THE LIFE WE SEEK

The Life We Seek ~ 440 ~ circumstances and environment, they begin to fill the inner vacuum from wrong sources. In his early youth, philosopher Betrand Russell was fervently religious and regularly used to pray. In those days, his grandfather once asked him what his favorite prayer was. “I am tired of life and succumbing under the yoke of my sins,” was young Russell’s reply. At that time, Russell worshipped God. But when he reached the age of twelve he gave up this practice. The company he kept, being predominantly antipathetic towards religious traditions and ageold values, turned Russell’s mind away from these things. He died an atheist, having devoted the latter part of his life to mathematics and philosophy. In 1959, Russell was interviewed on the BBC by John Freeman, who asked him whether his enthusiasm for mathematics and philosophy had proved a satisfactory substitute for religious sentiments. “Yes indeed,” Russell replied. “By the time I was forty, I have reached the stage of fulfillment which, according to Plato, one is able to receive from mathematics. The world I lived in was an eternal