Patrik Lindenfors blogg

Man kan inte kan veta om Gud finns eller inte – i alla fall så länge han gömmer sig. Då är det väl lika rationellt att tro på Gud som att inte tro på Gud?

Det här är ett vanligt religiöst påstående som dock inte håller något vidare för en närmare granskning. Filosofen Bertrand Russel är den som givit den mest minnesvärda förklaringen av tankevurpan ivolverad. Den går under namnet “Russels tekanna”:

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.

Textsnutten är ifrån en längre text betitlad “Is there a God?“