Bertrand Russell on: Holy Books Here's a quote from Bertrand Russell - - who by the way was born back in 1872 - - talking about the authority of so called .... holy books. “Whose authority? The Old Testament? The New Testament? The Koran? People choose the book considered holy by the community in which they are born, and out of that book they choose the parts they like ignoring the others. As soon as we abandon our own reason and are content to rely upon authority, there is no end to our trouble