Why I Am Not a Christian and Other Essays on Religion and Related Subjects by Bertrand Russell – a few hundred other books are reviewed on my blog, where this is the best take you can find https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/2025/02/is-this-unique-could-it-make-money.html - 9 out of 10

 

Why I Am Not a Christian and Other Essays on Religion and Related Subjects by Bertrand Russell – a few hundred other books are reviewed on my blog, where this is the best take you can find https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/2025/02/is-this-unique-could-it-make-money.html

 

9 out of 10

There was a discussion in the sauna downtown, about three hours ago, and it made me think of religion again, because it was about Christ and more – though somehow it started with…Zelensky, and from there, it moved to Absolute Truth and a dispute over which is that, what about Allah, and let me try and first say…

 

That Bertrand Russell makes some compelling arguments, only I want to take this earlier debate out of the way – ergo, we need a spoiler alert on two counts, first, I move away from the subject, and then I may not come back to Bertrand Russell, so it must be said here, I think this is wonderful, and furthermore, you find it on YouTube

 

We have this fellow coming at the sauna – well, one of many – who is rather sophisticated, erudite, he does not have a subscription to any of the hoi polloi favorites, Netflix, etc., he pays two outfits to stream…Opera, so you see what rarefied air he breathes, he also has a projector, and a huge screen, which must mean at least a massive room

 

Otherwise, we have this paradox, explained in Intellectuals https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/2025/01/intellectuals-by-paul-johnson.html by Paul Johnson, somebody is so impressive, remarkable, knowledgeable, informed, and yet, you see that he is really opaque, which is an euphemism

Admittedly, this Titan – let us call him that – does have a powerful, enviable position in that he knows the ‘Absolute Truth’, which is God, in the debate – wow, what a place I frequent, I now see, with conversations on Absolute Truth, Islam and the rest – the interlocutor insisted on making the difference between faith and fact

 

So, this chap – who knows, maybe he gets to read this, so let me hide him under Anatoly, come to think of it, he is rather lenient towards Putin, all in the name of ‘there is no absolute truth’, hence, this monster could not be 100% evil, I tried to haggle, but he was going for 90% bad – said what about Allah, those who pray to him?

It does sound convincing, at least to some extent, for each side maintains that it holds the Absolute Truth, their god is the ‘real one’, and then, we could insist ‘well, the believer has this personal revelation, he/she/they know it is the only ‘real deity’, but that does not make it Absolute, the same for everyone, everywhere

 

Thus, Dostoevsky https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/2025/02/the-idiot-by-fyodor-dostoyevsky.html comes onto the stage, I think I have read somewhere that he said ‘he wished he were a fat sausage maker, who goes to church daily, lights a candle or more, and has faith’ – she would not go into a polemic over Absolutes

Now I think of Heretic, an excellent – on the side of religion, the horror bits did not thrill me in the least – motion picture with Hugh Grant as a sadistic scholar, who scores points on his religious presentation, the background, how the major faiths have taken myths from other ancients, and the succession of the Big Three

 

Christianity had taken a lot (maybe most) of what there was in Judaism, Islam was inspired by both, as it did arrive late on the stage, and the comparison if made with Monopoly, and its predecessor, Landlord, the creators of Monopoly have stolen the idea of Landlord, send the latter made no money for the inventor

In a similar way, Hugh Grant makes the remark that there are what, less than one percent Jews in the world, and that is because they do not proselytize, they do not want to convert the multitudes, like the Mormons and others try….

 

Now for my standard closing of the note with a question, and invitation – maybe you have a good idea on how we could make more than a million dollars with this https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/2025/02/is-this-unique-could-it-make-money.html  – as it is, this is a unique technique, which we could promote, sell, open the Oscars show with or something and then make lots of money together, if you have the how, I have the product, I just do not know how to get the befits from it, other than the exercise per se

 

 There is also the small matter of working for AT&T – this huge company asked me to be its Representative for Romania and Bulgaria, on the Calling Card side, which meant sailing into the Black Sea wo meet the US Navy ships, travelling to Sofia, a lot of activity, using my mother’s two bedrooms flat as office and warehouse, all for the grand total of $250, raised after a lot of persuasion to the staggering $400…with retirement ahead, there are no benefits, nothing…it is a longer story, but if you can help get the mastodont to pay some dues, or have an idea how it can happen, let me know

 

As for my role in the Revolution that killed Ceausescu, a smaller Mao, there it is http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/03/realini-in-newsweek-participant-in.html  

 

Some favorite quotes from To The Hermitage and other works

 

‘Fiction is infinitely preferable to real life...As long as you avoid the books of Kafka or Beckett, the everlasting plot of fiction has fewer futile experiences than the careless plot of reality...Fiction's people are fuller, deeper, cleverer, more moving than those in real life…Its actions are more intricate, illuminating, noble, profound…There are many more dramas, climaxes, romantic fulfillment, twists, turns, gratified resolutions…Unlike reality, all of this you can experience without leaving the house or even getting out of bed…What's more, books are a form of intelligent human greatness, as stories are a higher order of sense…As random life is to destiny, so stories are to great authors, who provided us with some of the highest pleasures and the most wonderful mystifications we can find…Few stories are greater than Anna Karenina, that wise epic by an often foolish author…’