John C. Whitcomb

By JOHN C. WHITCOMB, Th.D. Contributing Author In the 14th century A.D., William of Occam, an Oxford philosopher, enunciated a principle that has been effectively used (but also misused) in the history of science: “Entia non multiplicanda praeter necessitatem.” Explanations must not be unnecessarily multiplied. This principle became known as “Occam’s Razor,” for it encouraged people to slash through unnecessarily complicated philosophical and scientific theories. An outstanding example of its valid application was Ptolemaic astronomy. In the second century A.D., the last [...]