03 June 2010

Video of the week -- Bertrand Russell



A brief excerpt from an interview on religion in 1959.

5 Comments:

Blogger Shaw Kenawe said...

I enjoyed that. I also love Russell's "Celestial Tea Pot" explanation:

"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."


Here's one for you. Feynman has a way of explaining complex ideas in a very simple way.

03 June, 2010 05:16  
Blogger Ranch Chimp said...

Never seen that .... well said by Mr.Russell! Thanx .......

03 June, 2010 05:20  
Blogger Infidel753 said...

Shaw, thanks for the responses. I think I saw that clip of Feynman once, a long time ago.

RC: He was a sharp thinker, and of course such talk was considered far more shocking and radical in his time than it is today.

03 June, 2010 05:39  
Blogger Leslie Parsley said...

I loved B. Russell, so I thoroughly enjoyed this video.

03 June, 2010 06:34  
Blogger Infidel753 said...

It's too bad he's no longer with us, but at least his thoughts are.

03 June, 2010 17:43  

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