BERTRAND RUSSELL'S MORAL CRITICISM OF THE BIBLE

I want to end with one final argument against Jesus' moral beliefs, this time from the prominent and respected atheistic philosopher Bertrand Russell.  “There is one very serious defect to my mind in Christ’s moral character, and that is that He believed in hell. I do not myself feel that any person who is really profoundly humane can believe in everlasting punishment...I must say that I think all this doctrine, that hell-fire is a punishment for sin, is a doctrine of cruelty. It is a doctrine that put cruelty into the world and gave the world generations of cruel torture; and the Christ of the Gospels, if you could take Him as His chroniclers represent Him, would certainly have to be considered partly responsible for that.”  

Russell is best known for his books on logic so let's examine his logic here.

    1. No humane person can believe in Hell.

    2. Jesus believed in Hell.

    3. Jesus was not humane.

We can certainly debate the first proposition, but more importantly look at the unstated assumptions that are behind Russell's argument:

A. Jesus is a mere human being.

B. No human being can know whether Hell exists.

C. Jesus cannot know of Hell's existence, only believe in it.

Elsewhere, Russell states his objection in another way by criticizing the morality of Jesus in scaring people with the prospect of Hell. He says that it is the equivalent of yelling “Fire!” in a crowded theater. But, of course, that is only wrong if there is, in fact, no fire. If there is a fire, then the person who knows it as a fact should be applauded for warning people so that they have a chance to escape.