Thursday, August 22, 2013
Why I Love, Respect, and Admire my teacher - Bertrand Russell
"I think we ought always to entertain our opinions with some measure of doubt. I shouldn't wish people dogmatically to believe any philosophy, not even mine." Bertrand Russell
"The desire to understand the world and the desire to reform it are two great engines of progress, without which human society would stand still and retrogress." Bertrand Russell
For my part, as an atheist, my atheism came not before, but after a great measure of doubt inextricably mixed together with my taste to question everything via the habit of reading.
I must admit, however, that if, after having been expelled out of La Salle high school, I was not fortunate enough to have discovered the works of Bertrand Russell, today I would just be like another frightened Sick Man of Asia. Indeed, just another silly sap frightened with beliefs than I should be studying the works of great men and great women who, with the power of thought, brought more light into this world where nature has only brought the horrors of darkness. Poch Suzara Twitter# Google# Atheist# Facebook#
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Sorry Poch, but I don't share your admiration for Bertrand Russell. Ray Monk, who wrote a two-volume biography of BR was himself an atheist. In the foreword of his second volume he wrote: …as I have worked on this volume, two thoughts have dominated my reactions to him (Bertrand Russell), which, I am aware, may have distorted my account of his life. The first is just how bad most of his writing on political, social, and moral questions is. Few who know Russell from his great writings on logic have taken the trouble to read the vast quantity of journalism that he produced in the second half of his life; those who do would, I think, be shocked at how sloppy and ill-considered much of it is. The second thought that has come to dominate my reaction to Russell, particularly in the latter half of his life, is how emotionally maimed he was. He was, it sometimes seems, simply not capable of loving another human being.
The man who had led a generation in his exposition of atheistic ethics was a totally immoral hypocrite. Of course he had an unfair advantage, because as an atheistic journalist, preacher or prophet he did not have to live a consistently moral life. He would rebuke and castigate the immoral Roman Catholics and the corrupt politicians, but he himself was at his core, corrupt and immoral. In his everyday life could be observed a pattern of perversity -- a pattern of lying, womanizing, immorality, and both philosophical and personal self-contradiction.
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