Our topic today was on Bertrand Russell. He was one of the 20th Century's "great" philosophical doubters. When he was 18, he read John Stuart Mill's "Autobiography," which led him to questions about the validity of religion and God. Russell said that there could be no God through the existence of the natural laws and that the idea of God is "quite unworthy of free men." His wife, Black Russell, was also a prominent doubter in her age.
Factual question: What caused Bertrand Russell to doubt his belief in God?
A) The question, "What caused God?"
B) Insufficient physical proof to the existence of God.
C) The hypocrisy that Christians display toward their own religion.
D) He simply did not believe in the Bible.
(Answer: A.)
Discussion question: Russell said that many believers - such as Immanuel Kant - disposed of the intellectual arguments in favor of God and instead only chose to believe in the moral arguments for God. Are moral arguments enough to believe in a religion, or is more needed?
These are my questions on the Poets, which was apparently not pushed back with the absence of our scheduled class.
ReplyDeleteDisc: Do poets struggle the most with Doubt in their art as Hecht states? Or is Doubt just more evident in the medium of poetry?
Fact: Where did John Keats believe the place for "Soul Making" was?
A: The world
Now here are the questions on Bertrand Russell
Disc: If Agnostics believe that humans created God, then who/what made humans? I know this is a leading question in philosophy, but does that eliminate the discourse of discussion?
Fact: Does Russell believe that there is such a way to disprove the evidence of God?
No, but he does believe that the absence of evidence isn't grounds for belief.
[These are Amy's questions because the blog wouldn't let her post for some reason].
ReplyDeleteFactual: Who wrote "Why I Am Not A Christian" ?
Answer: Bertrand Russell
Discussion: It's interesting that Russell began doubting at the same age that many of us are now. Why is it that some people question their beliefs early in life, but some people might not question anything until near the end of their life?
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