Christianity or a belief in "God" has been doing so much harm to the world that one barely knows where to begin when discussing the issue. Of course this applies equally as well to all other religious faiths.

The magnificent intellectual Bertrand Russell more than meets the task of unmasking superstitious nonsense such as a belief in God and an afterlife in this classic work, which should be required reading for all those who wake up early each Sunday and proudly trudge off to one or another house of worship. Free-thinkers should be rejoicing that over the last few decades church attendance has been in a steady decline. That these most successful cults in world history have suffering membership rates is cause for celebration.

Russell points out that most people believe in God simply because they have been taught from infancy to do so. Moreover during troubling times a spiritual belief gives them the reassuring feeling of an older brother type of figure watching over them. It is emotional rather than scientific reasons that lead people to make this leap of faith. Often one wonders why these dutiful Christians hold "Jesus" in such high regard given some of his more sadistic views. Why I am Not a Christian is loaded with insightful quotes from Jesus demonstrating his more sadistic side such as everlasting punishment and turning family members against one another.

Russell demolishes the well worn First-cause argument by logically reducing it to the question of 'Who made God?' He points out the leap of faith involved when someone believes in God. It is clearly a question that lies outside the realm of probable knowledge where there is as much a likelihood the Easter Bunny and the Tooth Fairy exist as a God or afterlife. As the late Carl Sagan wrote: 'extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence.' Russell goes on to discuss simple biological reasons for rejecting a belief in an afterlife. Since what constitutes a person is a series of experiences connected by memory, and the brain is rendered useless at death (obviously memory along with it), it is preposterous to assume a human survives death and enters a "heaven" or "hell."

During the first three centuries of the Christian era individuals were powerless to have an effect on the politico-economic environment under which they lived. Why I am Not a Christian accurately remarks that this is primarily why much of Christian doctrine is largely obsessed with making an individual perfect in an imperfect world and that the good life has little to do with external social conditions and everything to do with a warped view of inner personal piety (especially dealing with sexual matters). It should be noted that for centuries the church opposed the abolition of slavery. The only reason some contemporary Christians still do not adhere to some of their more outlandish tenets is due to the debt they owe to the generations of rationalists, humanists and free-thinkers who from the Renaissance to the present day have caused religionists to become embarrassed over some of their more ridiculous traditional beliefs. Russell mentions that cruelty in society has almost always ran in direct correlation with the amount of dogmatic religious belief. All one has to do is study the Inquisition and Puritan New England to realize the plethora of women burned as witches to come to this rather pragmatic conclusion.

Perhaps one of Christianity's most pernicious effects on the world is its war against knowledge. Because knowledge can be a force to bring about universal happiness - religion is a chief impediment to realizing this goal.

Why I am Not a Christian is an absolutely outstanding work that some day may be more widely read. It is an obvious classic for intelligent people who adhere to a scientific outlook. Hopefully as the culture of the United States slowly evolves out of what can accurately be described as almost a pre-Enlightenment society, a great thinker of Russell's stature will be given his proper due. In a nation where Pascal's Wager keeps a large amount of religious worshipers in tow, and where a substantial percentage of the population has a literal belief in the "Devil," it cannot happen soon enough.

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Why I am not a Christian (Routledge Classics)