Location: Sassafras Room in the IMU

Description: This weekly meeting is a discussion that we call “Russell’s Tea Party.”  The origin of that name is below.  The topic for this week will be homeopathy.

Bertrand Russell, a British philosopher (among other things), is the namesake of our biweekly discussion meetings. They are called tea parties to honor the religious analogy he came up with called Russell’s Teapot, which stated

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.

Though this analogy is a parody of religion, our group does not  debate or discuss religion at every meeting. Our topics range from political to religious to philosophical to scientific. We have discussed evolution, morality, education, and other topics.

If you have ideas or suggestions for future Russell’s Tea Party topics, please post them on the forum. Or join us at our next meeting!

The Herald-Times wrote an article about Annie Laurie Gaylor, co-founder of the FFRF, speaking at IU.

You must have a subscription to read the H-T version. Fortunately the article was also syndicated by the Times-Mail.

There were dozens of comments posted on both of the articles; in general, Herald-Times subscribers seemed rather more supportive of our cause; Times-Mail subscribers, not so much.

Here was my favourite comment from a Times-Mail reader:

I wonder why these so called atheist never scream and try to pass laws against lepriconns, tooth fairy’s, Santa clause? because they know they do not exist. Why talk about something if it is not real? They rail against God because deep in their spirits, they know they will stand before Him. I like the verse’s He has written for them.
Psalms 37;12 The wicked plotteth against the just, and gnasheth upon him with his teeth.
37:13:: The Lord shall laugh at him, for He seeth that his day is coming.

This one is pretty good too:

John 14:6 JESUS said, “I am the way, the truth, the life, no man comes the Father (Heaven), but by me”… Christians don’t only think it, we believe it… If Jesus said it, that pretty much makes it gospel (no pun intended)… and BTW nonsensical things that boggle my mind that people believe to be true: we came from an amoeba, aliens exist, and that Obama is going to “Change” America… And Hard as it is to believe, Science and anthropology actually align with, not against the Bible…. You’ve swallowed everything the Haters of Christianity have put out there, hook, lies, and sinker….

Perfectly articulated, don’t you think?

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