Russell's Teapot

Originally posted by sonship
Teapots in outer space.
"No. I ain't concerned either. What about you ? "

I don't suppose you have anything to learn from this man?

Bertrand Arthur William Russell, 3rd Earl Russell, OM, FRS
(18 May 1872 – 2 February 1970) was a British nobleman,
philosopher, logician, mathematician, historian, and social
critic. ...
His philosophical essay "On Denoting" has been considered
a "paradigm of philosophy". His work has had a considerable
influence on logic, mathematics, set theory, linguistics, artificial
intelligence, cognitive science, computer science, and philosophy,
especially philosophy of language, epistemology, and metaphysics.

from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bertrand_Russell

Originally posted by wolfgang59
I don't suppose you have anything to learn from this man?

Bertrand Arthur William Russell, 3rd Earl Russell, OM, FRS
(18 May 1872 – 2 February 1970) was a British nobleman,
philosopher, logician, mathematician, historian, and social
critic. ...
His philosophical essay "On Denoting" has been considered
a "paradigm of philosophy". His work ha ...[text shortened]... epistemology, and metaphysics.

from [b]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bertrand_Russell[/b]

He had no idea how to make a cup of tea, though.

Then again, it seems he understood the idea of warming the pot first.

Originally posted by wolfgang59
On a scale of 1 to 7 (with 1 being absolutely certain of its existence
and 7 being absolutely certain of its non-existence) how do you stand
on the question of a teapot orbiting the sun somewhere between the
orbits of Earth and Mars?

(Personally I am a 6.999 - although its more likely than existence of god)

Why is it Russ's Teapot? Why couldn't it be Obama's Teacup? Why limit the case? There could be thousands of them floating around out there.

They sure as hell would be invisible to radar.

Maybe a good infrared camera could see them if the tea was hot....

if people at nasa would claim they made voyager leave a teapot between mars and jupiter, how would that influence your opinion?

if there would be documents claiming there was a teapot placed inside voyager with the express intention of leaving it there, how would that influence your opinion?


certitude? you can't have certitude, because you didn't see the teapot being placed there. the nasa employees who claim he actually saw the teapot being launched into space might be insane, or lying. he would be sure, but then again, so are people who claim god is speaking to them.

suddenly your 6.999 seems poorly calculated.

Originally posted by wolfgang59
The theists are very quiet on this one!!!

OK, I will step up to the plate......😉

Before expressing my level of faith in this teapot I would need to ask the following questions:

1.. Does anybody claim to have seen it?

2.. Does anybody claim to have launched it?

3.. Is there anywhere documentary proof - or even some documentary hints, e.g. fragments of parchments - that such a teapot exists?

4.. What do other reasonable observers say about it?

5.. Has anybody claimed to have drunk the tea out of this pot? (either before or after its launch, or maybe during?)

Depending on the answer to these (and some other) questions, I would form an opinion about this beige Lipton Tea pot with the floral pattern

CJ

Originally posted by Zahlanzi
if people at nasa would claim they made voyager leave a teapot between mars and jupiter, how would that influence your opinion?

if there would be documents claiming there was a teapot placed inside voyager with the express intention of leaving it there, how would that influence your opinion?


certitude? you can't have certitude, because you didn't se ...[text shortened]... are people who claim god is speaking to them.

suddenly your 6.999 seems poorly calculated.

nope. the probability is calculated based on currently available evidence.
New evidence [can] change the calculation and the probability.

But you don't change the probability based on the possibility that evidence
might exist. Only on what evidence you actually have.

Originally posted by CalJust
OK, I will step up to the plate......😉

Before expressing my level of faith in this teapot I would need to ask the following questions:

1.. Does anybody claim to have seen it?

2.. Does anybody claim to have launched it?

3.. Is there anywhere documentary proof - or even some documentary hints, e.g. fragments of parchments - that such a teapot exis ...[text shortened]... questions, I would form an opinion about this beige Lipton Tea pot with the floral pattern

CJ

It should be noted that the original 'Russell's Teapot' was suggested before
anyone had put anything beyond Earth orbit.

However in general to answer all the questions.

There is currently no evidence that anyone has ever tried, let alone succeeded in
placing a teapot of any description into orbit around the sun or any planetary
body.

Originally posted by googlefudge
It should be noted that the original 'Russell's Teapot' was suggested before
anyone had put anything beyond Earth orbit.

However in general to answer all the questions.

There is currently no evidence that anyone has ever tried, let alone succeeded in
placing a teapot of any description into orbit around the sun or any planetary
body.

Well, in that case anybody who believed that such a teapot existed - without any shred of evidence whatsoever - that person should rightly be ridiculed as an idiot.

Originally posted by CalJust
Well, in that case anybody who believed that such a teapot existed - without any shred of evidence whatsoever - that person should rightly be ridiculed as an idiot.

Through random processes, a teapot could coalesce from the dust of the solar system. Hugely unlikely but possible. And with the number of solar systems in the universe, there might be a few teapots floating around.

Penguin

Originally posted by googlefudge
It should be noted that the original 'Russell's Teapot' was suggested before
anyone had put anything beyond Earth orbit.

However in general to answer all the questions.

There is currently no evidence that anyone has ever tried, let alone succeeded in
placing a teapot of any description into orbit around the sun or any planetary
body.

No evidence? Then its a coverup! I heard there was collusion between the Soviets and Chinese for this very project.

I am writing a book about this conspiracy as we speak.

If scientists discovered there was a teapot orbiting the sun, and if this teapot was then rubbed, can we assume God would appear?

Originally posted by neilarini
If scientists discovered there was a teapot orbiting the sun, and if this teapot was then rubbed, can we assume God would appear?

Nah, it would be Sinbad telling his dirty jokes.....

Originally posted by wolfgang59
On a scale of 1 to 7 (with 1 being absolutely certain of its existence
and 7 being absolutely certain of its non-existence) how do you stand
on the question of a teapot orbiting the sun somewhere between the
orbits of Earth and Mars?

(Personally I am a 6.999 - although its more likely than existence of god)

Russ drinks tea throughout the day: 6.5

Originally posted by CalJust
Well, in that case anybody who believed that such a teapot existed - without any shred of evidence whatsoever - that person should rightly be ridiculed as an idiot.

If an ancient tribe in Africa claimed to worship such a teapot, would this count as 'a shred of evidence' or not? Would it get teapotters out of being ridiculed as idiots?

Whats the connection between this teapot and the American tea-party? Are they secretly followers of the Russell's Teapot religion? Or do they follow a false teapot?