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        When Lord Bertrand Russell died on 2 February, 1970 in his 98th year, the intellectual world lost one of its most distinguished members. It is interesting to note that no philosopher of major significance ever lived as long as Lord Russell since the record of Western philosophy began with Thales in 600 BC.

        But it was not to the intellectual world alone that he gave his legacy. Perhaps Lord Russell is greatest gift to mankind was his unfaltering courage and the fearless stand he took in his campaign to preserve humanity all through his long life. In a way he summed up all his beliefs when he said: 'Remember your humanity and forget the rest'.

John E Remsberg (1848 - 1919)

Recently I have been reading two brilliant essays by Bertrand Russell titled - 'Why I am not a Christian?' and 'A Free Man's Worship'. Lord Russell never flinched from any issue that was unpopular. To quote from his first essay: 'The whole conception of God is a conception derived from the ancient Oriental Despotisms. It is a conception quite unworthy of freemen. When you hear people in Church debasing themselves and saying that they are miserable sinners, and all the rest of it, it seems contemptible and not worthy of self-respecting human beings. We ought to stand up and look the world frankly in the face. We ought to make the best we can of the world, and if it is not so good as we wish, after all it will still be better than what these others have made it in all these ages. A good world needs knowledge, kindliness and courage ; it does not need a regretful hankering after the past, or a fettering of the free intelligence by the words uttered long ago by ignorant men. Science can teach us, and I think our own hearts can teach us, no longer to look round for imaginary supports, no longer to invent allies in the sky, but rather to look to our own efforts here below to make this world a fit place to live in, instead of the sort of place that the CHURCHES in all these centuries have made it.'

        No one can dispute that in everything Lord Russell wrote he had the rare gift of exposition which easily turned popularization into an art. His touch was light and always lucid; his manner was elegant without being artificial or finicky. His mood was alternately rebellious and sober, but the sobriety was accompanied by many reservations and even his recklessness seemed to be very measured. In his essay on - A Free Man's Worship, which Lord Russell wrote at the age of 31 in 1903, he spoke up for 'The Free Mind' which is the glory and torment of the Western world. In spite of death, Man is yet free, during his brief years, to examine, to criticize, to know and in imagination to create. To him alone, in the world with which he is acquainted, this freedom belongs; and in this lies his superiority to the resistless forces that control his outward life.

When I was reading the Collected Works of Bertrand Russell, I came across the name of another iconoclast called John E Remsberg (1848 - 1919). He was a free thinker, author and lecturer like Bertrand Russell. Remsberg was born in Fremont, Ohio, on January 7, 1848, a son of George and Sarah Remsberg. He enlisted in the Union army at the age of sixteen. He was a teacher for more than 15 years and then became a fearless writer devoted to the sole cause of free and unfettered thought on all matters including religion, Jesus Christ and Christianity. He was the President of the American Secular Union. In his essay on Bible Morality written in 1903 he said: 'I refuse to accept the Bible as a moral guide because it sanctions nearly every vice and crime. Here is the long list of wrongs which it authorizes and defends : lying and deception, theft and robbery, wars of conquest, cannibalism, slavery, adultery and prostitution, ignorance, unkindness to children, tyranny, cheating, murder, human sacrifices, injustice to women, cruelty to animal and intolerance and persecution. The Bible is, for the most part, the crude literature of the people who lived 2000 years and more ago. Certain principles of right and wrong they recognized, but the finer principles of morality were unknown to them'.

Bertrand Russell (1872 - 1970)

        John E Remsberg was a prolific writer. His works include 'Life of Thomas Paine, 1880; The Image Breaker,' 1882; False Claims, 1883; Bible Morals, 1884; Sabbath Breakers, 1885; The Fathers of Our Republic, 1886; Was Lincoln a Christian, 1893; Was Washington a Christian, 1899; The Bible, 1903; Six Historic Americans, 1906; The Christ, 1909. His controversial and explosive lectures in support of free thought have been translated into German, French, Bohemian, Dutch, Swedish, Norwegian, Bengali and Sinhalese.

        I was lucky to get a copy of John E Remsberg's book 'The Christ' reprinted by Prometheus Books, New York, in 1994. According to him Emerson was right when he wrote that we must get rid of that Christ. He also endorses the view of Thomas Carlyle who said that the world would hear a pretty stern command— Exit Christ! In this book, Remsberg after comparing many striking similarities between Christianity and the three ancient religions of China, has stated as follows : 'There is one element in Christianity which was not borrowed from Paganism - religious intolerance'. Referring to Buddhism, Confucianism, and Taouism, a writer on China says: 'Between the followers of the three national religions there is not only a total absence of persecution and bitter feeling, but a very great indifference as to which of them a man may belong.... Among the politer classes, when strangers meet, the question is asked: 'To what sublime religion do you belong,' and each one pronounces a eulogium, not on his own religion, but on that professed by the others, and concludes with the oft-repeated formula 'Religions are many; reason is one; we are all brothers.' (The Christ, 1909, page 377 ).

        Remsberg asserts that most of the important wars in Western history were started by Christians and Christianity. As an avid student of history, I can say that he is absolutely right. Pages of world history show that Wars of the Roses (1455-1485), Thirty years War (1618-1648), Seven Years War (1756-1763), Crimean War (1853-56), I World War (1914-1919), II World War (1939-1945), Korean War (1950-53), Vietnam War (1965-73), War in Afghanistan (2001) and War in Iraq (2003- till date) were all launched or started by Christians and Christianity.

        Before I conclude, I would like to present one more striking quotation from John E Romberg's 'The Christ' (1909):

        'The supernatural Christ of the New Testament, the god of orthodox Christianity, is dead. But priestcraft lives and conjures up the ghost of this dead god to frighten and enslave the masses of mankind. The name of Christ has caused more persecutions, wars, and miseries than any other name has caused. The darkest wrongs are still inspired by it. The wails of anguish that went up from Kishenev, Odessa, and Bialystok still vibrate in our ears.'

        'I started this essay by referring to Lord Bertrand Russell. His 80th birthday in 1952 was the occasion for international tribute. The American Magazine 'LIFE' recalled that when Lord Russell was awarded the Nobel Prize, he denied that he had contributed anything important to literature, and 'LIFE' added: 'A great mind is still annoying and adorning our age.' No one can doubt that the trenchant and pungent writings of both Lord Russell and Remsberg continue to annoy and adorn our age even today.