Yesterday, Roger, Baronet Migently, attempted, in his clumsy way, to express his disdain for the logic-free, emotion-rich style of Karen Armstrong (who seems to Sir Roger so afraid of confrontation that she is prepared to endorse any belief in order to avoid it).

Now today Sir Roger (Bt.) has been rescued by his mentor, Bertrand (3rd Earl Russell) Russell.

Yesterday Roger Migently (Bart.) asked (just to save you from having to go and look it up):

do you get the awful feeling of sly inauthenticity and wheedling manipulation? ….The fact that people may naturally, in a search for meaning, have conjured up an imaginary friend doesn’t make the imaginary friend either real, or worthy of respect or protection. If there are no gods then there are no gods – end of story. No point in prolonging the fantasy. And, by the way, there is no evidence that there is one.

Here’s the spooky Bertrand Russell BBC TV exchange from 1959 that brought a tear of gratitude and intellectual fellowship to Sir Roger’s eye:

Interviewer: Do you think there’s a practical reason for having a religious belief, for many people?

Russell: Well there can’t be a practical reason for believing what isn’t true. That’s quite…at least I rule it out as impossible.

Either the thing is true or it isn’t. If it is true you should believe it and if it isn’t you shouldn’t and if you can’t find out whether it’s true or whether it isn’t you should suspend judgment.

But you can’t…it seems to me a fundamental dishonesty and a fundamental treachery to intellectual integrity to hold a belief because you think it’s useful and not because you think it’s true.

Of course Russell said it so much more eloquently but the two noblemen are singing the same hymn, what?

Here’s the video:

 

[tags]atheism, atheist, agnostic, agnosticism, religion, god, godless, belief, Bertrand Russell, Karen Armstrong, Sam Harris, evidence, pragmatism, morality, video, values, value, religious values, philosophical values, philosophy, treachery, integrity, dishonesty[/tags]