Occam's Razor in contrast with different aspects of Christianity

[Ben_Sinner]

I was wondering how do we go against Occam’s Razor regarding such things as The Trinity, the Immaculate Conception, The Resurrection, The world being created by an intangible being instead of just existing forever etc.

Wouldn’t Occam’s Razor suggest that those are more complicated alternatives than Jesus making stuff up about his nature, Mary secretly having sex with someone,etc.Jesus faking his death, etc.

What are we to make of Occam’s Razor in general?

Ockham also believed in Nominalism, and other problematic philosophies.

Should Catholics disregard Occam’s Razor?

 

[dmar198]

I was wondering how do we go against Occam’s Razor regarding such things as The Trinity, the Immaculate Conception, The Resurrection, The world being created by an intangible being instead of just existing forever etc.

Wouldn’t Occam’s Razor suggest that those are more complicated alternatives than Jesus making stuff up about his nature, Mary secretly having sex with someone,etc.Jesus faking his death, etc.

What are we to make of Occam’s Razor in general?

Ockham also believed in Nominalism, and other problematic philosophies.

Should Catholics disregard Occam’s Razor?

This is Occam’s Razor:

“[N]othing ought to be posited without a reason given, unless it is self-evident or known by experience or proved by the authority of Sacred Scripture.” Source: William of Ockham, Scriptum in librum primum Sententiarum (Ordinatio), Distinctiones XIX-XLVIII, in Opera Theologica, vol. IV, ed. Girard Etzkorn and Francis Kelly (St. Bonaventure University, 1979), p. 290.

Also: the suggestions you offered involve more complications than the miracles themselves.

The miraculous explanation is simpler than the theory that the Apostles made up the miracles in the Bible, because the latter theory has to explain why the Apostles believed it if they themselves made it up. If they did not believe in the miracles they claimed to witness, then they wouldn’t have gone to their deaths for proclaiming their truth. They would have confessed that it was a lie.

The theory that Jesus was a liar also involves greater complications than the theory that He was telling the truth. He didn’t gain anything from His story, for His story, at least not in the world’s view.

The theory that Mary slept with someone wouldn’t explain why the Apostles believed she was a virgin. There had to be evidence or no one would have believed her story. A cover up of her fornicating would be more likely than trying to convince people she was a virgin, which is what the theory you are asking about amounts to.

The theory that Jesus faked His death misses the thoroughness of the Romans. Etc.

 

[RedFox0456]

I am going to give you one answer right off the bat. The eternally existing universe cannot be the case. It has been determined via physics that any expanding universe, such as ours, must have had a beginning. For our universe to be eternal, it would have needed to exist in a perfectly stable condition until randomly falling out of equilibrium. As far as the multiverse theory goes, the same holds. Physics tells us that a multiverse (even if one exists) must be expanding and therefore must have had a beginning. This fact even holds true if you assume the universe to be in oscillation between expansion and contraction. Such a state cannot eternally exist and therefore must have had a beginning.

The use of Occam’s Razor only applies when one considers two equally viable options. The origins of the universe do not meet such a criteria. It also doesn’t mean the more complicated answer is not correct - merely that you should START with the more simple solution. As such it still could not be used as any sort of proof against the claims of Christianity.

 

[Ben_Sinner]

Ok.

Thanks for the clarification guys!

 

[Charlemagne_III]

Also known as the law of parsimony (applicable to many different fields of knowledge) this Ockham’s principle has come to be called a “razor” because it cuts away superfluous or unnecessarily complex causes from any explanation of natural phenomenon. Yet Newton did not see fit to use Ockham’s Razor as a device to cut God out as an explanation for the order that is seen throughout nature. As he said, “This most beautiful system [the universe] could only proceed from the dominion of an intelligent and powerful Being.” Newton, it appears, had more faith than William of Ockham had in the power of reason to demonstrate the existence of God.

Every tool for cutting must have its limits. Or as Einstein himself put it, “Make everything as simple as possible, but not simpler.”