Mephisto v Mephisto
Today, in celebration of being done with school for almost a month, I will turn my bloggy guns on a subject which I am grossly unqualified to be shooting at: evolutionary biology. Specifically, the present madness involving the incessant attacks upon the science thereof by crazy bible heads. As I cannot argue real science, I will make a brief philosophical point on the matter that has been poking at my mind for some time.
The point involves the concept of Occam's Razor. If the simplest answer truly is the most likely, one must ask, which of the following is the simplest answer: all life evolved from single cellular organisms over countless millions of years, or God did it. Well, the latter certainly wins for brevity, but now I shall have a grand old time debunking my own theory which I only introduced seconds ago!
Point 1: Occam's Razor is not a law. It is at least a suggestion, at most an ideal type. Not all things can be forced to apply to this standard.
Point 2: This is only a partial interpretation of Occam's Razor. The full thought implies that competing theories must be equal in other respects for the simplest one to necessarily prevail, and the theories of creation versus evolution are nowhere near equal, as there is more than zero evidence for protracted evolution, and approximately zero evidence for spontaneous creation.
Point 3: "God did it" is not necessarily the simplest answer, because one third of the words in the sentence represent a philosophical debate that has lasted for the entirety of human communication. "God did it" can only be the simplest answer if God is a given, which he she or it is most certainly not.
Well that was fun. The best part about debates against oneself is that you always win!
The point involves the concept of Occam's Razor. If the simplest answer truly is the most likely, one must ask, which of the following is the simplest answer: all life evolved from single cellular organisms over countless millions of years, or God did it. Well, the latter certainly wins for brevity, but now I shall have a grand old time debunking my own theory which I only introduced seconds ago!
Point 1: Occam's Razor is not a law. It is at least a suggestion, at most an ideal type. Not all things can be forced to apply to this standard.
Point 2: This is only a partial interpretation of Occam's Razor. The full thought implies that competing theories must be equal in other respects for the simplest one to necessarily prevail, and the theories of creation versus evolution are nowhere near equal, as there is more than zero evidence for protracted evolution, and approximately zero evidence for spontaneous creation.
Point 3: "God did it" is not necessarily the simplest answer, because one third of the words in the sentence represent a philosophical debate that has lasted for the entirety of human communication. "God did it" can only be the simplest answer if God is a given, which he she or it is most certainly not.
Well that was fun. The best part about debates against oneself is that you always win!
Labels: religion
posted by Mephisto at 8:53 AM
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