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To: Michael_Michaelangelo

Orson Scott Card, a Science Fiction Writer who also happens to write great political op/eds that occasionally get posted here, once wrote in one of his novels that the ultimate application of Ockham's Razor is to simply say "God did it." Perhaps there is some truth to that in cosmology. The question for scientists then becomes "How did God do it?" and for the theologian "Why did God do it?" Modern science's outright rejection of higher power(s) is unscientific.


7 posted on 08/26/2004 7:53:01 AM PDT by azcap
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To: azcap

Well said.


9 posted on 08/26/2004 8:10:33 AM PDT by Buggman ("Those who are foolish in serious things, will be serious in foolish things.")
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To: azcap
the ultimate application of Ockham's Razor is to simply say "God did it."

Saying "god did it" is in fact the exact answer that was offered for millennium. Somehow, I don't believe Ockham intended that his razor carve away until nothing but ignorance remained.

11 posted on 08/26/2004 8:22:58 AM PDT by laredo44 (Liberty is not the problem)
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To: azcap; Buggman
once wrote in one of his novels that the ultimate application of Ockham's Razor is to simply say "God did it."

An even simpler scenario is to remove the grandiose overcomplication of an infinitely powerful, inifinitely old, infinitely knowing, infinitely etc. being, and just say "stuff happened", since that's as empty and sweeps as much under the rug as the "God did it" waffle -- both make a simple declaration and run away from the messy details of exactly how.

For that matter, even if one insists on including a sentient creator because one hasn't the imagination to envision any other kind of possibility, Ockham's razor would favor an advanced alien from the universe next door working on his Cosmogensis 101 term project, rather than the aforementioned inifinitely infinite being. "Sufficiently powerful" is closer to the spirit of Ockham's razor than "all powerful". After all, one doesn't automatically presume divine creation for a macaroni sculpture.

Perhaps there is some truth to that in cosmology.

And perhaps there isn't.

The question for scientists then becomes "How did God do it?"

Presumes facts not in evidence. One could equally well say that the question for scientists then becomes "How did the invisible pink unicorns do it".

Modern science's outright rejection of higher power(s) is unscientific.

It would be if modern science actually engaged in "outright rejection of higher powers", but since it doesn't, you're just revealing your misunderstandings about science.

18 posted on 08/26/2004 8:46:13 AM PDT by Ichneumon ("...she might as well have been a space alien." - Bill Clinton, on Hillary, "My Life", p. 182)
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To: azcap
Modern science's outright rejection of higher power(s) is unscientific.

How do you scientifically prove that God did something?
58 posted on 08/26/2004 11:28:14 AM PDT by Quick1
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To: azcap
Orson Scott Card, a Science Fiction Writer who also happens to write great political op/eds that occasionally get posted here, once wrote in one of his novels that the ultimate application of Ockham's Razor is to simply say "God did it."

That would be a fundamental misunderstanding of Occam's Razor, which has a proper formal construction and is provably correct. "God did it" is not, by any stretch of the imagination, the ultimate application of Occam's Razor and would evaluate as a relatively mediocre hypothesis in mathematical application.

Unfortunately, hardly anyone seems to care what Occam's Razor really means and how to correctly evaluate it. Shortness of sentence has no relation to "simplicity of hypothesis" when applying the Razor.

90 posted on 08/26/2004 1:55:35 PM PDT by tortoise (All these moments lost in time, like tears in the rain.)
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To: azcap

YUP!

THX.


99 posted on 08/26/2004 2:36:45 PM PDT by Quix (PRAYER WARRIORS, DO YOUR STUFF! LIVES AND NATIONS DEPEND ON IT)
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