I don't think the Revd Professor Canon E L Mascall often quoted from that rigid old atheist and philanderer Bertrand Russell. But he did preserve an anecdote of Russell's about a Hindu Philosopher. "The philosopher maintained that the earth was supported by an elephant, which in turn stood upon a tortoise. When asked what supported the tortoise, he said that he was tired of metaphysics and wished to change the subject.".
I dunno what there is in this that makes me laugh ... but something does.
As it happens, Mascall preserved another elephant story. It concerned a priest [Anglican] whom he does not name. This priest was wealthy enough to be able to design and commission his own vestments. He proudly showed a brother priest a chasuble embellished with "the front view of a vigorously depicted elephant". The brother priest "displayed[ed] his ignorance of ecclesiastical symbolism ... [but] enlightenment came. 'Oh my dear Father, surely you know this: the emblem of sacerdotal chastity.'"
5 comments:
Pope Leo X, de' Medici, had a pet elephant named Hanno, the gift of King Manuel I of Portugal.
The first joke makes me laugh too, simply because the hindu philosopher won't answer what supports the tortoise, saying that he is tired of metaphysics! as if the whole argument had anythin to do with metaphysics at all! That' s the funny bit. The second story i do not understand: a chasuble decorated with an elephant? "Abominatio desolationis in templo" is all that comes to my mind...
These stories are reminiscent of the story told by the preacher Fredrick Joseph Berg in 1854.
Berg had said he had been arguing with an atheist who informed him that the world stood upon the back of a tortoise. When Berg enquired upon what the tortoise stood, the atheist replied, "On another tortoise."
There is a variation of the anecdote associated with William James, who after a lecture on cosmology, was informed by a lady that his views were incorrect since the earth rested upon the back of a turtle. James being inclined to expose the fallacy of this view asked upon what the turtle stood and was told that this turtle stood upon another turtle. James then enquired upon what the second turtle stood. The lady then replied, "It's no use, Mr James; it's turtles all the way down."
There is another version of this story which Stanley Jaki recounted in his Gifford Lectures delivered in the 1980s. The interlocutor in this case is American who, when he asks the Sage, "So, what's beneath the elephant?" is told, "It's elephants all the way down, Buddy!"
In A Brief History Time, Stephen Hawking gives a sequel to the elephant story. Russell has just given a public lecture in which he recounted it to laughter and at question time an old lady stands and reprimands him. Russell retorts, "So what is the tortoise standing on?" "Another tortoise," shouts the lady. "It’s tortoises all the way down!"
Post a Comment