The-Conquest-of-Happiness-by-Bertrand-Russell

and feel deeply about what his reason tells him.
Most men, when they have thrown off superficially
the superstitions of their childhood, think that there
is no more to be done. They do not realise that
these superstitions are still lurking underground.
When a rational conviction has been arrived at, it
is necessary to dwell upon it, to follow out its
consequences, to search out in oneself whatever
beliefs inconsistent with the new conviction might
otherwise survive, and when the sense of sin
grows strong, as from time to time it will, to treat it
not as a revelation and a call to higher things, but
as a disease and a weakness, unless of course it is
caused by some act which a rational ethic would
condemn. I am not suggesting that a man should be
destitute of morality, I am only suggesting that he
should be destitute of superstitious morality, which
is a very different thing.
But even when a man has offended against his own
rational code, I doubt whether a sense of sin is the
‘best method of arriving at a better way of life.
There is in the sense of sin something abject,