If someone tried to tell you God is a tea pot you would laugh, or I hope you would; most of you at least.
But how can we possibly know that God is not a tea pot?
A twentieth century philosopher, I'm 90% sure it was Bertrand Russell, compared faith in God to believing a giant tea pot is orbiting the sun, which is one of the best ways of summing up religion I have ever come across.
If people are prepared to believe in the magical genie of a tribe of ignorant, semi - literate goat fiddlers then why not in a tea pot? Or for that matter a Flying Spaghetti Monster that is due to smother us all in boiling hot tomato sauce in The Last Days? Or for that matter The Soup Dragon which lives on the dark side of the moon and has the job of feeding a clan of small furry hominids who communicate in Swanee Whistle sounds, by breathing into their feeding bowls soup from its nostrils. <A HREF="http://www.bbc.co.uk/cult/classic/clangers/intro.shtml">The Clangers - history and video clips</A>
Its all delicious nonsense of course, so imagine my surprise on hearing that last month a Sharia court in Malaysia sentenced a woman to two years prison for being a member of a cult that believes a tea pot.
Cult members worship a 20 foot high effigy of a china tea pot which, they claim, symbolises the outpouring of goodness that is the love of God.
So now you know.
That story must lead us to conclude there are people out there who live in fear of the flying Spaghetti monster and the Soup Dragon.
BTW just to put you wise, the left nostril delivers chicken soup, the right lentil. I recommend the lentil, which has bits of crispy fried bacon in it.
rate
email
print
link to this page
Comments: 28
And the people in other countries really should get a life, if they need to arrest someone they should do so with people that really cause fear or harm.
You would worship an outpouring of caffein would you. I'm waiting for the Chateauneuf de Pape bottle god myself. But I will not be a religious fanatic, a couple of glasses a day is quite enough worship.
Just bacon or chicken too?
Well I was just joking, the soup dragon cannot really breathe crispy fried bacon, only croutons :-)
"We forget, religion should serve man, not the other way around."
But, Ian, I'll say this: I expand the definition of religion:
Any belief or system of beliefs, which codifies and/or defines as absolute (dogma) what we can't objectively know.
Yeah, how 'bout that irony?
The best sound would come from bowing the horns, that is assuming what you have is a horny goat on your hands.
Exactly, religion expresses certainties about that we cannot be certain of. Which is fine for individuals or within like minded groups. It is when people are put in jail for believing god is a teapot by some people who think god is something else (a slice of cake maybe?) that we have problems.
Great answer.
I wish people would stop giving serious answers to my silly posts though, I'd rather talk about the soup dragon at weekend :-)
God a cat.Oh no. No no no no no no no. That is too horrible to contemplate.
You could have a schism when the teapot weorshiipers split from the cup and saucer worshippers. Yeah, I'm liking it.
That is not the kind of fiddling we British have in mind in this context.
You're far more than a storm in a teapot dear.
May you all be touched by His noodly appendage!
Pastafarianism, that's great
No, the drsagon is Anglican.
Anyway, I loved you article. Humourous, yet thought provoking. Kudos.