Religious and Scientific Faith in Simplicity

TL;DR

This paper explores the shared reliance of religion and science on the assumption of simplicity, specifically the principle that simpler hypotheses are more likely when multiple explanations fit the data equally well.

Contribution

It highlights the common foundational assumption of simplicity in both religious and scientific reasoning, emphasizing its role in hypothesis evaluation.

Findings

Both domains rely on faith in simplicity as a guiding principle.

Simplicity serves as a heuristic for hypothesis selection.

The assumption of simplicity is fundamental in both religious and scientific contexts.

Abstract

Both religion and science start with basic assumptions that cannot be proved but are taken on faith. Here I note that one basic assumption that is rather common in both enterprises is the assumption that in comparing different hypotheses that all equally explain the observations, the simpler hypotheses are more probable (Occam's razor or the law of parsimony). That is, explanations should be made as simple at possible (though no simpler, since then they would not explain what is observed).