Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP
Posting-Version: version B 2.10.1 6/24/83; site umcp-cs.UUCP
Path: utzoo!linus!philabs!cmcl2!seismo!umcp-cs!mangoe
From: mangoe@umcp-cs.UUCP (Charley Wingate)
Newsgroups: net.religion
Subject: Re: Science as Religion (other objections to Wingate's article)
Message-ID: <975@umcp-cs.UUCP>
Date: Sat, 10-Nov-84 21:06:10 EST
Article-I.D.: umcp-cs.975
Posted: Sat Nov 10 21:06:10 1984
Date-Received: Sun, 11-Nov-84 22:08:49 EST
References: <704@umcp-cs.UUCP> <209@cybvax0.UUCP> <770@umcp-cs.UUCP> <221@cybvax0.UUCP>
Reply-To: mangoe@maryland.UUCP (Charley Wingate)
Organization: U of Maryland, Computer Science Dept., College Park, MD
Lines: 26

Occam's Razor only works because in science, we are not concerned with Truth;
we are concerned with the "best" possible explanation.  "Best" in this
context means the explanation which has the most predictive power.  It is
important to note that, ignoring Occam's razor for the moment, two theories
which predict exactly the same results are equivalent, regradless of their
inner mechanics.  Occam's Razor simply allows us two anoint one theory as
"the" theory on the basis of a) simplicity and b) minimal unobservable
attributes.  It is irrelevant to science that the actual working of the
universe may be according to the complicated theory with lots of unobservable
attributes.

   Now God is a extreme example of a largely unobservable attribute which
complicates any theory immensely, without really increasing its predictive
power.  Scientists therefore are reluctant to appeal to deities in their
theories.

  The resurrection, as it is recorded, isn't remotely what any respectable
scientist would consider as reliable experimental data.  It is a one-time
event, observed by perhaps a few hundred not especially unbiased observers.
On the other hand, it is an absolutely one-time event, as claimed.  Its
alleged improbability is not relevant to whether or not it had in fact
occured; if it did happen, of course it would have appeared very unlikely.
The fact that something happens rarely (or especially only once) is not
necessarily an argument that it doesn't happen at all.

Charley Wingate   umcp-cs!mangoe