Along with Why I Am Not a Christian, this essay must rank as the most articulate example of Russell's famed atheism. It is also one of the most notorious. Used as evidence in a 1940 court case in which Russell was declared unfit to teach college-level philosophy, What I Believe was to become one of his most defining works. The ideas contained within were and are controversial, contentious and - to the religious - downright blasphemous. A remarkable work, it remains the best concise introduction to Russell's thought.

Bertrand Russell (1872-1970). A celebrated mathematician and logician, Russell was and remains one of the most genuinely widely read and popular philosophers of modern times.

Reviews

'Bertrand Russell wrote the best English prose of any twentieth-century philosopher.' - Anthony Howard, The Times

'Bertrand Russell attributed religion to a primitive terror of the unknown and the desire for a kindly older brother to stand alongside us.' - The Age