Comments on: Entia non sunt multiplicanda praeter necessitatem

By: Heidi

Heidi — Fri, 01 Jul 2005 17:01:00 +0000

I’m up for hiking.

Just being the science nerd I am I couldn’t help but mention that the Occam Razor ideal actually has another more scientific name. The “I can’t remember what it is right now (apparently I am not as nerdy as I need to be) principle”. The principle is meant to apply when you are considering multiple hypotheses. Essential, screw doing the experiment, just assume the simple answer is the right one. Biologist use it a alot to figure out how “God” placed organisms on the evolutionary tree of life.

By: Maletas

Maletas — Sat, 25 Jun 2005 23:09:00 +0000

Children will believe anything you tell them. Conveniently, that, and brute force, have pretty much kept religions going.
You don’t believe what I believe? I cut you.
Unfortunately, most people don’t seem to think for themselves ever. They simply maintain that childhood mentality/intelligence level.
Religion was probably just a way to shut someone’s kid up when he wouldn’t stop asking “Why?”. Damn kids. Dumb people.

Anyway, who’s up for hiking? And when’s dan showing up so that we can all go hiking together?

By: Z. Monkey

Z. Monkey — Thu, 23 Jun 2005 22:19:00 +0000

I liked stegosaurus because it had a fucking Mohawk!

As a little kid it was a little Earth moving to be shot down like that. It is impressive that someone could refuse to answer a question like that. It makes you think that they are afraid they will lose something by answering it. Out of sight, out of mind kind of thing.

Oh, I should make it clear that I hold no resentment towards my mom about this. I view the event as positive! I now have a chance not to be a lemming!

By: Dan

Dan — Thu, 23 Jun 2005 19:05:00 +0000

hey, that makes a lot of sense. Here’s where my upbringing was different: I also loved dinosaurs from an early age (the ankylosaur was my favorite .. I also liked the styracosaur. Why are herbivores always the good guys and carnivores the bad guys?), and I also subscribed to the theory that the 6 days was actually a few hundred million years and that the bible just left a whole bunch of stuff out, but either I kept these ideas to myself or was just never told “no” by anyone. I was sort of left to come up with solutions for myself, and not knowing this Occam fellow at the time, I could make it as complicated as I wanted.

Now I’m more a fan of the “anyone who discourages questioning is a controlling asshole” philosophy.