Frederick Copleston
British priest and philosopherWikipedia
4
MENTIONS
2
EPISODES
2
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Search complete. 4 mentions across 2 episodes found for "Frederick Copleston".
Oct 12, 2026
CaseyHOST
I mean, if you listen to a Christian and an atheist debating cosmology, the LDS will more naturally agree with the atheist.
Alexander ScourbyNARRATOR
In 1948, the BBC broadcast a debate between Bertrand Russell and F.C. Copleston concerning the existence of God.
Alexander ScourbyNARRATOR
Lord Russell, who died in 1970, will be remembered for many reasons, not least for his important contribution to the development of logic.
Alexander ScourbyNARRATOR
Father Copleston is a Jesuit priest, now principal of Heathrop College, and professor of the history of philosophy in the University of London.
Alexander ScourbyNARRATOR
Russell's position in the debate is that of an agnostic.
Alexander ScourbyNARRATOR
Copleston's position is that of a believer who holds that the existence of God can be proved.
F. C. CoplestonSOUNDBITE_SPEAKER
Well, for clarity's sake, I divide the argument into distinct stages.
F. C. CoplestonSOUNDBITE_SPEAKER
First of all, I should say, we know that there are at least some beings in the world which do not contain in themselves the reason for their existence.
Dr. ZHOST
OK.
ZHOST
Bertrand Russell, in a famous BBC debate with a Catholic priest named Frederick Copleston, applied Occam's razor, the principle that the simplest explanation requiring the fewest assumptions is usually correct.
Dr. ZHOST
So what was his argument?
ZHOST
Russell essentially said, why add a complex, invisible conscious mind to the equation? Why not just say the physical universe itself or the foundational quantum vacuum it sprang from is the eternal uncaused brute fact?