I also noticed that his essay deals with issues I’ve written about lately. He’s particularly good at using examples. I could make the same arguments as Russell, but not nearly as well or as readably. (My own take on what makes New Atheism “new” is its connection with science and its insistent demand for evidence.)Īt any rate, while you may be conversant with Russell’s arguments in “Is there a God?”, it’s still worth reading for the concision of its prose. If you think that the hallmark of New Atheism is its vociferous, in-your-face anti-theism, think again, for people like Russell, Ingersoll, and Mencken were going hammer and tongs at religion since the 19th century.
And it’s the first mention of the fabled Teapot.Ī lot of the stuff in this essay was taken from Russell’s famous and earlier piece, “ Why I am Not a Christian“, first published as a pamphlet in 1927. While futzing around on the Internet, I came across Russell’s essay “ Is there a God?“, which is described as “commissioned by, but never published in, Illustrated Magazine, in 1952.” It’s apparently been published in his collected papers, though, and I give that reference at the bottom.
But perhaps you don’t know where that simile came from. Most of you have heard of Russell’s Teapot, the hypothetical but undetectable orbiting object that Bertrand Russell used to show why we shouldn’t believe things for which there is no evidence (i.e., “religion”).
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