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Bertrand Russell Quotes about Religion

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The fact that an opinion has been widely held is no evidence whatever that it is not utterly absurd.

The fact that an opinion has been widely held is no evidence whatever that it is not utterly absurd.

Bertrand Russell

Education, Truth, Religion

Marriage and Morals ch. 5 (1929)

My whole religion is this: do every duty, and expect no reward for it, either here or hereafter.

Bertrand Russell

Religion, Rewards, Duty

Bertrand Russell (1986). “Bertrand Russell on God and Religion”

We may define "faith" as the firm belief in something for which there is no evidence. Where 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. The substitution of emotion for evidence is apt to lead to strife, since different groups, substitute different emotions.

Bertrand Russell

Two, Religion, Wish

Bertrand Russell (1993). “The Quotable Bertrand Russell”

Cruel men believe in a cruel god and use their belief to excuse their cruelty. Only kindly men believe in a kindly god, and they would be kindly in any case.

Bertrand Russell

Believe, Men, Religion

Bertrand Russell, John G. Slater, Peter Köllner (1997). “Last Philosophical Testament: 1943-68”, p.88, Psychology Press

Religions, which condemn the pleasures of sense, drive men to seek the pleasures of power. Throughout history power has been the vice of the ascetic.

Bertrand Russell

Power, Men, Religion

The New York Herald-Tribune Magazine, March 6, 1938.

Prison is a severe and terrible punishment; but for me, thanks to Arthur Balfour, this was not so. I was much cheered on my arrival by the warder at the gate, who had to take particulars about me. He asked my religion, and I replied 'agnostic.' He asked how to spell it, and remarked with a sigh: 'Well, there are many religions, but I suppose they all worship the same God.' This remark kept me cheerful for about a week.

Bertrand Russell

God, Punishment, Religion

Bertrand Russell (1998). “Autobiography”, p.257, Psychology Press

It is the things for which there is no evidence that are believed with passion.

Bertrand Russell

Passion, Religion, Evidence

Bertrand Russell (2009). “Fact and Fiction”, p.63, Routledge

RELIGION: A set of beliefs held as dogmas, dominating the conduct of life, going beyond or contrary to evidence, and inculcated by methods which are emotional or authoritarian, not intellectual.

Bertrand Russell

God, Emotional, Religion

Bertrand Russell, Richard A. Rempel, Beryl Haslam (2000). “Uncertain Paths to Freedom: Russia and China, 1919-22”, p.197, Psychology Press

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

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

Bertrand Russell

Religion, Atheism, Purpose

Even if we could be certain that one of the world's religions were perfectly true, given the sheer number of conflicting faiths on offer, every believer should expect damnation purely as a matter of probability.

Bertrand Russell

Numbers, Religion, World

[There has been] every kind of cruelty practiced upon all sorts of people in the name of religion.

Bertrand Russell

Names, People, Religion

Bertrand Russell (2016). “Why I Am Not a Christian”, p.17, Lulu Press, Inc

The immense majority of intellectually eminent men disbelieve in the Christian religion, but they conceal the fact in public, because they are afraid of losing their incomes.

Bertrand Russell

Christian, Men, Religion

Bertrand Russell (2004). “Sceptical Essays”, p.169, Psychology Press

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 world in which we live can be understood as a result of muddle and accident; but if it is the outcome of deliberate purpose, the purpose must have been that of a fiend. For my part, I find accident a less painful and more plausible hypothesis.

Bertrand Russell

Religion, Purpose, World

Bertrand Russell (1957). “Why I Am Not a Christian: And Other Essays on Religion and Related Subjects”, p.93, Simon and Schuster

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

The most savage controversies are about matters as to which there is no good evidence either way.

Bertrand Russell

Anger, Math, Religion

Bertrand Russell (2009). “The Basic Writings of Bertrand Russell”, p.67, Routledge

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

I know a parson who frightened his congregation terribly by telling them the second coming was very imminent indeed, but they were much consoled when they found he was planting trees in his garden.

Bertrand Russell

Garden, Tree, Religion

Bertrand Russell, John Greer Slater, Peter Köllner (1996). “A Fresh Look at Empiricism: 1927-42”, p.189, Psychology Press

No opinion has ever been too errant to become a creed.

Bertrand Russell

God, Religion, Opinion

This, however, is a passing nightmare; in time the earth will become again incapable of supporting life, and peace will return.

Bertrand Russell

Religion, Earth, Return

Bertrand Russell (1992). “The Basic Writings of Bertrand Russell, 1903-1959”, p.459, Psychology Press

The people who are regarded as moral luminaries are those who forego ordinary pleasures themselves and find compensation in interfering with the pleasures of others.

Bertrand Russell

People, Religion, Ordinary

Sceptical Essays

There can't be a practical reason for believing something that is not true.

Bertrand Russell

Believe, Religion, Reason

There is exactly the same degree of possibility and likelihood of the existence of the Christian God as there is of the existence of the Homeric god. I cannot prove that either the Christian god or the Homeric gods do not exist, but I do not think that their existence is an alternative that is sufficiently probable to be worth serious consideration.

Bertrand Russell

Christian, Thinking, Religion

Bertrand Russell (2016). “Why I Am Not a Christian”, p.22, Lulu Press, Inc

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... The idea that things must have a beginning is really due to the poverty of our imagination.

Bertrand Russell

Ideas, Imagination, Religion

"Why I Am Not a Christian". "The First-cause Argument". Book by Bertrand Russell, 1927.

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