George Albert Wells

From Philosopedia

Wells, George Albert (1926– )

An emeritus professor of German at the University of London, Wells is a Humanist Laureate in the Council for Secular Humanism’s International Academy of Humanism. In 1989, he was elected an honorary associate of the British Rationalist Press Association.

Wells is on the Council for Secular Humanism’s Committee for the Scientific Examination of Religion. He has been a director as well as Chairman of the Rationalist Press Association.

Among his books are The Historical Evidence for Jesus (1982); Did Jesus Exist? (1986); and Belief and Make-Believe: Critical Reflections on the Sources of Credulity (1992), in which he acknowledges the impact on his thinking of F. R. H. Englefield, one of his teachers - Jesus never existed, Wells holds, and religion is a form of make-believe. In Freethought Today (April-May1985), he told an interviewer,

• Nowadays, you can say practically anything about Jesus without creating offense -so long as you admit he existed. There was no such person.
• I say I have no religious beliefs. I certainly think this life is all I have, all anybody has, and I usually say it doesn't seem to me at all meaningful to ask the purpose of life. What purpose does the life of a spider have? If a spider doesn't have a purpose, why should we? Of course, we all have our individual purposes, that's quite different.

His Religious Postures: Essays on Modern Christian Apologists and Religious Problems (1988) attempts to demolish notions of biblical inerrancy. Wells cites inconsistent passages of scripture, shows the historical impossibilities, and suggests why apologists persist. He discusses Kant’s fantastic view of mind, the Jehovah’s Witnesses, and Paul Tillich, lamenting the continuance of biblical inerrantism. He also is negatively critical of Julian Huxley’s brand of religious humanism.

What’s In A Name? Reflections on Language, Magic, and Religion (1993) is a major work by a humanist linguist. His 1994 essay, “The Difficulties of Today’s Religious Apologists,” was included in Challenges to the Enlightenment, Essays in Defense of Reason and Science. In 1996 he wrote The Jesus Legend, noting that Christians argue the man must have existed because reports of his exploits spread quickly after his reported demise, that therefore they must be based on actual events. Such an argument Wells solidly refutes. In 1999, the Rationalist Press Association published his booklet, "The Origin of Language.”

As for his outlook:

• I say I have no religious beliefs. I certainly think this life is all I have, all anybody has, and I usually say it doesn't seem to me at all meaningful to ask the purpose of life. What purpose does the life of a spider have? If a spider doesn't have a purpose, why should we? Of course, we all have our individual purposes, that's quite different.

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