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. Bertrand Russell. The reason organized religion merits outright hostility is that, unlike belief in Russells 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 dont exclude children whose parents prefer the wrong shape of teapot. Teapot-believers dont stone teapot-unbelievers, teapot-apostates, teapot-heretics and teapot-blasphemers to death. Mothers dont warn their sons off marrying teapot-shiksas whose parents believe in three teapots rather than one. People who put the milk in first dont kneecap those who put the tea in first. Richard Dawkins.
Posted on: Wed, 05 Mar 2014 15:37:01 +0000
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