The Celestial Teapot…
October 22nd, 2007…or, the Flying Spaghetti Monster…
I never knew what Russell’s teapot (or the celestial teapot) was before (well, other than a kick-ass website). I StumbldUpon (actually, StumbledUpon appears to be the accepted past tense, the Web2.0 spelling seems neglected) the Wikipedia entry and was amazed. Bertrand Russell wrote this awesome bit back in the 1950s:
“If I were to suggest that between the Earth and Mars there is a china teapot revolving about the sun in an elliptical orbit, nobody would be able to disprove my assertion provided I were careful to add that the teapot is too small to be revealed even by our most powerful telescopes. But if I were to go on to say that, since my assertion cannot be disproved, it is an intolerable presumption on the part of human reason to doubt it, I should rightly be thought to be talking nonsense. If, however, the existence of such a teapot were affirmed in ancient books, taught as the sacred truth every Sunday, and instilled into the minds of children at school, hesitation to believe in its existence would become a mark of eccentricity and entitle the doubter to the attentions of the psychiatrist in an enlightened age or of the Inquisitor in an earlier time.”
The Wikipedia entry also had a quote from Richard Dawkins:
“The reason organized religion merits outright hostility is that, unlike belief in Russell’s teapot, religion is powerful, influential, tax-exempt and systematically passed on to children too young to defend themselves. Children are not compelled to spend their formative years memorizing loony books about teapots. Government-subsidized schools don’t exclude children whose parents prefer the wrong shape of teapot. Teapot-believers don’t stone teapot-unbelievers, teapot-apostates, teapot-heretics and teapot-blasphemers to death. Mothers don’t warn their sons off marrying teapot-shiksas whose parents believe in three teapots rather than one. People who put the milk in first don’t kneecap those who put the tea in first.”
(I added the emphasis in the second quote.)
Damn.
I was introduced to Bertrand Russell at Penn College (there were and are some really awesome history/philosophy professors there…they helped me find my liberalism). He rocks. I have one of his books that I might be able to dig up for you.
Like I said, I hate religion! The bible is whacked and I find it very astonishing that so many people actually believe in it, literally or otherwise. I just don’t get it…
What I have faith in is myself…and I know that I can be a good, honest, loving person without the belief in a “higher power” or the fear of burning in hell for eternity. I feel stupid even writing that sentence…burning in hell…how ridiculous is that?
I’d rather believe in a teapot out in space, or the flying spaghetti monster…those two things make just as much sense as any religious crap I’ve read or heard about. C.R.A.P.!
and spaghetti is yummy.
I really resent the fact that a lot of believers seem to think that one cannot be a good person without believing; that because we don’t have the fear of hell to keep us in line we will just go around acting like heathens.