"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." Daqui
Worcester Porcelain Factory
ca. 1785
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