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Unit 2: A Free Man’s Worship by Bertrand Russell

Self Assessment Notes

State whether the following statements are true or false:
1. Russell argues that the correspondence theory meets the three requirements of any theory
of truth.
(a) True (b) False
2. For Russell, minds do not create truth or falsehood.
(a) True (b) False
3. Russell believes that it is possible to discover moral ideals with which to sustain ourselves
in this ultimately meaningless existence.
(a) True (b) False
4. Russell asserts that the worship of force is the result of failure to maintain our own
ideals against a hostile universe.
(a) True (b) False
5. Russell identifies the “free man’s worship” with organized religion.
(a) True (b) False

6. Russell thinks that morality requires some kind of deity.
(a) True (b) False

2.9 Summary

• The following is an “abridged and annotated version” of a famous Bertrand Russell
essay. I include it here because it illustrates how a sentient being who has wrestled
with life’s dilemmas in a commendable way achieves a measure of detached compassion
for the predicament of existence. When I first read this essay I was overwhelmed by a
feeling that I could have written it if only my writing skills were better.
• I salute Bertrand Russell for having written the best essay I’ve ever encountered! It
captures my “feelings” about the predicament of being an automaton, the product of
an evolution about which I have ambivalent feelings, and it illustrates the humanistic
attitudes that I have for my fellow man. This essay is a thing of beauty, it is prose
verging on poetry.
• To the purist who dislike abridgements I should offer an apology, but others have
expressed their confusion over what Bertie was trying to say. I still encourage the
reader to consult the source, which is only about twice as long as my abridged version.
In the following annotated abridgement I will use un-italicized, bold font to indicate
what Bertrand Russell wrote, while my annotations will be italicized.
• Since the time of Greek and Roman philosophers, there have been attempts to replace
a spirit haunted world view with a mechanistic world view. Lucretius believed that not
only was the mechanistic view correct, but it also freed men from humiliating and
unnecessary spirit appeasing rituals. Primitive ways of thinking are so entrenched that
even today, surrounded by technology and scientific insight, most people still believe
in spirits, angels, superstition, life after death and some version of a God. I believe that
humans will carry this ancient burden with them into all future centuries that they
somehow manage to reach.

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