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To: GovernmentShrinker

"Thou shalt not complicate". - William of Occam.


53 posted on 06/16/2006 12:11:58 PM PDT by GSlob
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To: GSlob
Actually, Occam's principal is that one should not complicate an explanation or hypothesis beyond what is necessary to explain the phenomenon. Genetics is, alas, wildly complicated, and even the most ruthless application of Occam's razor still leaves genetic matters wildly complicated. I think Occam would have been miserable if he'd been a geneticist :-)
55 posted on 06/16/2006 12:23:20 PM PDT by GovernmentShrinker
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To: GSlob
"Thou shalt not complicate". - William of Occam.

More like "do not multiply unnecesary entities." Considering Ockham was a Christian theologian, he believed God was the only necessary entity. If fire burns wood, it's not because of inherent properties in either, but because God willed it to happen that one time. That attitude's sometimes crippling to science, and I've wondered how Ockham was ripped out of context and stuck into the scientific toolkit.

As for the topic: there are lots of scientists denouncing any claim that rape has a genetic basis. Somehow I've only come across the denunciations, and not the original research, so worried are they that rapists will start agitating for special rights.

73 posted on 06/16/2006 2:54:58 PM PDT by Dumb_Ox (http://kevinjjones.blogspot.com)
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