Russells Teekanne

2010-06-27T02:13:30Z

Modocc: /* See also */ rm a redundant link and an irrelevant reference

{{Infobox Bertrand Russell}}

'''Russell's teapot''', sometimes called the '''Celestial Teapot''' or '''Cosmic Teapot''', is an [[analogy]] first coined by the philosopher [[Bertrand Russell]] (1872–1970), intended to refute the idea that the [[philosophic burden of proof]] lies upon the [[Skepticism|sceptic]]  to disprove [[Falsifiability|unfalsifiable]] claims of [[religion]]s. Russell's teapot is still referred to in discussions concerning the [[existence of God]]. The analogy has also been used by [[sociologist]]s to denote correlations with [[religion]] and social [[conformity]].

==Russell's original text==
In an article titled "Is There a God?" commissioned, but never published, by ''Illustrated'' magazine in [[1952]], Russell wrote:

{{quote|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.<ref>[http://www.cfpf.org.uk/articles/religion/br/br_god.html Bertrand Russell: Is There a God?]</ref>
}}

==Contemporary usage==


In his [[2003]] book ''[[A Devil's Chaplain]]'', [[Richard Dawkins]] employed the teapot analogy as an argument against what he termed "agnostic conciliation", a policy of intellectual appeasement that allows for philosophical domains that concern exclusively religious matters.<ref>{{cite book
| title = [[A Devil's Chaplain]]
| author = [[Richard Dawkins]]
| publisher = [[Houghton Mifflin]]
| release_date = 2003
| media_type =
| pages =
| isbn = ISBN 0-618-33540-4
}}</ref>
Science has no way of establishing the existence or non-existence of a god. Therefore, according to the agnostic conciliator, because it is a matter of individual taste, belief and disbelief in a supreme being are deserving of equal respect and attention. Dawkins presents the teapot as a [[reductio ad absurdum]] of this position: if agnosticism demands giving equal respect to the belief and disbelief in a supreme being, then it must also give equal respect to belief in an orbiting teapot, since the existence of an orbiting teapot is just as plausible scientifically as the existence of a supreme being.

[[Peter Atkins]] said that the core point of Russell's teapot is that a scientist cannot prove a negative, and therefore [[Occam's razor]] demands that the more simple theory (in which there is no supreme being) should trump the more complex theory (with a supreme being).<ref>{{citation|title=The Oxford handbook of religion and science|editors=Clayton, Philip and Simpson, Zachary R.|first=Peter|last=Atkins|authorlink=Peter Atkins|contribution=Atheism and science|pages=129–130}}</ref> He notes that this argument is not good enough to convince the religious, because religious evidence is experienced through personal revelation or received wisdom, and cannot be presented in the same manner as scientific evidence. The scientific view is to treat such claims of personal revelation with suspicion.

[[James Wood (critic)|James Wood]], without believing in a god, says that belief in God is more reasonable than belief in a teapot because God is a "grand and big idea" which "is not analogically disproved by reference to celestial teapots or vacuum cleaners, which lack the necessary bigness and grandeur".<ref>{{citation|first=James|last=Wood|authorlink=James Wood (critic)|title=The Celestial Teapot|journal=[[The New Republic]]|date=18 December 2006|issue=27|url=http://www.tnr.com/article/the-celestial-teapot}}</ref>

Another counter-argument, advanced by [[Eric Reitan]], is that belief in God is different from belief in a teapot because teapots are physical and therefore in principle verifiable, and that given what we know about the physical world we have no good reason to think that belief in Russell's teapot is justified and at least some reason to think it not.<ref name=Reitan>{{cite book | title = Is God a Delusion?|author = Eric Reitan|publisher = Wiley-Blackwell | release_date = 2008 | media_type = | pages = 78–79 | isbn = 1405183616}}</ref>

The concept of Russell's teapot has been extrapolated into more explicitly religion-parodying forms such as the [[Invisible Pink Unicorn]],<ref>{{cite book|author=[[Richard Dawkins]]|title=[[The God Delusion]]|publisher=Houghton-Mifflin|year=2006|isbn=978-0618680009}}</ref> the [[Flying Spaghetti Monster]],<ref>{{cite news | title=The Church of the Non-Believers | first=Gary | last=Wolf | date=November 14, 2006 | publisher=[[Wired News]] | url=http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/14.11/atheism.html}}</ref> and [[The Demon-Haunted World|The Dragon in My Garage]].<ref>{{cite news | title=The Dragon in My Garage | first=Carl | last=Sagan| date=June 21, 2007 | publisher=http://www.RichardDawkins.Net | url=http://richarddawkins.net/social/index.php?mode=article&id=35}}</ref>

==See also==
*''[[The Root of All Evil?]]'', a television documentary written and presented by Richard Dawkins
*[[Parody religion]]

==References==
{{Reflist|2}}
{{irreligion}}
{{philosophy of religion}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Russell's Teapot}}
[[Category:Bertrand Russell]]
[[Category:Atheism]]
[[Category:Criticism of religion]]
[[Category:Philosophical arguments]]
[[Category:Parodies]]
[[Category:Skepticism]]

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[[is:Teketill Russells]]
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[[he:קנקן התה של ראסל]]
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[[ta:ரஸ்சலின் தேனீர் கேத்தல்]]
[[tr:Russell'in çaydanlığı]]

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Russells Teekanne