Occam's Razor and our faith?

Question

Occam's Razor says..

The explanation requiring the fewest assumptions is most likely to be correct.

So, using that as your guide, why would anyone say God does not exist, when the belief in God creating life is less complicated than believing life just suddenly appeared without any logical explanation?

Occam's Razor would mean to accept God as real is the more logical choice.

Answer 1

crazy isnt it? Humans need sperm and eggs to make life...that is Godgiven... LETS TRUST GOD...HE KNOWS IT ALL..

Answer 2

actually postulating god would mean throwing out most natural laws (which we know work) out of the window. Postulating any supernatural entity would for that matter. Which mean you have to say first that natural laws were suspended at least periodically (depending how literal you take the bible).



It may be the most simple explanation to understand for you. But it does not mean it's the most simple explanation which fits all the known facts.



Saying that in every camera sits a little imp painting a picture may be a simple way to explain a camera to a small kid, but that does not make it the explanation with the least assumption. The imp is quite a big assumption as postulating it's existence would lead to countless other assumption (e.g. it can make itself invisible every time we open the camera...)

Answer 3

Balls W, Oh, my goodness. the place to start? No, evolution isn't a contravention of Occam's razor, and by skill of how, you have Occam's razor incorrect. It would not say that "the least confusing clarification is often proper", it says that "the finest clarification is generally proper". consequently, that's greater straightforward to choose for a proof that makes use of only one mechanism that has empirical data to decrease back it up fairly than a proof that consists of assorted counts of trickery by skill of an all-powerful being. yet consequently, it is not even justified to stay with Occam's razor right here, because of the fact Occam's razor is only used in technological understanding, and the assumption of God arising the worldwide can't be secure in technological understanding because of the fact it is not falsifiable. (be conscious: i did no longer say that the assumption of God arising the worldwide can't be genuine, or can't be slightly of actuality. I mentioned that it could't be slightly of scientific understanding because of the fact scientific understanding, by skill of DEFINITION, consists of only innovations that are falsifiable, which introduction isn't.) consequently, a million) your fact of Occam's razor is erroneous, 2) your use of Occam's razor is erroneous, and 3) you haven't any longer have been given any justification for even utilising Occam's razor under those situations.

Answer 4

You misunderstand Occam's razor. If you sweep up the complication in *detail* by answering any question whatever with "Goddidit," you are closing the issue to yourself, but not to others more curious, who then have to deal with the even greater *fundamental* complications of understanding God.

As Dawkins points out, if a god created the universe, he must be even more complex than the universe.

Answer 5

The belief that God created everything is not simpler. It is in fact much more complex than virtually any non-religious, naturalistic explanation. The naturalistic explanation involves the natural universe, the one that we can see and test and measure. In addition to the enormous complexity of this universe, which both versions share, the "God Did It" explanation also requires a whole other realm, and a supernatural one at that, populated by God, or gods, Satan, angels, demons, djinns, afreets, etc., depending on your religion. Given the two explanations, one of which requires a whole unseen (and unseeable) realm on top of the shared experiential universe, the one which does not require this "other universe" is the simpler of the two.

Answer 6

What are you talking about? GOD would be the most complex thing EVER.



So explain god to me. What made God? How did God get here? What was God doing for the infinite amount of time before he created the universe...Just chillin? How does God "Do stuff"?

I could go on and on..."God" would have a million unanswerable questions built into every aspect, of a "thing" that is so complex that we could never understand its existance, provides no psysical evidence that it exists or way to study it. Has existed in a councious state for ALL ETERNITY (infinity goes both ways, god would have to have been around hanging out for an infinite amount of time...think about that).



How is this less complicated?



and second, " life just suddenly appeared without any logical explanation?"



What are you talking about with "no logical explanation" and "just appeared"? Have you studied biology at all? It will explain the whole thing to you, in realistic ways without magic.

Answer 7

Occam's razor says there are people actually inside your TV.



The trick is to get an explanation that begs the fewest questions.

Answer 8

Occam's Razor applies to science.

In science if there are two equally well tested ideas that explain something, the simplest is true. But in science, the ideas have to be tested. You cannot test the idea of God, so it doesn't apply.

Answer 9

Being a Christian, I agree with you. The problem with Occam's Razor is the first line. All things being equal. An atheist and a theist will never agree on the equal conditions. It is more likely that pounding hooves come from horses than zebras, unless you are on the African Veldt.

Answer 10

That's not the choice.



The choice is saying "God did it" as opposed to saying "We don't know yet how it happened".



I'd have to say that the second choice is more suggestive of actual search for truth.



The first is the product of a totally closed mind coming up with magical superstitious answers.

Answer 11

'God did it', is a very complicated, it involves something omnipotent, omnipresent etc.. something we do not see anywhere else. When you are basically inventing new terms/concepts to describe one thing it shows how complicated it is. Also, things can be (and are) VERY complicated. Occam's Razor is something to be used sparingly.

Answer 12

When trying to figure out what is most logical I will always take the natural explanation over the supernatural one.

Answer 13

Occam's Razor, by your definition, is proof God doesn't exist.



For example, religion requires these assumptions: Assumption that God Exists, Assumption that X book is true, etc.



Atheism requires the following assumptions on religion:





(Note the list is blank)



Hey, look, Atheism wins!

Answer 14

What requires more assumptions:



A superpowerful supernatural omniscient omnipotent being self-assembled from Chaos and Void

or

A simple protobiont self-assembled from the chemical soup that was present on early Earth?

Answer 15

Your concept of abiogenesis is so deeply flawed that your statement is nonsense.



Can you believe how complex a 'god' is? Yet you say it always existed.



Why isn't it easier to imagine that matter and energy always existed, and organizes itself according to cosmological forces?



Thinking an everlasting 'magic person' simply 'made everything' is actually ludicrously complex and vacuously, egotistically anthropic.



At some point you realize that our knowledge cul-de-sac prompts us us to throw up our arms and say:



'what made x? What came before X?



And we have to tie it up by saying 'well, x always existed'...

Answer 16

No, because to say "god did it" is not an answer. If you ask, what is the simplest answer to the origins of life and the answer is god all you are doing is raising a million more questions. What is god? How did he do it? How do you know? So on and so forth. That is hardly simple.

Answer 17

True but we don't need Occam's razor. We believe God for His Word.



Num 23:19 God [is] not a man, that he should lie; neither the son of man, that he should repent: hath he said, and shall he not do [it]? or hath he spoken, and shall he not make it good?

Answer 18

If our (complex) universe requires a creator, this creator would be even more complex. And then, the creator needs a creator, who needs a creator...

Answer 19

God is one HUGE assumption.



It's pretty much the ultimate assumption.

Answer 20

assumption doesn't mean less complicated. buy a dictionary.