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Russell's teapot
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Russell's teapot, sometimes called the Celestial Teapot, was an analogy first coined by the philosopher Bertrand Russell (1872–1970), intended to refute the idea that the burden of proof lies upon the sceptic to disprove unfalsifiable claims of religions. In an article entitled "Is There a God?"[1] commissioned (but never published) by Illustrated magazine in 1952, Russell wrote:[2]
| “ | 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. | ” |
Russell's teapot analogy is still used in the debate over religious belief. Richard Dawkins used it in his 2003 book A Devil's Chaplain,[3]
| “ | The reason organized religion merits outright hostility is that, unlike belief in Russell's teapot, religion is powerful, influential, tax-exempt and systematically passed on to children too young to defend themselves. Children are not compelled to spend their formative years memorizing loony books about teapots. Government-subsidized schools don't exclude children whose parents prefer the wrong shape of teapot. Teapot-believers don't stone teapot-unbelievers, teapot-apostates, teapot-heretics and teapot-blasphemers to death. Mothers don't warn their sons off marrying teapot-shiksas whose parents believe in three teapots rather than one. People who put the milk in first don't kneecap those who put the tea in first. | ” |
The concept of Russell's teapot has been extrapolated into more explicitly religion-parodying forms such as the Invisible Pink Unicorn,[4] the Flying Spaghetti Monster[5] and The Dragon in My Garage.[6]
[edit] See also
- Parody religion
- The Root of All Evil?, a television documentary written and presented by Richard Dawkins
[edit] References
- ^ Bertrand Russell: Is There a God?
- ^ Bertrand Russell (1997). "Is There a God?". in John Slater & Peter Köllner. The collected papers of Bertrand Russell. 11. Routledge. pp. 542–548. ISBN 978-0-415-09409-2.
- ^ Richard Dawkins. A Devil's Chaplain. Houghton Mifflin. ISBN ISBN 0-618-33540-4.
- ^ Richard Dawkins (2006). The God Delusion. Houghton-Mifflin. ISBN 978-0618680009.
- ^ Wolf, Gary (November 14, 2006). "The Church of the Non-Believers". Wired News. http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/14.11/atheism.html.
- ^ Sagan, Carl (June 21, 2007). "The Dragon in My Garage". RichardDawkins.Net. http://richarddawkins.net/social/index.php?mode=article&id=35.
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