While its tone is playful and frivolous, this book poses tough questions over th
e nature of religion and belief. Religion provides comfortable responses to the
questions that have always beset humankind - why are we here, what is the point
of being alive, how ought we to behave? Russell snatches that comfort away, leav
ing us instead with other, more troublesome alternatives: responsibility, autono
my, self-awareness. He tells us that the time to live is now, the place to live
is here, and the way to be happy is to ensure others are happy.
