Bertrand Russell: Why I Am Not a Christian
Why I am not a Christian is an essay by Bertrand Russell in which he explains the reasons why he does not call himself a Christian. He puts up several arguments concerning the existence of god which include the First Cause Argument, the Natural Law Argument, the Argument from Design and moral arguments. He also goes in to explaining the character of Christ and flaws in his teachings. He further goes in to explaining why he does not think that Christ was the best and the wisest of men.
He believes that a true Christian is someone who believes in God and immortality and someone who truly believes in Christ and his teachings. Now he begins to gives reasons as to why he is not a true Christian. He begins with the first which is existence of God by using several arguments. The first one is First Cause Argument. It states that everything there is in the world has a cause and a purpose. Everything is made by someone, for example, take a watch, a watch is made by a human but who made humans. We come to a chain where if you go further and further back you come to the First Cause and people have given the First Cause the name of God. So in my example, if humans made watch then god made humans. God is the First cause. He argues here that if God made humans and humans made objects then who made god. If we are to believe this theory then we must believe that someone must have made god. The question is who made god. He is not trying to prove that there is no god he just believes that it is our minds and imagination that came up with the fact that everything in this world has a beginning. "There is no reason to suppose that the world had a beginning at all," (Russell, 24). I agree with his theory on the First Cause Argument. Not everything has a beginning because if we were to look at it deeper then nobody knows that God actually exists except for what's written in books by people many years ago. Even if he does exist according to the theory we should also know how god was
He believes that a true Christian is someone who believes in God and immortality and someone who truly believes in Christ and his teachings. Now he begins to gives reasons as to why he is not a true Christian. He begins with the first which is existence of God by using several arguments. The first one is First Cause Argument. It states that everything there is in the world has a cause and a purpose. Everything is made by someone, for example, take a watch, a watch is made by a human but who made humans. We come to a chain where if you go further and further back you come to the First Cause and people have given the First Cause the name of God. So in my example, if humans made watch then god made humans. God is the First cause. He argues here that if God made humans and humans made objects then who made god. If we are to believe this theory then we must believe that someone must have made god. The question is who made god. He is not trying to prove that there is no god he just believes that it is our minds and imagination that came up with the fact that everything in this world has a beginning. "There is no reason to suppose that the world had a beginning at all," (Russell, 24). I agree with his theory on the First Cause Argument. Not everything has a beginning because if we were to look at it deeper then nobody knows that God actually exists except for what's written in books by people many years ago. Even if he does exist according to the theory we should also know how god was