Who Has
to Prove It?
Your friend says: “There’s an invisible, silent elephant in my bedroom. It can’t be touched, weighed or photographed. Prove that it isn’t there!”
Can you?
💡 The Idea
You can’t! No test can find something that leaves no trace at all. But that doesn’t mean the elephant is there. It just means your friend has given you nothing to test.
The person who makes a claim must show the evidence for it. It isn’t your job to prove it false. This rule is called the burden of proof.
The British philosopher Bertrand Russell made the same point in 1952 with a funny example. Suppose someone said that a tiny china teapot was going round the Sun, between the Earth and Mars, too small for any telescope to see. Nobody could prove it wrong, but that would be no reason to believe it.
Big claims need big evidence
Some claims are ordinary. If your friend says, “I had dosa for breakfast,” you can just believe her: it happens every day, and it doesn’t matter much if she’s wrong. But if she says, “I can read with my eyes shut,” that would go against everything we know about how eyes work. A claim like that needs a careful, fair test. The astronomer Carl Sagan made this idea famous:
“Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence.”
The prizes nobody won
Miracle-busters have offered big prizes to anyone who could show a real miracle under fair test conditions: Abraham Kovoor from 1963, then B. Premanand, who carried on Kovoor’s challenge; James Randi, with one million dollars; and Narendra Nayak, with ₹5 lakh for reading blindfolded. Nobody has ever won. If someone really had a miracle power, a fair test would be the easiest way to prove it, and to win the prize.
Being a skeptic doesn’t mean saying, “That’s impossible.” It means saying, “Show me.”
Whoever makes the claim must show the evidence.
Big claims need big evidence.
🔗 Where You’ve Seen It
- Activity 6: Ash From an Empty Hand
Abraham Kovoor challenged godmen to perform their miracles under test conditions. They didn’t. - Activity 1: The Balloon That Won’t Burst
B. Premanand carried on Kovoor’s challenge for decades. Nobody ever won it. - Activity 7: Bending Spoons With Mind Power?
James Randi offered one million dollars for a real psychic power. Nobody ever won it. - Activity 8: The “Mid-Brain” Mystery
Narendra Nayak offered ₹5 lakh to anyone who could read blindfolded in a fair test. Nobody has taken up the challenge. - Activity 9: The Idol That Rose From the Earth
A holy man says an idol will rise by itself. It’s up to him to show it, and the simplest test is to dig up the spot, with everyone watching, before the prayers begin.
🌍 Use It Everywhere
A message says: “Scientists are hiding this secret cure!” Who is making the claim? Have they shown any evidence? It isn’t your job to prove the message wrong. It is the sender’s job to show that it’s right.
Sort these claims into ordinary and extraordinary:
- “My cousin lives in Pune.”
- “This bracelet cures diabetes.”
- “Our school bus was late today.”
- “This man can stop his heart by willpower and start it again.”
- “This toothpaste contains fluoride.”
- “My grandmother’s dream predicted the flood.”
Show the answer
Ordinary: 1, 3 and 5. They happen all the time, and they’re easy to check (you can read the toothpaste label!).
Extraordinary: 2, 4 and 6. Each would need a careful, fair test, and anyone making such a claim should be asked for the evidence.
For parents and teachers
- Russell’s teapot: from his 1952 essay “Is There a God?”. See “Russell’s teapot” (Humanist Heritage, Humanists UK).
- Sagan’s saying: Carl Sagan popularised it on television in Cosmos (1980); similar ideas were expressed earlier by others. See “Extraordinary Claims Require Extraordinary Evidence” (Quote Investigator).
- The challenges: details and sources are on the activity pages for Kovoor (Activity 6), Premanand (Activity 1), Randi (Activity 7) and Nayak (Activity 8).
- A health note: if children ask about the diabetes example, explain that diabetes needs proper medical care, and that no bracelet can replace it.
A Young Skeptics thinking tool, written with the assistance of AI tools, and reviewed by our editors. — CHARVAKA DESK