Russell's Teapot
Needing to get back into writing tales. This was a short that originated from a philosophy discussion group on Facebook. Usually I rescue my FB shorts and preserve them in a dedicated file on FanFic for posterity.
But this one isn't Terry Pratchett Discworld. It's h2g2.
It emerged, fully formed, from a description of Bertrand Russell's famous thought-experiment about a teapot. He wrote in a discussion about belief, scepticism and proof:
"Many orthodox people speak as though it were the business of sceptics to disprove received dogmas rather than of dogmatists to prove them. This is, of course, a mistake. 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 intolerable presumption on the part of human reason to doubt it, I should rightly be thought to be talking nonsense.
An idea bobbed into my brain at this point.
"It'll never stay up there for ever." Arthur Dent observed as they watched the Vis-E-Screen on the bridge of the Heart of Gold, "At some point, won't the gravitational pull of a planet pull it in and it's just going to crash down, or something?"
Ford Prefect made one of the high-pitched amused giggles that always made Arthur consider thumping him. Together, they watched the Royal Doulton china teapot that they had just jettisoned, as it floated lazily away on its new orbit in between Earth and Mars. Eventually it dwindled to a dot and vanished from sight.
"It'll be up there for long enough." Ford said. "Besides, the Vogons turn up in a couple of million years, and boom. Its orbit won't decay in two million years. Then there's one less planet for it to crash into."
Arthur looked sternly at Ford.
"Just what have you got against Bertrand Russell, anyway?"
