The agnostic philosopher Bertrand Russell concluded his famous essay “A Free Man’s Worship” with the pessimistic proclamation that “all the labors of the ages, all the devotion, all the inspiration,...

The agnostic philosopher Bertrand Russell concluded his famous essay “A Free Man’s Worship” with the pessimistic proclamation that “all the labors of the ages, all the devotion, all the inspiration, all the noonday brightness of human genius, are destined to extinction in the vast death of the solar system, and the whole temple of man’s achievement must inevitably be buried beneath the debris of a universe in ruins.” Isn’t Russell voicing the honest conclusion we would have to draw if we reject the religious view of the purpose of human life?