BERTRAND RUSSELL on
"The Conscience of Savages!"

August 2006's thought from my Agnostic Calendar is;

"Then you have to say one or other of two things.
Either God only speaks to a very small percentage of
mankind.....which happens to include yourself - or
He deliberately says things not true in talking to
the consciences of savages."
Bertrand Russell. "A Debate on the Existence of God"
(1948) in [sic]

Bertie doesn't seem to have really grasped the issue here.
God has spoken to all people - what they then do with that
revelation is the point of contention. We have already covered
some of this ground back in May's "Calendar of Doom" with
Carl Sagan so I won't repeat myself here. Suffice it to say
that the people Bertie calls savages are made in God's image
and enjoy His blessings and His general revelation.

As a Christian I do not expect less of "the savage" than I do
of an urbane European philosopher! And as a Christian I do not
expect more from the latter either. Indeed one might have thought
that Bertie would have learnt something from his own experience; in
his earlier career he professed some less than savoury opinions on
race and eugenics - in fairness that was a fairly common failing with
many such early twentieth century philosophers.

The point is; Bertie is uncomprehending of the possibility that
something has gone wrong at our end of the chain of communication
with God and we are morally responsible for that. [Think about this
issue from the perspective of International Law and cross cultural
concepts of justice - don't get too hung up on the cant of ivory tower
philosophers]. When people justify brutality to their own
moral satisfaction (in Auschwitz, Cambodia, Rwanda, Darfur, Bosnia,
London, New York, Madrid, Abu Gharaib, Iraq, Beirut - any point of
the compass you care to name in fact!) does Bertrand Russell really
believe that there is nothing wrong with human consciences? Well, on
the strength of this quote apparently so..............................................




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