The Teapot in the Sky

“Well, the girls can’t stand her
‘Cause she walks, looks, and drives like an ace, now
She makes the Indy 500 look like
The Roman chariot race, now
A lot of guys try to catch her
But she leads ‘em on a wild goose chase, now
And she’ll have fun, fun, fun
‘Til her daddy takes the T-bird away”
            - The Beach Boys, “Fun, Fun, Fun”

One of these days I’ll get behind the wheel of my newly restored Ford Thunderbird and drive along with the hood down listening to the Beach Boys singing Fun Fun Fun. I’ve got the record- all I need to do is get the T-Bird restored. Vickram Seth chose Fun, Fun, Fun, as his first record on Desert Island Discs, when he related how his friend (or was it himself?) couldn’t understand why Daddy would take their Teapot away.

This surreal image reminded me of Bertrand Russell’s wonderful story of the Teapot in the Sky, which I’ve found to be quite useful as a diversionary tactic if any of my children ask an awkward question about religion. This is how Bertrand Russell put it, but he could just as well have been talking about a T-Bird in the sky:

“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.”
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To show that truth is stranger than fiction, the picture is of a teapot worshipped by a Malaysian cult. Unfortunately it has been demolished at the behest of the Islamic ruling party. The spoilsports. Where’s their sense of Fun, Fun, Fun?