The Personality of Bertrand Russell - Essay Example

?Running head: Bertrand Russell Bertrand Russell [Institute’s Bertrand Russell Bertrand Russell was a very famous atheist philosopher. Once he was asked how he would face God on the final, judgment day if He asks him why he questioned His existence. To this he gave the very famous, but obnoxious, reply: “Not enough evidence, God! Not enough evidence!” This kind of atheism is called evidential atheism. Although Russell talked about there not being enough evidence it is not clear what it is not enough for – whether to convince someone about the existence of God or for some other reason. There are people around the world who might actually think this way. They have no concern regarding God, religion, and anything spiritual. They have no time for all this or they are simply not bothered to actually find out the evidence for Christianity. Thus, till someone has actually researched and looked into every aspect of the religion they cannot just say there is no evidence for God. Like Hitchens said regarding God that “there exists not a shred of respectable evidence” (Stokes, 2012, p. 11). Besides this, the “lack of evidence” is also an excuse for those not wanting to change their views. They just chose to believe something and therefore, they would not simply change because of some evidence they come across or are told of. They cannot be forced to believe. As Jesus said: “Seek and you will find, knock and the door shall be opened, ask and it will be given you.  For he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it shall be opened, and to him who asks it shall be given” (Githaite, 2007, p. 211). It clearly means that God will be available to those who actually make an effort to seek him and look for him; who try to find evidence regarding his existence. God does not force Himself upon us. However, He has not even left us to our own devices for us to work out our ways. God follows us and draws us to Himself. Jesus is quoted to have said: “No man can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him” (Oxford University Press, 2006, p. 652). It is we who have to open up our minds and hearts to Him. God has given clues regarding his existence, he has given us a sound mind and heart and it is up to the human beings to look for them. God is visible to those who seek him while He hides away from the ones who do not. That is, “the evidence is there for those who have eyes to see” (Kreeft, 1988, p. 44). When it is said that enough evidence does not exist to prove that there is a God, it does not definitely mean that existence of God becomes a scientific fact; rather, the present evidence just makes the Christian belief rational. Previously one major reason behind there being so many atheists was that the philosophers of those times were mostly atheists and they gave very solid arguments against God, gaining followers and making a huge impact. Now, however, the philosophers are theists and again their arguments are apparently very valid and intellectual, thus they being outspoken Christians and the belief in God. There is just too much information and evidence of the existence of God. To start with there is the Big Bang Theory according to which the universe was created out of nothing. Big Bang led to not just the formation of this universe, matter and energy but also time and space. It just does not make any sense that anything at all can be created out of nothing; it is just not possible either scientifically or philosophically. That only leaves one idea: that there is a very powerful Higher Being who formed the universe and now controls it. The Big Bang was caused by Him. In fact, the universe was not just formed but also maintained continuously and intelligently. There is scientific evidence to prove this fact. Stephen Hawking found that in case the universe had expanded less than even one part in a hundred thousand million million a second after the Big Bang, the universe would have re-collapsed into a hot fireball. It is very obvious that a great and powerful mind is at continuous work keeping up with the changes since it is extremely unlikely and irrational of one to think that this could be a hypothesis of chance. This is definitely not chance but design. Just the arrangement of the universe, the elements in the world, the way nature works: all this is more than enough for a person to believe that there is a powerful mind that has worked out everything perfectly and continues to do so. The human body, its functioning, its requirements and how they are fulfilled: everything is beyond the thinking of the common man. It is God who has planned our everything perfectly. The resurrection of Jesus Christ in itself is a big miracle, obviously performed by a very powerful Being. However, people find arguments against this as well. Jesus Christ was crucified and he actually came back to life, was seen by people and he met his followers. Of course there was a reason behind it, otherwise whoever comes back to life after dying? This in itself is enough to make one believe in God but there is still further evidence, in spite of which atheists exist. Besides, no matter how much evidence are present and how many miracles God performs in order to satisfy the human beings, there will always be someone or the other who would say that that was not a miracle but the event occurred due to a natural cause. Therefore, if atheists, like Bertrand, need to see miracles in order to believe in God, it is a waste of time since they would never be satisfied. And like everything to believe in the existence of God requires a reason. However, even if that reason is provided to an atheist he will ask the reason for his first reason and another argument and yet another. The fact is not actually that they do not believe in God; the fact is that they do not want to because that would probably have very far reaching implications on their lives and that scares them. Then there is the idea of faith. Where there is the matter of faith there is no requirement of any kind of evidence. Faith is all about trust and belief, not proving something right or wrong. Religion is about faith rather than evidence. God has given us an intellect and we need to use it to produce beliefs without asking for evidence or arguments. And we can rationally do that because “most of our cognitive faculties produce beliefs immediately, without evidence or argument, there are good inductive grounds for thinking that the sensus divinitatis produces belief in God immediately” (Kurian, 2012, p. 1954). Besides that, believing in God is more like believing in a human being rather than it being a scientific hypothesis and so the trust factor is different here as in case of atoms and molecules. There is always evidence and arguments for and against the existence of God. However, in the end it is not these evidence and arguments that we would have to deal it – we would have to deal with God. References Githaite, S. N. (2007). God Remembers, He Forgets Not. Xulon Press. Kreeft, P. (1988). Fundamentals of the Faith: Essays in Christian Apologetics. Ignatius Press. Kurian, G. T. (2012). The Encyclopedia of Christian Civilization. John Wiley & Sons. Oxford University Press. (2006). Catholic Comparative New Testament-PR-RSV/NRSV/Douay-Rheims/Nab/Gnt/Jb/NJB. Oxford University Press. Stokes, M. (2012). A Shot of Faith (To the Head): Be a Confident Believer in an Age of Cranky Atheists. Thomas Nelson Inc. Read More