Why I Am Not A Christian – Bertrand Russell
Why I Am Not A Christian
As your Chairman has told you, the subject about which I am going to speak to you tonight is “Why I Am Not a Christian.” Perhaps it would be as well, first of all, to try to make out what one means by the word Christian. It is used these days in a very loose sense by a great many people. Some people mean no more by it than a person who attempts to live a good life. In that sense I suppose there would be Christians in all sects and creeds; but I do not think that that is the proper sense of the word, if only because it would imply that all the people who are not Christians — all the Buddhists, Confucians, Mohammedans, and so on — are not trying to live a good life. I do not mean by a Christian any person who tries to live decently according to his lights. I think that you must have a certain amount of definite belief before you have a right to call yourself a Christian. The word does not have quite such a full-blooded meaning now as it had in the times of St. Augustine and St. Thomas Aquinas. In those days, if a man said that he was a Christian it was known what he meant. You accepted a whole collection of creeds which were set out with great precision, and every single syllable of those creeds you believed with the whole strength of your convictions.
What Is a Christian?
Nowadays it is not quite that. We have to be a little more vague in our meaning of Christianity. I think, however, that there are two different items which are quite essential to anybody calling himself a Christian. The first is one of a dogmatic nature — namely, that you must believe in God and immortality. If you do not believe in those two things, I do not think that you can properly call yourself a Christian. Then, further than that, as the name implies, you must have some kind of belief about Christ. The Mohammedans, for instance, also believe in God and in immortality, and yet they would not call themselves Christians. I think you must have at the very lowest the belief that Christ was, if not divine, at least the best and wisest of men. If you are not going to believe that much about Christ, I do not think you have any right to call yourself a Christian. Of course, there is another sense, which you find in Whitaker’s Almanack and in geography books, where the population of the world is said to be divided into Christians, Mohammedans, Buddhists, fetish worshipers, and so on; and in that sense we are all Christians. The geography books count us all in, but that is a purely geographical sense, which I suppose we can ignore.Therefore I take it that when I tell you why I am not a Christian I have to tell you two different things: first, why I do not believe in God and in immortality; and, secondly, why I do not think that Christ was the best and wisest of men, although I grant him a very high degree of moral goodness.
But for the successful efforts of unbelievers in the past, I could not take so elastic a definition of Christianity as that. As I said before, in olden days it had a much more full-blooded sense. For instance, it included he belief in hell. Belief in eternal hell-fire was an essential item of Christian belief until pretty recent times. In this country, as you know, it ceased to be an essential item because of a decision of the Privy Council, and from that decision the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Archbishop of York dissented; but in this country our religion is settled by Act of Parliament, and therefore the Privy Council was able to override their Graces and hell was no longer necessary to a Christian. Consequently I shall not insist that a Christian must believe in hell.
Bruce
Sep 06, 2008 @ 20:33:20
Man Ian, you were all over the map on this one….wow…
First,, with respect,,,
Your talking about christianity, and that we can both agree you know very little about this subject….no offence, I can see your not with out your gifts
When you say that in days that have past, men who said they were christian…acted,,and practice being chrisitians…( i’m paraphrasing,sortov)
But is that not true of men all together…what men said of yesteryear..they may have meant…but today men have lose lips…
example…in yesteryear if a man said he would never talk to someone again…women screamed…it is my understanding because men meant and did what they said….
I’ve told my wife dozen’s of times I would never talk to her again…but my words mean little…like so many other humans of today…
Many so called christians of today are simply interested in an insurance policy with Jesus,, just incase….and many don’t realize that they do not know the Lord…( in my humble opion)
As for being a christian…..I’ve heard it said…Jesus was Lord, lier, or lunatic…. I profoundly choose Lord… And as Lord I accept all His teaching as Truth…not just some…
To be a Christian you must Repent,,,( change your mind about Sin )…understand your guitly of sin….and for the wages of sin is death ( spiritual death (seperated from God)) ask God for forgiveness and believe Jesus is God and was cruxified for your sins…and He was raised to Life… believe this in your heart..and I’ll see you in heaven…..
So now you know what it means to be a Christian….And Jesus gives two commandments..Love God with all your Heart soul and mind..and love your neighbour as you love yourself…which by the way is very hard to do…lol’s
Kevin Condor
Jan 09, 2009 @ 21:29:00
Can you please provide more details.
Lowe R.
Apr 13, 2009 @ 22:48:26
That was a great post. Looking forward to reading more!