What do you guys think about this quote....?

Question

It's long, so check the added detail right below for the second part....

"Many orthodox people speak as though it were the business of sceptics to disprove received dogmas rather than of dogmatists to prove them. This is, of course, a mistake. 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

Answer 1

Bertrand Russell was the man. This is my favorite quote from him:

"We are often told that it is a very wrong thing to attack religion, because it makes men virtuous. So I am told, I have not noticed it."

Answer 2

If you were a scientologist, you wouldn't believe until it is proven. No matter what was said.
However, most other religious views are based on faith (i.e. believing what sometimes sounds unbelievable because God sometimes causes unexplainable things)
Most skeptics do try and disprove known dogmas because they are truly skeptics. Maybe they should have a long discussion with Tom Cruise.
However, for the religiously faithful, it would be an insult to try and prove their own theory because their strong faith is crucial to their religious views. Faith means, to most, not having to prove because you already believe it to be fact.
Did I just requote your quote in my babble??

Answer 3

I hope you're not going to tell me you doubt the existence the Great Orbiting Chinese Teapot. To not accept GOCT, is to be condemned to an eternity of suffering, regardless of the good acts you may perform. May St. Oolong smile upon you ... and repent!.

Answer 4

What a pantsload. One has to believe FIRST, then understanding comes. What other area would any sane person accept such criteria? A used car salesman would love to get away with that one.

Answer 5

Very good quote. The one place that it falls short is that we are talking about the difference between faith and fact. Facts can be proven by science, logic, and our senses; faith cannot. I think people do need to stop spending time disproving what others believe and ask others to explain their beliefs.

Answer 6

Hypothesis and Theory, now if these folks can't understand the difference between these two things, what makes ya think you can keep their attention long enough to comprehend a complex symbolic metaphor.
A very good one at that! ; )

Answer 7

Hey, wait a minute, are you trying to plant information on a new holy teapot religion?

Answer 8

Good quote.

Christianitiy is a means for authority to retain control over people, even in the guise of a secular government.

There is no Jesus, no matter how many evangelists, preachers, or even schoolteachers insist that there is.

Answer 9

Excellent quote.
But don't expect the christians out there to understand it...

Answer 10

I didnt bother reading all of it.