Tuesday, July 17, 2012

The assault on Ockham's Razor

Yes, even Ockham's Razor is suspect now because some priest suggested its use in the Metropolitan Jonah scandal, saying that it seemed simpler that the story the bishops unanimously agreed on and wrote up in their letter was substantially true than that there is, for instance, a lavender mafia directing the actions of the Synod against Metropolitan Jonah because he dares to speak up about Conservative Morality.

The opponents of its use point out two things:

  1. Ockham was a Latin Nominalist, two things which are Anathema to right-believing and God-fearing Orthodox Christians.
  2. Ockham's Razor is often used by atheists to "disprove" the existence of God.
There you have it, ladies and gentleman.

For more on Ockham's Razor, see Larry Wasserman.

Edited to add link to post referred to. Also, note that what I said was mildly inaccurate in that the post linked came before the Synod's letter. Read it for yourself if you're interested in the argument.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Logic itself is a Latinist innovation and thus Anathema to right believing and God fearing Orthodox Christians.

Anonymous said...

OCCAM'S RAZOR WILL NEVER BE USED TO SHAVE THE PATRIARCH'S BEARD.

-ns

Erik said...

I do find that there are plenty of things that are far more complicated than they seem. Now, this may just be a healthy bearded objection to razors in all their forms, but I never found Ockham's logic particularly compelling on this point. Yes, all things boil down to the infinitely simple unified Godhead, but even that simplicity is beyond our comprehension.