We
want to stand upon our own feet and look fair and square at the world—
its good facts, its bad facts, its beauties, and its ugliness; see the
world as it is, and be not afraid of it. Conquer the world by
intelligence and not merely by being slavishly subdued by the terror
that comes from it. The whole conception of God is a conception derived
from the ancient Oriental despotisms. It is a conception quite unworthy
of free men. When you hear people in church debasing themselves and
saying that they are miserable sinners, and all the rest of it, it seems
contemptible and not worthy of self-respecting human beings. We ought
to stand up and look the world frankly in the face. We ought to make the
best we can of the world, and if it is not so good as we wish, after
all it will still be better than what these others have made of it in
all these ages. A good world needs knowledge, kindliness, and courage;
it does not need a regretful hankering after the past, or a fettering of
the free intelligence by the words uttered long ago by ignorant men. It
needs a fearless outlook and a free intelligence. It needs hope for the
future, not looking back all the time towards a past that is dead,
which we trust will be far surpassed by the future that our intelligence
can create.
Bertrand Russell. 1927
(Title: Why I am not a Christian)
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