nearly certain, that no philosophy which rejects them can hope to stand. Only within the scaffolding of these truths, only on the firm foundation of unyielding despair, can the soul's habitation henceforth be safely built.

While the idea of living a life that is meaningless and without a higher power such as God may have offended many, there were also a lot of philosophers that tended to agree with Russell and were atheists themselves.  Three of the most important atheistic philosophers, Nietzsche, Russell, and Sartre, all admitted that apart from God, life is meaningless and absurd.

Nietzsche saw death as the ultimate liberation. He even emphasized the desire he has to freely choose when he dies. Walter Kaufmann, an atheistic author, affirms this when he says, "We should also give up the unseemly Christian teachings about suicide and accept it as a dignified and decent way of ending our lives."

I myself have debated the existence of a God, or a ‘higher power’ for quite some time.  I have so many questions on the existence of God, yet when I ask a believer, the answer I constantly get is that the Bible is the book of God and has the answers, and if it does not answer my question, I must have ‘faith.’

I have, and never will be a follower in life.  I find it absurd to believe in a thought, idea, or way of life just because the rest of society thinks it is the path to righteousness.  Their way is not everyone’s way.  I was taught to think for myself, and to make my own path in life.  I find it hard to believe something written in any book - whether it is the Bible, Koran, or another holy text – just because it is said to be from a higher power.

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I have seen very little proof in the teachings of any religion that I have looked into.  They want me to follow what they believe based on blind faith.  I would not jump off a bridge because everyone else was doing it and they said it was the way to go, so why would I live my life by something written in an ancient text just because everyone else does?  Someone else believed in those ideas, not me.

I can’t prove pink elephants don’t exist. But I don’t see any reason to believe in them, and so I don’t. Regarding ...

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