Thursday, June 01, 2006

religious orientation

1. Strong - question of existence is unknowable
2. weak - withhold judgement until more evidence is available
3. apathetic - since God doesn't care, why should we?
4. agnostic atheism - God may or may not exist but most likely he doesn't(related to Occam's Razor)

Occam's Razor = explanation of any phenomenon should make as few assumptions as possible, eliminating those that make no difference in the observable predictions of the explanatory hypothesis or theory.Furthermore, when multiple competing theories have equal predictive powers, the principle recommends selecting those that introduce the fewest assumptions and postulate the fewest hypothetical entities.

When applied to the existence of God; if the concept of God does not help to explain the universe, it is argued, God is irrelevant and should be cut away. While Occam's razor cannot prove God's nonexistence, it does imply that, in the absence of compelling reasons to believe in God, unbelief should be preferred.

Charles Darwin is a famous example of an agnostic.