Why I Am Not a Christian, and other essays on religion and related subjects, by Bertrand Russell, was a pleasant read. I'm sorry to say that it wasn't as earth-shattering as I expected it to be, but perhaps I only feel that way because his ideas are so common place now that I was unsurprised by them, at least among atheist writing, of which I am already familiar.#

The two main problems I found with Russell were his obsession with sex and his communist inclinations. Where interesting, I will point these out as I discuss some of the essays.#

Has Religion Made Useful Contributions to Civilizations?#

This comment is very apt:#

To take the case that is of most interest to members of Western civilization: the teaching of Christ, as it appears in the Gospels, has had extraordinarily little to do with the ethics of Christians. The most important thing about Christianity, from a social and historical point of view, is not Christ but the church, and if we are to judge of Christianity as a social force we must not go to the Gospels for out material. Christ taught that you should give your goods to the poor, that you should not fight, that you should not go to church, and that you should not punish adultery. Neither Catholics nor Protestants have shown any strong desire to follow His teaching in any of these respects. Some of the Franciscans, it is true, attempted to teach the doctrine of apostolic poverty, but the Pope condemned them, and their doctrine was declared heretical. Or, again, consider such a text as "Judge not, that yet be not judged," and ask yourself what influence such a text has had upon the Inquisition and the Ku Klux Klan.

What is true of Christianity is equally true of Buddhism. The Buddha was amiable and enlightened; on his deathbed he laughed at his disciples for supposing that he was immortal. But the Buddhist priesthood--as it exists, for example, in Tibet--has been obscurantist, tyrannous, and cruel in the highest degree. [p. 25]

What I Believe#

Russell seems to essentially believe that the best possible world is a static, unchanging one, full of genetic engineering, eugenics, psychological control, and communist social institutions.#

Nature, even human nature, will cease more and more to be an absolute datum; more and more it will become what scientific manipulation has made it. Science can, if it chooses, enable our grandchildren to live the good life, by giving them knowledge, self-control, and characters productive of harmony rather than strife. At present it is teaching our children to kill each other, because many men of science are willing to sacrifice the future of mankind to their own momentary prosperity. But this phase will pass when have acquired the same domination over their own [and others' presumably] passions that they already have over the physical forces of the external world. Then at last we shall have won our freedom [from want.] [p. 86-87]

A Free Man's Worship#

Russell quotes from Mephistophelis' conversation with Dr. Faustus about Creation:#

The endless praises of the choirs of angels had begun to grow wearisome; for, after all, did he not deserve their praise? Had he not given them endless joy? Would it not be more amusing to obtain undeserved praise, to be worshiped by beings whom he tortured? He smiled inwardly, and resolved that the great drama should be performed.

For countless ages the hot nebula whirled aimlessly through space. At length it began to take shape, the central mass threw off planets, the planets cooled, boiling seas and burning mountains heaved and tossed, from black masses of cloud hot sheets of rain deluged the barely solid crust. And now the first germ of life grew in the depths of the ocean, and developed rapidly in the fructifying warmth into vast forest trees, huge ferns springing from the damp mould, sea monsters breeding, fighting, devouring, and passing away. And from the monsters, as the play unfolded itself, Man was born, with the power of thought, the knowledge of good and evil, and the cruel thirst for worship. And Man saw that all is passing in this mad, monstrous world, that all is struggling to snatch, at any cost, a few brief moments of life before Death's inexorable decree. And Man said: 'There is a hidden purpose, could we but fathom it, and the purpose is good; for we must reverence something, and in the visible world there is nothing worthy of reverence.' And Man stood aside from the struggle, resolving that God intended harmony to come out of chaos by human efforts. And when he followed the instincts which God had transmitted to him from his ancestry of beasts of prey, he called it Sin, and asked God to forgive him. But he doubted whether he could be justly forgiven, until he invented a divine Plan by which God's wrath was to have been appeased. And seeing the present was bad, he made it yet worse, that thereby the future might be better. And he gave God thanks for the strength that enabled him to forgo even the joys that were possible. And God smiled: and when he saw that Man had become perfect in renunciation and worship, he sent another sun through the sky, which crashed into Man's sun; and all returned again to nebula.

'Yes,' he murmured, 'it was a good play; I will have it performed again.'

Nice People#

In this essay, Russell discusses so-called "nice people" who create many problems by trying to look out for others. Actually, he seems to think this only wrong when they are following Christian ethics in their intervention, not socialist ethics.#

The day of nice people, I fear, is nearly over; two things are killing it. The first is the belief that there is no harm in being happy, provided no one else is the worse for it; the second is the dislike of humbug, a dislike which is quite as much aesthetic as moral. Both these revolts were encouraged by the War, when the nice people in all countries were securely in control, and in the name of the highest morality induced the young people to slaughter one another. When it was all over the survivors began to wonder whether lies and misery inspired by hatred constituted the highest virtue. I am afraid it may be some time before they can again be induced to accept this fundamental doctrine of every really lofty ethic.

The essence of nice people is that they hate life as manifested in tendencies to co-operation, in the boisterousness of children, and above all in sex, with the thought of which they are obsessed. In a word, nice people are those who have nasty minds. [p. 156]

Appendix: The Case of Bertrand Russell#

The book concludes with a long-winded overview of the case against Bertrand Russell that prevented him from getting a position at the City College of New York. I am always pleased when socialists are prevented by the state they so adore to get the rents they seek.#

Killing the Buddha: A Heretic's Bible, by Jeff Sharlet and Peter Manseau, is described as an attempt to rethink religious journalism in America. By using the Bible as its framework, the authors gather stories (the books) from various authors around the country and weave the story of their road trip across America between the bindings with postcard style Psalms. What results is a very interesting book.#

Before I jump into the book, I'll give a few links and state some observations. Broward County is one of the Psalms, online. And this post by Jeff Sharlet is about the book.#

While reading the many writers speak about religion I noticed a few archetypes:#

• The pseudo-religious person who believes but seems to severely dislike God, whether on principle or after having been let down.
• The intensely anti-religious person who attacks everything about a religion.
• And, the religious zealot who believes their religion gives them carte blanche power to everything--particularly the group mentioned in the linked Psalm.

The other thing to warn about this book is that it is often profane. I didn't care much for that and often skipped chapters when they were too vulgar.#

Mortal, Eat This Scroll! by Jeff Sharlet and Peter Manseau#

This introduction describes the purpose and direction of the book. This quote explains the reasoning behind the title, which comes from a Buddhism monk, Lin Chi:#

When Lin Chi contributed the idea of deicide to his godless religion a thousand years ago, he was talking not just about a long-dead teacher who had come to be known as Buddha but about the dominant ideologies of his day: One True Path, One True Story, One True Anything. The preachers and the gurus, the Christian Coalition and the secular masses, the heart that wants what it wants and the mind that always thinks better: These are the Buddhas we meet on the road, the Buddhas we know and love and listen to, the Buddhas we all are. [The Buddhas we must kill.] Faced with modern-day atheists or fundamentalists or guys who thump thousand-year-old Zen aphorisms hard as any Bible, Lin Chi would probably say the same thing: Don't be a chump. A single story never explained anything. [p. 1-2]

Genesis, by A.L. Kennedy#

One of the interesting components of this piece is the description of the various types of God that are found in the Bible and in our minds:#

• The handyman God, who "we thank for sunsets and healthy children and the touch of our lovers' hair." (p.13)
• The naming God, who is there to "portray the world not just as our home and a massively elaborate gift entrusted to us but also as something which we have the manifest destiny to dominate." (p. 14)
• The absentee God, who is not there when we need him or to prevent the terrible things in his creation.

And a comment about prayer and sin:#

Perhaps God isn't so pleased by singing and praying, after all, perhaps it is silence He craves, the kind of relaxed stillness that grows between old companions. We are here, after all, and--should we choose to believe it--so is He and the world is as it is and we have free will to try to change what we don't like. Perhaps God allows His favorites to sin [as was mentioned earlier about the many sins, particularly of murder, in Genesis] because He is not so very interested in sin, because it has its own penalties and rewards, morality operating like evolution--something that is unavoidable but takes time. This is emotionally unsatisfying and calls for the patience of saints, but it may also be true. [p. 19]

Exodus, by Francine Prose#

When discussing the Plagues and the fate of the Jews:#

One assumes that those most likely to engage in [the fun activity of recreating the plagues in play form] are religious folk, people of faith. Yet nowhere is it suggested that they pray for the souls of the murdered Egyptian children. That would seem excessive, I suppose, and besides, it's not what religion does. In theory, perhaps, we're advised to love our enemies, but in practice faith has provided a host of reasons to hate those who don't believe in the same God we do.

To read Exodus is to watch the dawning of those rancors and divisions. God promises the Hebrews liberation and protection, but ultimately it's a setup. The actual consequences could hardly involve more strife, more danger and risk: thousands of years of warfare, of attack and defense, of suffering and bloodshed brought about by the way that belief so readily translates into the desire for the wealth and territory of those who practice another religion, into prayers that God will kill their children. [p. 36]

Leviticus, by Michael Lesy#

Lesy's introduction is quite intense:#

I was fifty when I learned that, besides guarding the Temple and writing everything down, my ancestors, the Levites, also killed people. We were Israel's official executioners. Long before Egypt and the Exodus, Levi and his brother Simeon had rubbed out a whole city full of men related to a Hivite who'd raped their sister. "We'll live with you, peacefully," Levi had said to the rapist and his kin. "Just circumcise yourselves to make things right." The fools did; Levi and Simeon waited three days and then killed them all. A whole city of dead men with no foreskins.

That's why Moses knew who to call when he came down from Sinai and saw the Golden Calf, the false god made from jewelry. "Whoever is for God," Moses shouted, "join me." Moses was a Levite himself. We came running. "Go through the camp," Moses ordered us. "Gate to gate; no exceptions; brother, neighbor, kin; it doesn't matter. If they're guilty, kill them." We did as we were told. Brother, neighbor, kin. Three thousand people. That's how we earned the right to serve as the priests and keep the stories.

[...]

Imagine: a book of purity written by people with bloody hands. Explained, now, by a man who knows only what he's read. A self-taught story-teller. If I were you, I'd be careful about what I believed. And what I didn't. [p. 48]

Psalm: Myrtle Beach, South Carolina#

The two authors visit the Meher Baba Spiritual Center and briefly explain who he was:#

In response to questions about his spiritual identity, Baba tap-tapped things like "I am God in human form. Of course many people say they are God-incarnate, but they are hypocrites." To which a [Dick's Last Resort] employee might have replied, "Thanks for clearing that up, Baba." [p. 80-81]

Samuel, by April Reynolds#

This is just a fabulous story and difficult to quote and get the feel for it. I imagine that this is the clearest instance in the book of a retelling of a Bible story, but up to date and more readable.#

Job, by Peter Trachetenberg#

This is the book of Job described in the style of a PowerPoint presentation. The opening:#

One of the most persistent problems in Western theology concerns the relation between God and suffering. Why does God allow the innocent to suffer, or conversely, why does He spare the wicked? The attempt to solve this problem is called theodicy. Here one ought to add that suffering is problematic only in monotheistic religions, e.g., Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, since only they posit a Creator who is both infinitely powerful and infinitely good. We might represent such an entity by a Venn diagram [...] [p. 115]

Complete with various Venn diagrams and other illustrations, the author describes the problem as an introduction to what Job is about.#

A cute comment about God's bet with Satan over Job:#

Two thousand years of literature and folklore have taught us never to bet with the devil. But maybe that applies only to humans, whose sols are so small and vulnerable and so easily lost. God takes the bet. He's tempt. He says to Satan: "Behold all that he hath is in thy power." From that moment, Job is doomed. [p. 124]

Gospel, by Randall Kenan#

This is another great story, and my note sheet what I wrote was "awesome." About a woman with a gift, trying to understand it and why she is the one. Surprise ending.#

Psalm: Heartland, Kansas#

The authors visit a Pagan community and a mother and daughter discuss whether it is proper for them to be watching them so closely.#

Willow didn't get the joke. "I can't believe you're showing them this. They just want to make you look stupid," she said. "To make fun of all of it. Can't you see that?"

We stated to tell her she was wrong, but Elowen had a better answer. "Kimberly," she said. "They have no power over me. Over any of us. They've come here to learn how we live and worship, and we are going to show them. What they do with that experience is on them. I don't believe they want to hurt me, or any of us, but they couldn't if they tried."

Willowdancer uncrossed her arms, then crossed them again, biting her lower lip to keep it from shaking in the cold.

On the far side of the field we could see torches being juggled over the heads of the crowd that had lingered at the opening ritual; a tipped-over trash can added the sound of a cymbal to the drumming. The dancers still were circling the bonfire, all together, each alone.

Elowen took Willow by the shoulders and pulled her close. A mother warming a daughter with her heat, she swallowed Willow with her body like a flame wrapping a log.

"Do you really believe some silly book could have more power than we do?" [p. 266]

Revelation, by Haven Kimmel#

This story is told from the point of view of the Angels that pass prophecies down to human minds. They are generally very disappointed with what they do because it is never successful and often times the prophets severely warp their message and flat out don't understand it. They comment:#

We are Pensive about this trend, and We've given it a name: TABB. We offer them a prophecy, but They All Become Bureaucrats. [p. 276]

A Conversation with the Authors#

4. What was one of your oddest road encounters?

In northern New Mexico we spent a week at the most popular religious pilgrimage site in America, Santuario de Chimayo, which is a Catholic shrine where people eat dirt. Really: The faithful line up to enter a small church through the back door, file past abandoned crutches and walls covered floor to ceiling with pictures of people who have been healed there, and then they crowd into a tiny room with a hole cut in the concrete floor. They reach in and grab dirt by the handful, or else scoop it into Ziploc bags for later, and then they eat it. People say part of the miracle is that the hole is never empty--no matter how much is scooped up, it always stays full. We asked the priest who runs this place if that were true, if the Lord keeps dirt in the hole. "Do you think God would have time for such a stupid miracle?" he said. "I buy this dirt. Twenty-five tons a year!" He took us to the pile in the back where a dump truck had dropped a recent load. he showed us where where he kept the shovels and the buckets. And then he let us fill the hole. [p. 293]

In the interest of disclosure, I should note that I received this book from Jeff Sharlet's publicist, for which I am grateful. I truly did enjoy the book and must recommend it to anyone who would like a second look at how religion supposedly exists in America, it's much more diverse than some would have you believe. That's ultimate lesson I learned from this book.#