Bertrand Russell Quotes about Atheism

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What makes a free thinker is not his beliefs, but the way in which he holds them. If he holds them because his elders told him they were true when he was young, or if he holds them because if he did not he would be

What makes a free thinker is not his beliefs, but the way in which he holds them. If he holds them because his elders told him they were true when he was young, or if he holds them because if he did not he would be unhappy, his thought is not free; but if he holds them because, after careful thought, he finds a balance in their favor, then his thought is free, however odd his conclusions may seem.

Bertrand Russell

Balance, Atheism, Unhappy

Bertrand Russell (1944). “The Value of Free Thought: How to Become a Truth-seeker and Break the Chains of Mental Slavery”

Unless you assume a God, the question of life's purpose is meaningless.

Bertrand Russell

Religion, Atheism, Purpose

One is often told that it is a very wrong thing to attack religion, because religion makes men virtuous. So I am told; I have not noticed it.

Bertrand Russell

Men, Religion, Atheism

"Why I Am Not a Christian" (1927)

The universe may have a purpose, but nothing we know suggests that, if so, this purpose has any similarity to ours.

Bertrand Russell

Science, Doubt, Atheism

Bertrand Russell (1957). “Why I Am Not a Christian: And Other Essays on Religion and Related Subjects”, p.92, Simon and Schuster

Historically, it is quite doubtful whether Christ ever existed at all, and if He did we do not know anything about Him.

Bertrand Russell

Religion, Atheism, Christ

Bertrand Russell (2009). “The Basic Writings of Bertrand Russell”, p.573, Routledge

There is no logical impossibility in the hypothesis that the world sprang into being five minutes ago, exactly as it then was, with a population that "remembered" a wholly unreal past. There is no logically necessary connection between events at different times; therefore nothing that is happening now or will happen in the future can disprove the hypothesis that the world began five minutes ago.

Bertrand Russell

Past, Atheism, Events

Bertrand Russell (2016). “The Analysis of Mind”, p.223, Bertrand Russell

Religion is based, I think, primarily and mainly upon fear.

Bertrand Russell

Thinking, Atheism, Science And Religion

Bertrand Russell (1957). “Why I Am Not a Christian: And Other Essays on Religion and Related Subjects”, p.22, Simon and Schuster

There's a Bible on that shelf there. But I keep it next to Voltaire - poison and antidote.

Bertrand Russell

Doubt, Atheism, Next

"Kenneth Harris Talking To: Bertrand Russell". 1971.

Never try to discourage thinking, for you are sure to succeed.

Bertrand Russell

Thinking, Religion, Atheism

Bertrand Russell (2014). “The Autobiography of Bertrand Russell”, p.553, Routledge

I am as firmly convinced that religions do harm as I am that they are untrue.

Bertrand Russell

Atheist, Religion, Atheism

Bertrand Russell (1957). “Why I Am Not a Christian: And Other Essays on Religion and Related Subjects”, p.272, Simon and Schuster

[Regarding] the convention that clergymen are more virtuous than other men. Any average selection of mankind, set apart and told that it excels the rest in virtue, must tend to sink below the average.

Bertrand Russell

Men, Average, Atheism

Bertrand Russell (2015). “Why Men Fight: A Method of Abolishing the International Duel”, p.117, Lulu Press, Inc