The Parable of the Invisible Gardener is a tale told by Antony Flew

Antony Flew

Antony Garrard Newton Flew was a British philosopher. Belonging to the analytic and evidentialist schools of thought, he was notable for his works on the philosophy of religion....

, in response to John Wisdom's

John Wisdom

Arthur John Terence Dibben Wisdom was a leading British philosopher considered to be an ordinary language philosopher, a philosopher of mind and a metaphysician. He was influenced by G.E...

 argument of how people can view the same thing and hold different religious views. It is often used to illustrate the perceived differences between assertions based on faith

Faith

Faith is confidence or trust in a person or thing, or a belief that is not based on proof. In religion, faith is a belief in a transcendent reality, a religious teacher, a set of teachings or a Supreme Being. Generally speaking, it is offered as a means by which the truth of the proposition,...

 and assertions based on scientific evidence

Scientific evidence

Scientific evidence has no universally accepted definition but generally refers to evidence which serves to either support or counter a scientific theory or hypothesis. Such evidence is generally expected to be empirical and properly documented in accordance with scientific method such as is...

, and the problems associated with unfalsifiable

Falsifiability

Falsifiability or refutability of an assertion, hypothesis or theory is the logical possibility that it can be contradicted by an observation or the outcome of a physical experiment...

beliefs. The tale runs as follows:

"Two people return to their long neglected garden and find, among the weeds, that a few of the old plants are
surprisingly vigorous.
One says to the other, 'It must be that a gardener has been coming and doing something about these weeds.'
The other disagrees and an argument ensues.
They pitch their tents and set a watch. No gardener is ever seen.
The believer wonders if there is an invisible gardener, so they patrol with bloodhounds but the bloodhounds
never give a cry. Yet the believer remains unconvinced, and insists that the gardener is invisible, has no scent
and gives no sound.
The skeptic doesn't agree, and asks how a so-called invisible, intangible, elusive gardener differs from an
imaginary gardener, or even no gardener at all."