Russell's teapot...Teapot Part 1

Before I comment on this analogy, I am putting it up in it’s original form.

Russell's teapot, sometimes called the Celestial Teapot, was an analogy coined by the philosopher Bertrand Russell to refute the idea that the burden of proof lies somehow upon the sceptic to disprove the unfalsifiable claims of religion.

Russell wrote the following:

If I were to suggest that . . . 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. 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.

To me what it is trying to say is...

The Christian’s assertion about the existence of God is as unlikely as finding a teapot orbiting the sun, and as ridiculous. The teaching gains acceptability because of its root in traditional practice.

I will give my thought on it in the next blog.