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Bertrand Russell Quotes about Atheist

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Religion is based ... mainly upon fear ... fear of the mysterious, fear of defeat, fear of death. Fear is the parent of cruelty, and therefore it is no wonder if cruelty and religion have gone hand in hand. My own view

Religion is based ... mainly upon fear ... fear of the mysterious, fear of defeat, fear of death. Fear is the parent of cruelty, and therefore it is no wonder if cruelty and religion have gone hand in hand. My own view on religion is that of Lucretius. I regard it as a disease born of fear and as a source of untold misery to the human race.

Bertrand Russell
Atheist, Race, Views

There is something feeble and a little contemptible about a man who cannot face the perils of life without the help of comfortable myths.

Bertrand Russell
Atheist, Men, Littles
Bertrand Russell (2013). “Human Society in Ethics and Politics”, p.219, Routledge

An atheist, like a Christian, holds that we can know whether or not there is a God. The Christian holds that we can know there is a God; the atheist, that we can know there is not. The Agnostic suspends judgment, saying that there are not sufficient grounds either for affirmation or for denial. At the same time, an Agnostic may hold that the existence of God, though not impossible, is very improbable; he may even hold it so improbable that it is not worth considering in practice. In that case, he is not far removed from atheism.

Bertrand Russell
Christian, Atheist, Practice
Bertrand Russell (2009). “The Basic Writings of Bertrand Russell”, p.557, Routledge

That the world is in a bad shape is undeniable, but there is not the faintest reason in history to suppose that Christianity offers a way out.

Bertrand Russell
Atheist, World, Shapes

I do not pretend to be able to prove that there is no God. I equally cannot prove that Satan is a fiction. The Christian god may exist; so may the gods of Olympus, or of ancient Egypt, or of Babylon. But no one of these hypotheses is more probable than any other: they lie outside the region of even probable knowledge, and therefore there is no reason to consider any of them.

Bertrand Russell
Christian, Atheist, Fear
Bertrand Russell (1993). “The Quotable Bertrand Russell”

So far as I can remember, there is not one word in the Gospels in praise of intelligence.

Bertrand Russell
Death, Atheist, Religion
Bertrand Russell (2013). “Education and the Social Order”, p.73, Routledge

Conventional people are roused to fury by departure from convention, largely because they regard such departure as a criticism of themselves.

Bertrand Russell
Atheist, People, Criticism
Bertrand Russell (2015). “The Conquest of Happiness”, p.76, Lulu Press, Inc

I was told that The Chinese said they would bury me by the Western Lake and build a shrine to my memory. I have some slight regret that this did not happen, as I might have become a god, which would have been very chic for an atheist.

Bertrand Russell
Atheist, Memories, Regret
Bertrand Russell (2009). “Autobiography”, p.346, Routledge

I am myself a dissenter from all known religions, and I hope that every kind of religious belief will die out.

Bertrand Russell
Religious, Atheist, Religion
Bertrand Russell (2004). “Sceptical Essays”, p.125, Psychology Press

I say quite deliberately that the Christian religion, as organized in its Churches, has been and still is the principal enemy of moral progress in the world.

Bertrand Russell
Death, Christian, Atheist
Bertrand Russell (1957). “Why I Am Not a Christian: And Other Essays on Religion and Related Subjects”, p.21, Simon and Schuster

As a philosopher, if I were speaking to a purely philosophic audience I should say that I ought to describe myself as an Agnostic, because I do not think that there is a conclusive argument by which one can prove that there is not a God. On the other hand, if I am to convey the right impression to the ordinary man in the street I think that I ought to say that I am an Atheist, because, when I say that I cannot prove that there is not a God, I ought to add equally that I cannot prove that there are not the Homeric gods.

Bertrand Russell
Atheist, Men, Thinking
Bertrand Russell, John G. Slater, Peter Köllner (1997). “Last Philosophical Testament: 1943-68”, p.91, Psychology Press

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

A good world needs knowledge, kindliness, and courage; it does not need a regretful hankering after the past or a fettering of the free intelligence by the words uttered long ago by ignorant men.

Bertrand Russell
Motivational, Courage, Atheist
Bertrand Russell (1957). “Why I Am Not a Christian: And Other Essays on Religion and Related Subjects”, p.23, Simon and Schuster

It is undesirable to believe a proposition when there is no ground whatever for supposing it true

Bertrand Russell
Atheist, Philosophy, Believe
Sceptical Essays (1928) "On the Value of Scepticism"

Modern American politicians have the same cowardice about denying an equally bloodthirsty even sillier god, Jehovah. None of us would seriously consider the possibility that all the gods of Homer really exist... I think that all of us would say in regard to those gods that we were atheists. In regard to the Christian God, I should, I think, take exactly the same line.

Bertrand Russell
Christian, Atheist, Thinking

Fear is the parent of cruelty, and therefore it is no wonder if cruelty and religion go hand in hand.

Bertrand Russell
Atheist, Fear, Hands
Bertrand Russell (1993). “The Quotable Bertrand Russell”

My own view on religion is that of Lucretius. I regard it as a disease born of fear and as a source of untold misery to the human race.

Bertrand Russell
Atheist, Race, Views
Bertrand Russell (2016). “Why I Am Not a Christian”, p.50, Lulu Press, Inc

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