Bronze-level articleRussell's Teapot

From RationalWiki
(Difference between revisions)
Jump to: navigation, search
(Obviously, those links were in the original 1952 text)
m (Reverted edits by 173.164.238.54 (talk) to last revision by I'm not Jesus)
Line 4: Line 4:
 
==Russell's original proposition==
 
==Russell's original proposition==
  
In an unpublished article entitled "Is There a God?" commissioned  in 1952 by ''Illustrated'' magazine,<ref>[http://www.cfpf.org.uk/articles/religion/br/br_god.html "Is There a God?" -- The complete essay]</ref> Russell said the following:
+
In an unpublished article entitled "Is There a God?" commissioned  in 1952 by ''Illustrated'' magazine,<ref>[http://www.cfpf.org.uk/articles/religion/br/br_god.html "Is There a God?" -- The complete essay]</ref> Russell said the following (edited to add links):
  
 
{{cquote|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.
 
{{cquote|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.

Revision as of 03:25, 13 May 2011

The Atheist's Guide To

Atheism

Icon atheism.svg
Key concepts
More about atheism
Notable atheists

Russell's Teapot or the Celestial Teapot was an analogy devised by the philosopher Bertrand Russell intended to refute the idea that the burden of proof lies upon the skeptic to disprove the claims of religions.

Contents

Russell's original proposition

In an unpublished article entitled "Is There a God?" commissioned in 1952 by Illustrated magazine,[1] Russell said the following (edited to add links):

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.

Extension and use by Dawkins

Richard Dawkins also used Russell's teapot argument extensively in The God Delusion and A Devil's Chaplain. He developed the argument further.

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.

The trouble different believers cause for those who don’t believe exactly what they do would be a Tempest in a teapot if there weren’t’ so much harm through it.

Large numbers of people believe absurdities

Hardly anyone believes in the Olympian gods of the Greco-Roman religion, a few people believe in Asatru, Neopagans believe at least parts of the Celtic religion but lots of people buy into Judeo-Christian and Islamic traditions. Yet there is no reason to take these ideologies more seriously than other Bronze Age and Iron Age mythologies.

Russell’s teapot is a persuasive argument. In fact, the case for most religions is weaker than the case for an alleged teapot orbiting the sun. At least the teapot, if it existed, would not violate any known physical laws - it might cause its discoverers to scratch their heads about how the hell a teapot actually got there (see the "refutation" below) but nothing really stops a teapot existing or being in orbit. Many organized religions, if they were true, would require repeated violations of known physical laws. No reliable document has any reasonable information suggesting that any religion is true, either. The Old Testament is riddled with contradiction and implausible stories, as is the New Testament. Other religions revere their different mythologies in a similar way. When it’s pointed out that they can’t possibly all be true, the different believers insist passionately that their particular mythology has to be right, and all the others must be wrong.

Additional interpretations

PRAISE THE TEAPOT!

When presented with the full narrative, the stage where Russell declares that the teapot is actually too small to be seen (after it has been searched for by all the telescopes in the world) can be considered an example of moving the goalposts.

In addition, the point where the teapot becomes "undetectable" is analogous to numerous ideas used in the construction of scientific theories regarding how the universe works. Namely, if something is entirely undetectable and as such has no effect that can be measured or observed, directly or indirectly, then its existence or otherwise essentially makes no difference to the world. Thus, it can happily be discarded if convenient to a better theory. This was the case with the aether, for example, a theorised "substance" that light would propagate through. As experiments failed to detect it or its effect (the Michelson–Morley experiment being the most prominent and famous example) the idea was discarded to allow the development of spacetime as used in relativity. The notions of absolute position, rest and motion - associated with the existence of the aether - were also discarded in favour of more relativistic physics which turned out to predict the nature of the universe much better anyway.

Discredited?

The argument for Russell's Teapot was effectively dealt with by the great philosopher and railway worker Phillip J. Rayment, who reasoned:

The fallacy in the argument is that there is in fact nothing absurd about believing the teapot to be there, if those "ancient books" were written by an ancient astronaut or other being who placed the teapot there.

The argument presumes that such is not the case, so presumes what it sets out to prove, and is thus a circular argument. That is, the argument is based on the presumption that there is no valid reason, beyond widespread belief, to believe that the teapot exists.

But if the validity of those ancient books could be established, there is indeed reason to believe that the teapot exists, and thus the presumption in the argument is false[2]

While Rayment’s argument is logical, it is irrelevant as it ignores almost the entire premise of the original argument. This refutation of the "Teapot Argument" requires there to be a reliable and preferably primary source for evidence of the teapot; i.e., the astronaut who placed it there. As stated above, no reliable ancient books prove the existence of a celestial teapot. Likewise, no reliable ancient books prove supernatural claims of any religion. While it does beg the question slightly to assume that these hypothetical ancient books that espouse a celestial teapot are not reliable (to much the same extent that we need to assume we exist in order to have any discussion at all), it is of much greater improbability that they are accurate, and so requires a much greater leap of faith and circular reasoning.

The conclusion of the Russell's Teapot, therefore, is that there is no valid reason, beyond widespread belief, for belief in celestial teapots - or, by extension, for belief in religion.

See also

Footnotes

  1. "Is There a God?" -- The complete essay
  2. Conservapedia - Russell's teapot

External links

Personal tools
Namespaces

Variants
Actions
Navigation
Community
Tools
support