Hergest Ridge

For the benefit of conciseness and efficiency I offer thee not my words, but those of Bertrand Russell. Sure, I could go and try painting a picture of my own, but this case warrants bending my own and unpublished rule of sticking to original content without relying on reprints of readily available material.

“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. 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

Theists will ask “What is so wrong in believing, if it helps me become a better person?” Here, again, I will resort to the words of another.

“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.”

– Richard Dawkins

Richard Dawkins makes a great case for the importance of placing the Bible alongside other mythology books, and he’s been an important influence on me. Whenever the Christian indoctrination rears its ugly head through my instincts (’Oh my God, I’m blaspheming! What if…’), I’m quickly brought back to reality with evidence that extinguishes the impulse, and these days the evidence is often recalled in Dawkins’ voice.

Sources: Both quotes used were taken from WikiPedia’s ‘Russell’s Teapot‘ entry.