God and Ockham’s Razor

By

Anthony J. Fejfar, B.A., J.D., Esq., Coif

© Copyright 2009 by Anthony J. Fejfar

Some people think, wrongly, that Ockham’s Razor excludes discussions of God.

In fact, God cannot be excluded by Ockham’s Razor. Recall, that Ockham’s Razor is

defined as a principle which requires that a more simple explanation which makes the

least amount of extraneous assumptions is to be conclusively preferred over an

explanation which is more complex and makes more extraneous assumptions. Now, if

we look at one of Thomas Aquainas’ proofs for God’s Existence it is clear that Ockham’s

Razor cannot exclude discussion of God. We start with the observation from sense

experience that there are all sorts of causes and effects in the world and universe. For

example, if one pushes a pool cue ball at the 8 ball, the person’s hand causes the cue ball

to move, which in turn causes the 8 ball to move as an effect. Next, we ask the question,

What is the cause of the cue ball? From there we look to the manufacturing process of

the cue ball. From there we look to the raw materials that the cue ball is made from as a

cause. From there we look to the Earth as the source or cause of the materials of the cue

ball. From there we look to the origins of the Planet Earth and the Universe. As we

continue, it is clear as a matter of logical that either there is an infinite series of causes,

which seems irrational from the point of view of a finite universe, or, alternatively, we

must logically infer that there is a Uncaused, First Cause, which is the Cause of all other

causes. Since there are rational natural laws in the Universe, we can logically infer that

Reason is the First Cause of the Universe. Reason can be logically described as God,
since in the Gospel of John, God is Reason or Logos. Now, the foregoing is a fairly

simple explanation of the Origin of the Universe with no extraneous assumptions. The

only other explanation that has been offered to explain the Origin of the Universe is that

the “Big Bang” is the Origin of the Universe. In fact , the Big Bang is just another name

for the Uncaused, First Cause or God and thus is not a more simple explanation with

fewer extraneous assumptions. The only other explanation being proferred is String

Theory which itself is Metaphysical and is once again analogous to the Uncaused, First

Cause.

Now, we can now consider another proof for God’s Existence from Thomas

Aquainas. As proven, above, the Universe has as its’ Original Cause, God, Who is the

First Cause and Reason. Next, we note that Universe is still in existence even though

scientists say that the Universe has been around for at least Trillions of years. The

question, then arises, how is it that the Universe stays in existence? Moreover, we must

wonder why the Universe stays in existence when Entropy occurs which dissipates

Energy from any System such as the Universe. We note that as a matter of experience

we can see that the Universe not only is in existence, but also that there is movement in

the Universe, in spite of Entropy. If Entropy were the only active natural law principle,

then it is apparent that the Universe would have started winding down, and would have

collapsed a long time ago. Instead the Universe is full of dynamic movement.

Logically, such movement in the Universe must have a source. Since an infinite regress

of movement is not possible in a finite Universe, we must logically conclude that there is

an Unmoved Mover that holds the Universe in Dynamic Existence. Such an Unmoved

Mover is known as Being or God. God as the Unmoved Mover is the only rational
explanation as to why Entropy has not destroyed the Universe as this point. Such an

explanation is not excluded by Ockham’s Razor because it is a simple explanation and

does not involve extraneous assumptions. Thus, discussions of God cannot be excluded

by Ockham’s Razor.