INQUIRY BOX
This is one of the sentences in Russell's Why I Am Not a Christian that I underlined at the Graham
crusade:The knowledge exists by which universal happiness can be secured; the chief obstacle to its
utilization for that purpose is the teaching of religion.This sentence was published in 1930, before the major antiChristian ideologies of Nazism and
Communism (in Stalin's Soviet Union) let loose unprecedented terror. But even now that Nazism and
Stalinist Communism have been defeated, "universal happiness" seems a long way off.Do you think universal happiness is achievable? Does secularism make it more achievable? What
does it say about people that they desire universal happiness but have never experienced it? Where
does this desire come from?More than any other contemporary scholar, John Kekes at SUNY Albany has had a deep influence on
me. His books Moral Wisdom and Good Lives and Facing Evil are, I think, excellent. They have changed
how I see everyday life. It's strange that in my mind this atheist sees more deeply into the consequences of
what Christians call "the Fall" than any theologian I've read. Like Camus, he sees deeply into ordinary
things.
If I could convince you to read something, I would say that you should read the four Gospels in the New
Testament and Evelyn Waugh's novel Brideshead Revisited.
Here's my rationale for the Gospels: I gather from an earlier note that you're not very familiar with the
Bible. That's common these days. But simply as an educational matter, a general knowledge of the Bible
is crucial to understanding much of Western history (and, increasingly, global history). Also, our literature
is full of biblical allusions. And the God Western atheists don't believe in is, so to speak, the biblical one.
The Bible is basic literature with which, I think, all educated people in Western societies should be at
least passingly familiar.
Human motives are mixed and ... we are complex beings. We are moved by the good, but we are also
moved by evil. Our virtues coexist and conflict with our vices. The inner life of the overwhelming
majority of us is a struggle in which confused motives, lack of self-knowledge, defective judgment,
inflated sense of self-importance, fantasy, greed, as well as love, decency, pity, and a sense of justice are
the soldiers of the ignorant armies clashing in the dark.
John Kekes, moral philosopher (1995)
And I recommend Waugh's novel, partly because it's one of my favorites (there's a nine-hour BBC
production of the novel that is amazingly good), and partly because in some ways you remind me of its
main character, Charles Ryder.
Don't forget to tell the crowd in tonight's West Hollywood audience that I said hello-especially the
drunkards!
Peace,