A is for Atheism

B is for Bertrand Russell

    Great philosopher, analytical mind, and ardent pacifist, this describes a famous atheist by the name of Bertrand Russell. He is known for his analytical style of philosophy. I will begin by taking a journey through the life of this great man. To begin this tale we will have to go back to the 18th of may 1872 when Bertrand Arthur William Russell was born. His young life was full of distress when his sister, mother, father and grandfather died within four years of each other. It is said by Russell that in those early years mathematics had kept him from suicide. He then went to school and received degrees in both mathematics and philosophy. In 1950 he received the Nobel price for literature. During world war one he was a pacifist. He wrote and taught philosophy and mathematics until 1970 when he at the age of 98 died. These are just trivial facts, the real importance comes from his contributions to philosophy.

    Bertrand Russell was prominent in the field of analytical philosophy. He believed that everything in philosophy could be analyzed much in the same way that science is. He would break down his arguments to their simplest components so that they could easily be understood. He also helped make advancements in Mathematical Logic. To answer the question of whether he were an atheist or an agnostic he replied that he said if he were to speak to a person on the street he responded by saying if he were speaking from a philosophical point of view he would say he were an agnostic as he could not disprove god, but if he were speaking to a person on the street he would say he was an atheist, as he had no proof for god's existence. This brings us to one of his most famous arguments against the existence of god.

    The celestial teapot argument has many forms now days, the flying spaghetti monster and the invisible pink unicorn are both examples of this. The argument goes like this, in close orbit around Jupiter there exists a china teapot. Now there is no way to disprove the existence of the teapot as we don't have telescopes powerful enough to see the teapot in orbit. Should we then remain agnostic about teapots? Same way with the existence or nonexistence of God, the flying spaghetti monster and the invisible pink unicorn. This argument has influenced many famous atheists of today. In the BBC series, "Root of All Evil?", Richard Dawkins presented this argument. He also added an imaginary society where all the elders and people were ardent believers of the teapot. Imagine if you will that everyday as a child you were told about the teapot, that the elders presented this to you as fact. Those who disbelieved were thought of as lesser people and sometimes even thought of as mad for it. This is the world of the teapot, and this was the world of Bertrand Russel.

Posted at 04:27PM Aug 09, 2007 by Dan Benjamin Smart in General  |  Comments[3]