March 2, 2011
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Seven Questions
A questionnaire adapted from an example of Bertrand Russell’s (Celestial teapot)
“I propose that out there in space; in-between Earth and mars. There is a teapot revolving around the sun. This teapot is too small to be revealed by even our most powerful telescopes, or other instruments. It has never been seen. And it has otherwise never been detected by Astronomers. I can offer you no evidence that the teapot exists. “
1) Do you believe that this teapot exists?
2) What if it was true that most of the people on earth believed in the teapot existence.
Would you then believe that the teapot exists?3) What if it was also true that you went to a place where people were celebrating the teapot. And they were singing and dancing, and hugging you, and you had the most intense emotional experience of your life.
Would you then believe that the teapot exists?4) What if all of the teapot worshipers attributed that emotional experience to the teapot. Would you then believe that the teapot exists?
5) What if you started to feel a desire to believe in the teapot even though you still had no evidence. Would you then believe that the teapot exists, based on that desire?
6) What if someone told you that believing in the teapot would help you to live forever in paradise. Would you then believe that the teapot exists?
7) What if someone told you that you would suffer for eternity if you didn’t believe in the teapot. Would you then believe that the teapot exists?
Comments (22)
What conclusions did you draw? Does the teapot exist?
I’m not worried about you ’cause I’m confident you will continue to search for the truth until you find it! I do worry for those teapot worshipers in the world who have been deluded into believing they already have all the truth there is, especially those who heap their unrighteous judgments — in other words their crap — upon you and others. Hugs to you, Dear One, Rescuer of Cats.
I believe my answer to all seven questions is, “No.” Humorously enough, most theists would probably answer the same way.
@CoderHead -
@ZombieMom_Speaks - 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 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 Church of the Celestial Teapot invites you to try and prove us wrong
Philosopher Bertrand Russell is famous for using the idea of an
imaginary Celestial Teapot (also known as Russell’s Teapot) to refute
the notion that it is up to the skeptic to disprove an assertion with no
basis in fact, such as a religious belief. Russell first wrote about
his Celestial Teapot parody of religion in 1952, in an unpublished
article titled, ‘Is There a God?’
No to all.
Of course not.
I guess what I’m asking is if you’ve lost your faith.
1) The teapot exists…even if it is only in your mind. Your though brought it into ream of possible existence.
2) Yes it is a reality for those who belief and then it does not matter whether it exist for real or not…3) Even if it does not exist…it has a profound impact on those people so it must exist.4) Our thoughts create our reality…for all practical reasons the teapot will exists since no one can proof that it does not exist.5) I can not see any cause for such a desire. The teapot does not seem to fit into a bigger framework of meaning6) I would like to know why they think so and listen to there reasoning but I do not believe in a heaven and hell so it will most likely not change my view of the teapot.7) See my answer at point 6….Look the teapot exist as a mental construct, people gain some sense of meaning from it …so why argue about the teapot…reasoning for or against the teapot will not change reality itself it only changes our perception of reality.
@Zeal4living - The belief in the teapot could affect how someone lives their lives (for better or/and worse) and how they treat people who do not believe in the teapot.
That’s the thing, Zeal. People, Teapotters or not, can really do much harm in the name of their “truth”. And that’s so sad, given that virtually all religions exhort their followers to be gentler, kinder people with each other.
However, I have found a handful of truly spiritual people, whatever path they follow, who simply glow with kindness and love. I try to surround myself with people like that, even if I don’t buy their particular truth. But many of them don’t buy mine either. And that’s okay. There are may paths, each as valid as the next. Just depends on which path feels right to your feet.
You may enjoy Letters From The Earth, a parody by mark twain, wherein lucifer (still an angel) is banished from heaven for a day for general mischief and, upon visiting earth, discreetly writes letters back to st. micheal and gabriel about us humans and our beliefs.
God can’t be proven but this is a bad analogy for God because throughout history, billions of people have believed in some type of God, but there’s no history of people believing in an invisible teapot.
I am ceratinly more like to to believe that there is a teapot than I am that any of these things can be attributed to it. The real question is, “Is the existence of a celestial teapot more likely than the existence of a celestial teaspoon?”.
I read the article from which the teapot premise was taken. He seems to sit somewhere on the fence between athiesm and agnostic. Ok but through all his arguments he seemed to carry one thought. “Man, in so far as he is not subject to natural forces, is free to work out his own destiny. The responsibility is his, and so is the opportunity.”
I think the argument of the bumble bee is as applicable as the teapot. An athiest tells me there is no God or at best no God that affects our daily lives. Any number of aerospace engineers will tell me that the bumble bee can’t fly. They will tell you it is a scientific impossibility…but no one told the bumble bee. There is nothing scientific that I can use to prove to anyone there is a God…but I can show you the bumble bee.
@mommachatter - The
“science has proved that bees can’t fly” urban myth originated in a
1934 book by entomologist Antoine Magnan, who discussed a mathematical
equation by Andre Sainte-Lague, an engineer. The equation proved that
the maximum lift for an aircraft’s wings could not be achieved at
equivalent speeds of a bee. I.e., an airplane the size of a bee, moving
as slowly as a bee, could not fly. Although this did not mean a bee
can’t fly (which after all does not have stationary wings like the
posited teency aircraft), nevertheless the idea that Magnan’s book said
bees oughtn’t be able to fly began to spread.
It spread at first as a joke in European universities, at
Sainte-Lague’s & Magnan’s expense. But later it became a “fact”
among the gullible or the uneducated not smart enough to get the joke.
Later still it became a “fun” experiment to develop complex mathematical
theories both to explain how insects fly, or why they can’t —
scientific intellectual sophism.
of course, how would I get tea if it werent for the Great Celestial teapot?
We must worship it if we want all kinds of tea.
/facepalm
musterion99 proved your/Russell’s point. and so did several others.
This doesn’t seem applicable to Abrahamic faiths, however, due to, “I can offer you no evidence that the teapot exists.” Anyone that followed a Prophet of God was given some ilk of evidence to believe the man, the claim of the man, and that evidence was the presentation of miracles, things that in their very nature defied nature itself yet there they were beholding it (today, however, we’d want it to hang around long enough to figure it out, if we ever could). Anyone is more than welcome to more than imagine an undetectable, unfalsifiable celestial teapot, the future of science is modeled upon [science] fiction as it is, however, the paradigm imo doesn’t seem to match. another reason being, at least in my creed & philosophy, is that God does not reside within the universe, for the teapot parody to bear closer semblance one would have to say it’s only a teapot in name, is separate from physical reality yet no less real. in other words it would have to sound even more fantastic =P but I guess that just wouldn’t be as ironic, let alone humorous.
@versatil - I think the real question is, is there any tea in the teapot and if so, what kind is it?
Right, Kristen???
my answer will be a NO to all the question, based on the premise of “I can offer you no evidence that the teapot exists”
i think that’s where certain religion is different than the other, where some are built upon faith (in the sense of “just believe it”), while some are built upon evidences..
@Aaliyaan - yup. I only like certain types of tea.
@Aaliyaan - Don’t be ridiculous. Of course, It’s intergalactic space tea, obviously, gosh. As good as it might be, it’s going to be mad gross in space paste format. LOL. i wonder if astronauts have their own tea. they need to invent… the tea suit. biodegradable, just add sugar and milk.