Russell's Teapot
"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."
- Bertrand Russell, "Is There a God?" (1952, commissioned by Illustrated magazine but unpublished until 1997)
Overview
Russell's teapot is an analogy that places the burden of proof on the person making an unfalsifiable claim, rather than on the person who doubts it. That a claim cannot be disproved is no reason to believe it; if it were, we would be obliged to believe in the teapot, and in everything else that is carefully defined so as to be undetectable.
Notes
- The analogy is usually deployed against the demand that the atheist "prove there is no god". I cannot, any more than I can prove there is no teapot. Neither inability is a reason for belief. See Hard Atheism.
- Russell's further point is that if the teapot were affirmed in ancient books, taught as sacred truth every Sunday, and instilled into children at school, doubting it would be taken as a sign of eccentricity. The social position of a belief is no evidence for it.
- The teapot has relatives: the Invisible Pink Unicorn and the Flying Spaghetti Monster make the same point less politely.