Russell's Teapot

Introduction

In 1952, the British philosopher Bertrand Russell first presented a thought experiment in an unpublished article "Is There a God?", which later came to be known as "Russell's Teapot".

Finding the teapot would be challenging, in fact, practically impossible. Realistically, there is no way to disprove this teapot. The question Bertrand Russel poses, is whether or not this inability to disprove, counts as proof for the teapot's existence.

Burden of Proof

Most people agree that it would be ridiculous to uncritically believe in this teapot simply because it cannot be disproven, however Bertrand Russell states that this is how we treat religion.

In his unpublished article, Bertrand Russell responds to a myriad of common arguments used to make the case for the existence of God, including "the First-Cause argument", and "the moralistic argument". However he takes deliberate care at the end of the article to take a step back and examine what is often the final line of defence for theists, the fact that there is no way to disprove God.

Russell argues that no atheist should be required to 'disprove' God, any more than theists should be required to dignify disproving a teapot. He states that the only reason why we think religious claims are worth dignifying, is because of the profound influence religion has had on society.

Russell's Teapot and teapotism have become the poster-boy for "the burden of proof", which is the responsibility of someone making an assertion to provide proof, as opposed to the people who disagree with the assertion being responsible for disproving it.

Counter Arguments against Russell’s Teapot

Various theorists have attempted to 'disanalogise' Russell's Teapot by demonstrating why believing in a teapot, and a God are different.

There’s more evidence for God than there is for the Teapot

The first argument commonly used against Russell's Teapot is that in the case of the teapot, someone just claimed it's existence out of nowhere. If the "ancient books" Russell spoke of were written by an ancient astronaut, or another being who placed the teapot there, then there would be legitimate cause to start investigating the possibility of this teapot.

This argument highlights that Russell's argument is based on the premise that there is no valid reason beyond widespread belief to believe that the teapot exists. And according to this logic, since it presumes what it sets out to prove--that there is no valid reason to believe in a God--it is therefore a circular argument.

There’s more evidence for the Teapot than there is for the God

Another counterargument comes from American philosopher Alvin Plantinga, who separates the teapot from religion by saying that there is in fact evidence against the teapot:

Russell's Teapot makes the case that an absence of evidence is evidence of absence. But according to Plantinga, the reason that we instinctually know the teapot is absurd, is not because of a lack of evidence, but rather an overwhelming amount of evidence against the teapots existence. Therefore, according to Plantinga, Russell's Teapot does not apply to religion.

What other than a teapot?

Philosopher Brian Garvey provides the third counterargument, stating that the teapot analogy fails to apply to religion because, with teapotism, the believer and non-believer are simply disagreeing about a teapot. In the case of religion, theists and atheists are disagreeing on entire explanations of the universe, not simply whether or not a deity named "God" exists.

It’s like if you found tea in space first, and then theories came about that there was a teapot in orbit between Earth and Mars. Simply stating the teapot doesn't exist, doesn’t actually answer where the tea came from. In this sense, humouring the teapot is perfectly valid, because refuting it is invalid--unless of course you have another theory, like that the tea formed as a natural byproduct of something else in space.

Great, but...

The problem with all of these counter arguments, is that they don't address the heart of Russell's Teapot. Let's re-examine each argument...

1. There’s more evidence for God than there is for the Teapot
2. There's more evidence against the teapot than there is for God
3. What other than a teapot?

The first two arguments provide reasons that real religions are worth dignifying more than teapotism, however, neither of these arguments ever address the "burden of proof" claim that Russell makes. Similarly, while the third argument places the burden of proof back on atheists, it does not remove the burden placed on theists.

None of these counterarguments seem to refute the core of Russell's argument, that God cannot be considered real simply because He is yet to be disproven, and that theists must be held responsible for defending their beliefs if they are going to claim truth.

Counter Arguments against the Burden of Proof

One of, if not the only argument that targets the fundamental idea of Russell's Teapot, is from Paul Chamberlain who contends that it is logically erroneous to assert that positive truth claims bear a burden of proof while negative truth claims do not.

According to Chamberlain, every circumstance must be treated equally. People claiming something in-evident is real, like a teapot in space, have the same obligation of proof as someone claiming something evident isn't real, like a teapot in the living room.

Conclusion

Russell's teapot has shaped much of the subsequent debate around religion, as well as truth more broadly. The burden of proof is often evoked in debates today, sometimes in quite odd circumstances, such as in the case of reverse Russell's Teapot.

Ultimately, whether you agree with Russell or Chamberlain, an appreciation of the burden of proof when making assertions is a crucial element in productive discourse and critical thinking.