Meh.It's a matter of keeping things tidy, in terms of metaphysical parsimony and explanatory efficiency (which I take to be related) - that is, not believing in factors for which there is no independent evidence, and choosing the less complicated explanation of observed phenomena over the more complicated.
It's really not unusual to hear scientists talking in terms of beauty or elegance when it comes to explaining phenomena: I'm talking in the same sort of way.
(It's really not unusual to hear scientists talking in terms of beauty or elegance when it comes to explaining phenomena: I'm talking in the same sort of way.
Enzyme is powered by sunlight,
Mon 24 May 2010, 12:45,
archived)
Beauty being based entirely on personal taste and perception.
Je suis un vagabond is an unfunny, up your own arse middle class knob,
Mon 24 May 2010, 12:57,
archived)
Beauty here being a portmanteau for efficiency, predictive power, and so on.For sure, that a simply hypothesis is better than a complicated one might be thought of as unargued; but I think it's more of an axiom. If you abandon it, science very quickly becomes impossible. I think you're therefore entititled to accept it; it's possible that you're even obliged to do so, on pain of no longer being a scientist.
That still doesn't indicate anything like equivalence with supernaturalism.
(That still doesn't indicate anything like equivalence with supernaturalism.
Enzyme is powered by sunlight,
Mon 24 May 2010, 13:21,
archived)
Ah, well - if we're doing portmanteaus, then Shirley "It is God's will" is just a quicker way of saying"Theribald-Johnson & co 1937 study of predictive skin disorder concluding that dermatitis leads to engorged neuralgia, from which we can extrapolate thusly ... "
( Je suis un vagabond is an unfunny, up your own arse middle class knob,
Mon 24 May 2010, 13:26,
archived)
If everyone understands that that's what's meant by the phrase "God's will",then there might be some mileage to the idea.
But I have a hunch that the overwhelming majority of people who use the term "God's will" think that that's all there is to it; they don't, after all, have a great reputation for making use of respected dermatological journals...
(But I have a hunch that the overwhelming majority of people who use the term "God's will" think that that's all there is to it; they don't, after all, have a great reputation for making use of respected dermatological journals...
Enzyme is powered by sunlight,
Mon 24 May 2010, 13:29,
archived)
Hunch, eh?Sounds unscientific to me.
( Je suis un vagabond is an unfunny, up your own arse middle class knob,
Mon 24 May 2010, 13:32,
archived)
Meh Enzyme is powered by sunlight,
Mon 24 May 2010, 13:44,
archived)