ABSTRACT

While its tone is playful and frivolous, this book poses tough questions over the nature of religion and belief.

Religion provides comfortable responses to the questions that have always beset humankind - why are we here, what is the point of being alive, how ought we to behave? Russell snatches that comfort away, leaving us instead with other, more troublesome alternatives: responsibility, autonomy, self-awareness. He tells us that the time to live is now, the place to live is here, and the way to be happy is to ensure others are happy.

chapter 1|19 pages

Why I am not a Christian

chapter 3|6 pages

Do We Survive Death?

chapter 4|9 pages

Seems, Madam? Nay, It Is

chapter 5|8 pages

On Catholic and Protestant Sceptics1

chapter 6|5 pages

Life in the Middle Ages1

chapter 7|14 pages

The Fate of Thomas Paine1

chapter 8|8 pages

Nice People1

chapter 9|10 pages

The New Generation

chapter 10|10 pages

Our Sexual Ethics1

chapter 11|13 pages

Freedom and the Colleges

chapter 13|11 pages

Can Religion Cure Our Troubles?1

chapter 14|2 pages

Religion and Morals1