Who Said That?

Who said that?

"I say quite deliberately that the Christian religion, as organized in its churches, has been and still is the principal enemy of moral progress in the world."

Place your guess in the comments section below.  No google searches (or cheating).  The goal is to guess "who said this?"

Update on Tuesday, March 20, 2007 at 09:52AM by Kim Riddlebarger

As some of you guessed, these words come from Bertrand Russell, in his book, Why I Am Not A Christian.  I wonder if he'd want to rethink that now . . .

Comments

[Big Dog]

John Dewey?

[Quinn]

Bertrand Russell from "Why I am not a Christian."

[Andrew Alvarez]

You know technically, there is nothing wrong with the quote. What does "moral progress" mean anyway? The evolution of morals? If that's the case, then the church better be its enemy!

[Ron]

Bertrand Russell

[zrim]

excellent point, andrew.

however, i think the "plain reading" of the gist is to simply cast the church into a bad light. it presumes that moral progress (man's term for self-justification or way to yet fulfill the CoW) is a good thing and that the church stands in the way of this goal, a goal everyone is supposed to accept without flinching. the church showing herself to be steeped in sin is supposed to show how contradictory her message is only if one accepts the idea that she exists to better the world, which so much of christendom does anyway.

zrim

[Dustin]

Right off the top of my head, I guessed Frederick Nitzsche but I'm pretty sure I was wrong.

I agree with earlier posts, this person doesn't sound American.

[Timothy]

Mark Twain

[Terry J]

Thomas Paine. Sounds like something I remember reading in "Age of Reason."

[C-Rod]

I definitely recognize this as Bertrand Russell

[Jason Payton]

Charles Finney or,
Erasemus

[The Highland Host]

Bertrand Russell for sure. It has the slimy moral superiority that so characterised the bloke. The 'I'm more moral than God' attitude.

[Ivan]

Peter Jennings?
But he thought he was off the record when he stated such?

[Anonymous]

Bertrand Russell doing an impression of Mark Twain

[Bob]

How many of you recall Peter Jennings one night during one of his ABC slander Jesus and Scripture documentaries, where Peter said something to the effect of [I am paraphrasing, "We reporters have our facts and you christians have your faith".]

He was not making any news, simply reporting the news; just being objective making observations, you see...

[Cris]

Interesting article by Neuhaus: _The Idea of Moral Progress_, http://www.firstthings.com/article.php3?id_article=3193