Russell

Spring is back, the godless flowers are in full bloom once again, and sales of our Atheist T-Shirts are really picking up! So far the top seller award goes to our popular Russell’s Teapot t-shirt.

The uninitiated among you must be wondering who is this Russell, and what is his Teapot doing on an atheist t-shirt – not to mention a best-selling one.

Let me explain.

You see, Russell’s Teapot is not an actual teapot that a guy called Russell used to brew tea in. Rather, it is a hypothetical celestial teapot that British philosopher Bertrand Russell (1872 – 1970) came up with to show how absurd it is to expect that it is up to a skeptic to disprove an untestable religious claim.

The next time anyone tries to bolster their arguments by saying something like, “But you can’t disprove God (or Jesus, Christianity, Islam, or whatever), so you have to respect that idea as a valid one,” just let them know about Russell’s Teapot. Or better still, have a good laugh by pointing to your Russell’s Teapot t-shirt that shows the Celestial Teapot against a starry sky and says:

The Church of the Celestial Teapot invites you to try and prove us wrong

and having them try and disprove your belief in Russell’s Teapot.

The small text on the t-shirt explains further: ‘We believe the infinitesimally small, all-powerful Holy Celestial Teapot created the Universe and orbits the Sun between Earth and Mars.’

The original teapot argument Bertrand Russell put forward in an unpublished 1952 article titled, “Is There a God?” goes like this:

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.

Since then, Russell’s Teapot has become one of the main symbols of atheism, seeing a surge in popularity when Richard Dawkins referred to it in his 2003 collection of essays, titled A Devil’s Chaplain, saying:

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.

So now you know. Rush out and order your Russell’s Teapot t-shirt today, and have some healthy fun getting those believers all tied up in knots!

What are you waiting for?