One is often told that it is a very wrong thing to attack religion, because religion makes men virtuous. So I am told; I have not noticed it.
Interpretation
The quote challenges the notion that religion inherently promotes virtue in people, suggesting otherwise based on personal observation.
In this quote, Bertrand Russell expresses skepticism towards the common belief that religion is a necessary foundation for virtuous behavior. He reflects on his experiences and observations, questioning whether religious beliefs truly lead to moral goodness. This statement invites a critical examination of the role of religion in ethics and encourages a broader understanding of human virtue beyond religious doctrine.
In practice
In a debate about the role of religion in moral education.
St. Paul introduced an entirely novel view of marriage, that it existed primarily to prevent the sin of fornication. It is just as if one were to maintain that the sole reason for baking bread is to prevent people from stealing cake.
Freedom comes only to those who no longer ask of life that it shall yield them any of those personal goods that are subject to the mutations of time.
Of these austerer virtues the love of truth is the chief, and in mathematics, more than elsewhere, the love of truth may find encouragement for waning faith. Every great study is not only an end in itself, but also a means of creating and sustaining a lofty habit of mind; and this purpose should be kept always in view throughout the teaching and learning of mathematics.
At all times, except when a monarch could enforce his will, war has been facilitated by the fact that vigorous males, confident of victory, enjoyed it, while their females admired them for their prowess.
Moreover, the attitude that one ought to believe such and such a proposition, independently of the question whether there is evidence in its favor, is an attitude which produces hostility to evidence and causes us to close our minds to every fact that does not suit our prejudices.
Extreme hopes are born from extreme misery.
We know that the wildest and most moving dramas are played not in the theatre but in the hearts of ordinary men and women.
Man is to be found in reason, God in the passions.
Mine alone is the country of my soul.
To believe in God for me is to feel that there is a God, not a dead one, or a stuffed one, who with irresistible force urges us towards more loving.
Know that you are a miracle and that you have a unique place in the cosmic plan. You are here to be the presence of love. You are here to be the presence of joy. You are here to be the presence of peace.
We first observe facts, then generalise, and then draw conclusions or principles.
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