The Proof of the Existence of God

I bring in Bertrand Russell in this picture who puts forward his argument regarding the burden of proof as follows (famously known as Russell’s teapot).

“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.”

To put it simply, if you are asserting something then the burden is upon you to produce the proof. It is not the doubter’s job to produce proofs against your assertion.

Christopher Hitchens rightly says, “That which can be asserted without evidence, can be dismissed without evidence.”

Thus, if you believe in God, then it is your job to produce the evidence and not my job to disprove it. Since God is an idea presented without evidence, I dismiss it without evidence.