Quote:
Originally Posted by tompe
What? You said the original saying was elephants all the way down and claimed that turtles all the way down was from Discworld. Ask Stephen Hawking about the story about the scientist since it is in his book. The same story was told a bit differently by Russell in the book I read by him. It was in connection with a discussion of religion and more specifically some of Aquinas proofs of Gods existence.
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Yes, I understand that your point was that the "turtles theory" predated Discworld. However, the "elephants theory" predates both Hawking and Russell by quite a bit.
I understood from your post that you were saying Russell was a scientist. Now I understand you to be saying that Russell was telling a story about a scientist. I was unclear about your post.
Do you really mean "ask Stephen Hawking" as if I'm supposed to trundle on over to the phone and dial?? I've read his work, however, I don't happen to remember a distinction between turtles and elephants vis a vis the structure of faith. It's probably in there, however, I do know that the elephants parable dates from about 400 BCE.