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Is there a way of living that is noble and another that is base, or are all ways of living merely futile?
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Why, then, you may ask, waste time on such insoluble problems? To this one may answer as a historian, or as an individual facing the terror of cosmic loneliness.
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Science tells us what we can know, but what we can know is little, and if we forget how much we cannot know we become insensitive to many things of very great importance. Theology, on the other hand, induces a dogmatic belief that we have knowledge where in fact we have ignorance, and by doing so generates a kind of impertinent insolence towards the universe.
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Uncertainty, in the presence of vivid hopes and fears, is painful, but must be endured if we wish to live without the support of comforting fairy tales.
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Bertrand Russel is (was) such a wonderful writer. Just don't forget that his history of philosophy is saturated with his own p.o.v. You should read original sources when you can. That being said, I believe that Why I am Not a Christian was one of the first works of philosophy that I read. It's so clear and precise and with a dose of British humor...who can resist it?
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