Maulana Wahiduddin Khan | The Sunday Guardian May 30, 2021
One of the most prominent atheists of our times, the British philosopher Bertrand Russell, has published a number of books and articles which justify his atheistic cast of mind. Why I Am Not a Christian is specific on this issue, as the title suggests. Yet, in his autobiography, he writes of his journey to Greece:
“I had never before been in Greece and I found what I saw exceedingly interesting. In one respect, however, I was surprised. After being impressed by the great solid achievements which everybody admires, I found myself in a little church belonging to the days when Greece was part of the Byzantine empire. To my astonishment, I felt more at home in this little church than I did in the Parthenon or in any of the other Greek buildings of Pagan times. I realized then that the Christian outlook had a firmer hold upon me than I had imagined. The hold was not upon my beliefs, but upon my feelings.” (p.561)
These words were evidently a heartfelt cry from his innermost being. It is an indicator of how it is that man has been unable to rid himself of such feelings, even when all of his conscious actions have been motivated by the purest of logic. Even the staunchest of atheists and unbelievers admit from time to time that they remain dissatisfied in their state of unbelief. It is at moments such as that experienced by Bertrand Russell in Greece that they are forced to relent, to give in to such impulses as they have reasoned themselves into suppressing and have been at pains all along to disavow. Truly, man can never free himself from his inborn ties with divinity.