Why I Am Not a Christian

World War I initiated a degree of death and destruction the world had never before seen. The British lost nearly a million soldiers, and for many survivors, the war radically altered their understanding of the world. The way the British public responded to the war was mixed: Some lost their faith; others turned to alternative belief systems, like Spiritualism, in hopes of connecting to those who had passed. Most clung to their faith even more tightly. Many clergy in both the Anglican and Catholic Church viewed World War I as a punishment for the rise of secularism that had spread through Western Europe and the UK for decades (Brennan, Maggie. “A Light in the Darkness: The Interaction Between Catholicism and World War I.” The Purdue Historian 6, 1 [2013]:14-33).

The trend toward secularism in British society was countered by the government, which renewed its close ties to the Church, impacting those who chose to live secularly (Shaw, Matthew, “Faith, Belief and Superstition.” British Library. January 29, 2014). By 1927, when Bertrand Russell delivered his lecture “Why I Am Not a Christian” at a meeting of the National Secular Society, that organization had been actively fighting for the right to sell its literature and hold meetings in British parks, while also dealing with imprisonments for breaking blasphemy laws (Taylor, G.