Saturday, May 31, 2008

Why Occam's Razor is so important

Live Science provides a story about how gullible the media is.

A man claimed to have video of an alien doing a peeping tom routine with his daughter.

Now, this requires certain assumptions---assumptions that Occam's Razor would eliminate if the media actually did their jobs an used a skeptical eye.

1. His daughter must be worth looking at. Of course he thinks so, but he's a parent.

2. Aliens would expend all their technological skill to travel across the galaxy to just peep in windows.

3. Aliens are actually present on the planet.

These three assumptions don't hold water, but are necessary if we are to believe this whack job's claims.

Until someone provides some really good video of an alien I won't believe it.

Until someone other than the town weirdo is the source I won't believe it either.

Until someone who starts out skeptical and looks for every explanation OTHER than the alien explanation first, then I won't believe it.

Occam's Razor serves a very useful role. It cuts out a lot of bullshit from a lot of morons.

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