Bertrand Russell Quotes

Bertrand Russell Quotes 366
There are however some genuine purely ethical disagreements. The most important of these is as to vindictive punishment. When we hate a man and think him wicked, we are liable to find pleasure in the thought of his suffering, and we may easily persuade ourselves that this suffering is a good thing on its own account. This is the basis of the belief in Hell, where punishment is not supposed to have any reforming eflfect.
Source: Bertrand Russell: Human Society in Ethics and Politics, (1954), chapter 10：Is there ethical knowledge ?
More info.: https://russell-j.com/cool/47T-1012.htm


* a brief comment (Translated with DeepL.com)
As shown in the attached image, the regions and countries with the highest number of people believing in the existence of Hell are likely to be those where Christianity, Islam or indigenous beliefs (such as in Africa) have a strong influence. Fewer people in developed countries believe in hell, but the USA stands out with more than 60% of the population believing in hell. Even in the USA, where science is well developed, it is often said that the USA is a religious nation, as about half of the population (apparently) believes exactly what is written in the Bible.
　Israel, a Jewish state, has repeatedly claimed that it will destroy Hamas. Israel claims that it is conducting a ‘precision strike’ against Hamas, which has infiltrated Gaza (but with some casualties of Gaza civilians), due to the military support it receives from the US. But if Gaza civilians whose families were murdered by Israeli forces join Hamas to get back at them, does Israel insist that they are still Hamas and therefore subject to extermination?　Does Israel's retaliatory punishment seem to be influenced by the idea of hell or by racist thinking?　If you believe that Gaza citizens are human beings with equal rights as Israeli citizens, then Israel should not have the right to murder more than 30,000 Gaza citizens just because a few thousand Israeli citizens were massacred.