Let's all go to Hell

Bertrand Russell was one of the most influential minds of the first half of the twentieth century. His Principia Mathematica, co-authored with Alfred North Whitehead, completely changed Set theory (that it was later found to be flawed is immaterial, but look at Godel’s incompleteness therom).

As a philosopher Russell was a great supporter of free thought. In this collection of essays he creates a great logical basis for a system of belief (or non-belief, as it were). The book consists of fifteen essays on several topics which are greatly interrelated. The essay titles follow:

1. Why I Am Not A Christian
2. Has Religion Made Useful Contributions to Civilization?
3. What I Believe
4. Do We Survive Death?
5. Seems, Madam? Nay, It Is
6. A Free Man's Worship
7. On Catholic and Protestant Skeptics
8. Life in The Middle Ages
9. The Fate of Thomas Paine
10. Nice People
11. The New Generation
12. Our Sexual Ethics
13. Freedom and the Colleges
14. Can Religion Cure Our Troubles?
15. Religion and Morals

The keynote essay, “Why I Am Not a Christian” stands as one of the greatest uses of reason to deny Christianity. Russell examines the dogma, and consequence of religious belief. He points directly to the illogical nature of this system of belief. He also spends some time showing that believers must often face terrible punishment for their beliefs.

Russell also spends some time addressing the bad done to the world by adherents of religious belief systems (Russell concerns himself primarily with Christianity, but the same could be said of the world’s other religions).

He also points out that Jesus (if he existed) had flaws in his character. Russell sees the primary flaw in his belief in hell. Russell claims that anyone who would want others to suffer unending torment is needlessly cruel and capricious.

The rest of the essays in this book are also quite worth reading. Some of them have been reprinted elsewhere (some are in the collection unpopular Essays). They serve as a great introduction to the ideas of this great philosopher.

His writing is somewhat casual, and easily approached by the common reader who may know little of philosophy. Russell is not didactic, overly technical in his approach. His writing is clearly aimed at educating the masses.

I highly recommend this book to all.