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God

"I observe that a very large portion of the human race does not believe in God and  suffers no visible punishment in consequence.    And if there were a God, I think it very unlikely that He would have such an uneasy vanity as to be offended by those who doubt His existence." 7

If everything must have a cause, then God must have a cause.    If there can be anything without a cause, it may just as well be the world as God, so that there cannot be any validity in that argument."

"And as for God -- well, there are a great many arguments that have been advanced in favour of the existence of God, and I thought, and I still think, that one and all theyre invalid, and that nobody would have accepted such arguments if they hadn't wanted to believe the conclusions."1

"Most people believe in God because they have been taught from early infancy to do it, and that is the main reason.    Then I think the next most powerful reason is the wish for safety, a sort of feeling that there is a big brother who will look after you.    That plays a very profound part in influencing peoples desires for a belief in God."8

"Now take the whole question of the very dangerous condition the world is in.    I get letters constantly from people saying, Oh, God will look after it.  But He never has in the past, I don't know why they think He will in the future."

"Ive observed that the belief in the goodness of God is inversely proportional to the evidence.   When theres no evidence for it at all people believe it, and when things are going well and you might believe it, they don't."1

"I am sometimes shocked by the blasphemies of those who think themselves pious--for instance, the nuns who never take a bath without wearing a bathrobe all the time.  When asked why, since no man can see them, they reply: Oh, but you forget the good God.  Apparently they conceive of the Deity as a Peeping Tom, whose omnipotence enables Him to see through bathroom walls, but who is foiled by bathrobes.    This view strikes me as curious."6

Religions

"Religion is based, I think, primarily and mainly on fear.  Fear is the parent of cruelty, and therefore it is no wonder that cruelty and religion have gone hand in hand.  Science can help us to get over this craven fear in which mankind has lived for so many generations.   Science can teach us, and I think our own hearts can teach us, no longer to look around for imaginary supports, no longer to invent allies in the sky, but rather to look to our own efforts here below to make this world a fit place to live in, instead of the sort of place the Churches in all these centuries have made it."8

"I think all the great religions of the world...both untrue and harmful.    It is evident as a matter of  logic that, since they disagree, not more than one of them can be true.    With very few exceptions, the religion which a man accepts is that of the community in which he lives, which makes it obvious that the influence of the environment is what has led him to the religion in question." 8

"The fact is that religion is no longer sufficiently vital to take hold of anything new, it was formed long ago to suit certain ancient needs, and has subsisted by the force of tradition, but is no longer able to assimilate anything that cannot be viewed traditionally."5

Faith

"What I wish to maintain is that all faiths do harm.  We may define faith as the firm belief in something for which there is no evidence.  When there is evidence, no one speaks of faith.  We do not speak of faith that two and two are four or that the earth is round.    We only speak of faith when we wish to substitute emotion for evidence."3

Immortality

"I believe that when I die I shall rot, and nothing of my ego will survive.    I am not young, and I love life.    But I should scorn to shiver with terror at the thought of annihilation.    Happiness is nonetheless true happiness because it must come to an end, nor do thought and love lose their value because they are not everlasting." 8

"If we were not afraid of death, I do not believe that the idea immortality would even have arisen."8

Prayer

"It is not by prayer and humility that you cause things to go as you wish, but by acquiring a knowledge of natural laws.    The power you acquire in this way is much greater and more reliable than that formerly supposed to be acquired by prayer, because you could never tell if your prayer was answered favorably in Heaven."4

Jesus Christ

"The historical evidence for the existence of Christ the man is flimsy.    The views attributed to him are another matter.    Such views enable one to assess an individual, hypothetical or existing, who might hold them.    Some of the ethical views which purport to come from him are supportable.    The hallucinatory conviction that he possessed divinity was shared by many wandering mystics and lunatics of the day."2

"There is one very serious defect to my mind in Christs moral character, and that is that He believed in hell.    I do not myself feel that any person who is really profoundly humane can believe in everlasting punishment.    Christ certainly as depicted in the Gospels did believe in everlasting punishment, and one does find repeatedly a vindictive fury against those people who would not listen to His preaching -- an attitude which is not uncommon with preachers, but which does somewhat detract from superlative
excellence."8

The whole idea of throwing away your life blindly as an imagined service to Christ is a form of glorifying masochism and self-abasement before power.    It is an essentially oriental attitude which Christianity took over when it attributed to God the moral defects of cruel despots."2

Happiness

"I am constantly asked: What can you, with your cold rationalism, offer to the seeker after salvation that is comparable to the cosy homelike comfort of a fenced-in dogmatic creed? To this the answer is many-sided.    In the first place, I do not say that I can offer as much happiness as is to be obtained by the abdication of reason.    I do not say that I can offer as much happiness as is to be obtained from drink or drugs or amassing great wealth by swindling widows and orphans.    It is not the happiness of the individual convert that concerns me; it is the happiness of mankind.    If you genuinely desire the happiness of mankind, certain forms of ignoble personal happiness are not open to you.    If your child is ill, and you are a conscientious parent, you accept medical diagnosis, however doubtful and discouraging; if you accept the cheerful opinion of a quack and your child consequently dies, you are not excused by the pleasantness of belief in the quack while it lasted."4

References and Suggested Reading

1.   Bertrand Russell Speaks His Mind.    1960.
2.   Dear Bertrand Russell.    1969.
3.   Human Society in Ethics and Politics.    1954.
4.   Impact of Science on Society.    1953.
5.   The Prospects of Industrial Civilization.    1923.
6.   Unpopular Essays.    1950.
7.   "What is an Agnostic?" in Religion in America, ed.    Leo Rosten.    1963
8.    Why I am not a Christian and other Essays on Religion and related subjects.    1957