Why I am not a Christian and other essays on religion and related subjects (New ed.)

Why I am not a Christian is considered one of the most blasphemous philosophical documents ever written, and at a time when we have faith schools and wars over religious beliefs, its message today couldn't be more relevant.

If religion provides comfortable responses to the questions that have always beset humankind - why are we here, what is the point of being alive, how ought we to behave - then Russell snatches that comfort away, leaving us instead with other, more troublesome alternatives: responsibility, autonomy, self-awareness.

If it were possible to sum up this book in a sentence, then it would be that the time to live is now, the place to live is here, and the way to be happy is to ensure others are happy. And what it all boils down to, is that disbelief is but a matter of believing.

Ranked alongside Voltaire's Candide , Tom Paine's Age of Reason , Martin Scorsese's The Last Temptation of Christ , and Monty Python's The Life of Brian , Bertrand Russell's Why I am not a Christian has made some odd 1edfellows over the years.

While its tone is playful and frivolous, it poses tough questions over the nature of religion and belief.