tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-76781395185659248242024-03-06T09:57:13.107+01:00teapots-everywhereernst nijstenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13841153455207828856noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7678139518565924824.post-49861103161230941192012-11-03T13:31:00.004+01:002012-11-03T13:31:59.607+01:00<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<br />ernst nijstenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13841153455207828856noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7678139518565924824.post-28509531148408263092010-12-15T01:12:00.002+01:002010-12-15T01:19:31.120+01:00Bertrand Russell's Celestial Teapot<span class="Apple-style-span" style=" color: rgb(204, 204, 204); line-height: 20px; font-family:'Trebuchet MS', Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:13px;">The teapot stands for a number of things - like God and E.T.'s - whose existence is improbable but cannot be disproved. The odds in favor of the teapot are not equal to the odds against.<br /><div>The teapot-icon is meant as a friendly yet powerful symbol of reason in a world of nonsensical beliefs.</div><div><br /></div><div><div>The Celestial Teapot was an analogy first coined by the philosopher Bertrand Russell (1872-1970), intended to refute the idea that the burden of proof lies upon the sceptic to disprove claims of religions. In 1952 Russell wrote:<br /><div><br /></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic; ">" 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 carefull to add that the teapot is too small to be revealed even by our most powerful telescopes.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic; ">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 in 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 a psychiatrist in an enlightened age or of the Inquisitor in an earlier time."</span></div></div></div></span>ernst nijstenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13841153455207828856noreply@blogger.com0