The eminent British philosopher Bertrand Russell used an analogy to illustrate the concept of the burden of proof and how it applies to religious claims, now often referred to as Russell's Teapot, (also known as the celestial teapot, and cosmic teapot).

Russell explains that if he were to claim that a china teapot were orbiting the Sun between Earth and Mars, and that this teapot is too small to be detected by our technology (as it would be), then the burden of proof would lie on him to provide evidence of the teapot, not on disbelievers to prove the absence of the teapot.