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Russell's teapot, sometimes called the Celestial Teapot, was an analogy first coined by the philosopher Bertrand Russell, 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?", commissioned (but never published) by Illustrated magazine in 1952, Russell said the following: Bertrand Arthur William Russell, 3rd Earl Russell OM FRS (18 May 1872 – 2 February 1970), was a British philosopher, logician, mathematician and advocate for social reform. ...
For the Finnish funeral doom metal band, see Skepticism (band). ...
In science and the philosophy of science, falsifiability is the logical property of empirical statements, related to contingency and defeasibility, that they must admit of logical counterexamples. ...
1952 (MCMLII) was a Leap year starting on Tuesday (link will take you to calendar). ...
| “ | 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. | ” | In his book A Devil's Chaplain, Richard Dawkins developed the teapot theme a little further: A Devils Chaplain (Phoenix, 2003, ISBN 0753817500) is a book collecting selected essays and other writings by the British zoologist Richard Dawkins. ...
Clinton Richard Dawkins (born March 26, 1941) is a British ethologist, evolutionary biologist and popular science writer who holds the Charles Simonyi Chair for the Public Understanding of Science at Oxford University. ...
A Chinese Yixing Zisha teapot A Chinese Zisha teapot - Melon A modern teapot A Japanese cast iron teapot, also known as a Tetsubin A teapot is a vessel in which to brew tea leaves with hot or boiling water, either inside a tea bag or loose, in which case a...
| “ | 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 humorous, more explicitly religion-parodying forms such as the Invisible Pink Unicorn and the Flying Spaghetti Monster. Shiksa (Yiddish: שיקסע) or Shikse, is a Yiddish word that has moved into English usage, mostly in North American Jewish culture, and is used as a pejorative for a gentile (or non-Jewish) woman. ...
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A popular depiction of the Invisible Pink Unicorn, in the style of a heraldic animal rampant, though the nearest heraldic color to pink is purpure (purple). ...
This adaptation of Michelangelos The Creation of Adam depicts the Flying Spaghetti Monster in its typical guise as a clump of tangled spaghetti with two eyestalks, two meatballs, and many noodly appendages. The Flying Spaghetti Monster is the deity of a parody religion[1] called the Church of the...
See also The argument from ignorance, also known as argumentum ad ignorantiam (appeal to ignorance [1]) or argument by lack of imagination, is a logical fallacy in which it is claimed that a premise is true only because it has not been proven false, or that a premise is false only because...
A recent parody religion, Pastafarianism was created in 2005 to protest a decision by the Kansas State Board of Education to allow intelligent design to be taught in science classes alongside evolution. ...
The Root of All Evil? is a television documentary, written and presented by Richard Dawkins, in which he argues that the world would be better off without religion. ...
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