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From: mrh@cybvax0.UUCP (Mike Huybensz)
Newsgroups: net.religion
Subject: Re: Science as Religion (other objections to Wingate's article)
Message-ID: <235@cybvax0.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 13-Nov-84 12:32:58 EST
Article-I.D.: cybvax0.235
Posted: Tue Nov 13 12:32:58 1984
Date-Received: Fri, 16-Nov-84 00:45:08 EST
References: <704@umcp-cs.UUCP> <209@cybvax0.UUCP> <770@umcp-cs.UUCP> <221@cybvax0.UUCP> <975@umcp-cs.UUCP>
Reply-To: mrh@cybvax0.UUCP (Mike Huybensz)
Organization: Cybermation, Inc., Cambridge, MA
Lines: 28
Summary: 

In article <975@umcp-cs.UUCP> mangoe@maryland.UUCP (Charley Wingate) writes:
>.... 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.

Besides  the strong assumption that the resurrection occurred and was recorded
(rather than faked or ficticiously reported), the above statement ignores the
fact that Occam's Razor can be applied as a heuristic in history, as well as
science.  And why not theology as well?

There is no debate that Occam's Razor is fallible.  As any theologian would
tell you, all humans and their devices are fallible.  But as Charley said,
it is thought to be the best way of choosing between alternative explanati?ns.

Another problem with the above argument is the implication that there is a
sample size of one for the resurrection, which leaves too little data for
any useful analysis.  This is not so.  There are NUMEROUS other claims of
resurrections (even in the Bible-- remember Lazarus?) in many other writings.
There's the claim of reincarnation going on around us daily.  I say that
claims of miracles should be lumped together to be considered with the Razor.
-- 

Mike Huybensz		...decvax!genrad!mit-eddie!cybvax0!mrh