Occam's razor

[tonychanyt]

Occam's razor:

a scientific and philosophical rule that says

• entities should not be multiplied unnecessarily
• the simplest of competing theories be preferred to the more complex
• explanations of unknown phenomena be sought first in terms of known quantities.

I use Occam's razor or parsimony as one of the hermeneutic tools when I interpret Bible verses. E.g., in the case of Are homosexual acts sinful?, there are several relevant verses. Each of the verses can be explained away by some means as not pointing to a man having sexual intercourse with another man. However, there is a simple unifying explanation: it is talking about a man having sex with another man. To me, this simple unifying factor is worthy of some strong weight.

Einstein counterbalanced Occam's razor by saying, “Everything should be made as simple as possible, but no simpler.” He warned against oversimplification.

Occam's razor works well in scientific research. I think it works well in Biblical hermeneutics as well.

 

[Ace777]

Occam's razor works well in scientific research.

Most books could easily be condensed down into a magazine article. For me often it is a waste of time because they want to take you on a journey of them trying to figure something out but never getting to where they are wanting to go.