'Why I am not a Christian' is considered one of the most blasphemous philosophical documents ever written, and at a time when we have faith schools and wars over religious beliefs, its message today couldn't be more relevant. If 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 - then Russell snatches that comfort away, leaving us instead with other, more troublesome alternatives; responsibility, autonomy, self-awareness.

Ranked alongside Voltaire’s ‘Candide’, Tom Paine’s ‘Age of Reason’, Martin Scorsese’s ‘The Last Temptation of Christ’, and Monty Python’s ‘The Life of Brian’, Bertrand Russell’s ‘Why I Am Not a Christian’ has had some odd bedfellows over the years. While its tone is playful and frivolous, it poses tough questions over the nature of religion and belief.