|
Occam's Razor applied to Religion.
Briefly stated as a problem solving procedure, the Occam's razor principle is to first eliminate all unnecessary hypotheses, concepts, data, etc, and choose the simplest among the remaining hypotheses for further exploration.
So as to lessen our possible confusion concerning the foundation of our religious beliefs, many may find it useful to utilize the Occam's razor principle to help to establish a minimal system of essential basic axioms for a belief system.
In considering the beginning of all things we have only two basic propositions, one that thought of some kind was involved, or "all that is" arose spontaneously from nothingness. Choosing this latter hypothesis would automatically generate other difficult problems. For example, we are thinking, conscious beings. How did such properties arise from nothingness?
However, if we allow thought itself to be involved in the generation of "all that is," we have a built-in explanation for our own thinking and consciousness. And so, following the Occam's razor principles we choose the simpler of the two. One way of stating our choice is:
God is the one self-caused fact existent in the whole of reality, hence must be the source and substance of all that is.
Obviously if this God is the source of all that is, then God preceded all that is, including time. That conclusion gives us an escape hatch from all those now inapplicable time-related questions like "Who made God?" For before there was time, there was only the infinite, eternal "now"--and such questions are irrelevant.
In order to keep our theology simple we have need of one more axiom, and propose this:
"God is perfect goodness."
Given God's perfect goodness, the next most important question every individual must ask is, "what does God require of me?" And the simplest possible answer is that God would want me to be like him--good. Why? Well, if God did not want that of me, then I could make life miserable for others. Hence there would have to be another God whose goodness is superior to a God who does not require that I should aspire to being good.
If I have the choice of wanting to be like God or not to be like him, then obviously I have free will. What would a world be like in which all us were created perfectly good--and could be nothing else but perfectly good? Unfortunately the answer to that question is that if we had no free will to choose goodness, we would be automata, pre-programmed to respond in fixed ways with no chance of doing otherwise.
A God who loves us--as we would expect from one who is perfectly good--must grant us free will, else there must be a more perfect God who would do so.
To complete our simplest of all theologies we have a couple of nagging loose ends that need answers. One--is there life after death? Surely a God who is perfectly good must have had a purpose for creating earthly children capable of self-awareness, consciousness, abstract thought, spontaneous worship, etc. And that purpose must provide for life beyond physical death. For if not, since our axiomatic God is perfect goodness, there would be a more perfect God who would so do.
Another loose end needing repairs in order to construct our simplest theology--what would God require from us in order for us to earn the continuation of life beyond the grave? Well, certainly the desire to eventually attain God-like goodness. Possibly nothing else.
And our final loose end--where do we find God? For that our simplest answer must be that since God made us, he must be part of us--and since God is Spirit, we will find God's Spirit within ourselves.
Summarizing then: God, the one and only self-caused fact, is Creator and Source of all that was, is, and ever will be. He is the God who is absolute goodness, a God who requires of his created beings only that they dedicate themselves to the pursuit of his divine goodness. The purpose? That ultimately they may receive God's gift of eternal life whereby they may seek to complete their task and finally to bask in his Presence.
And because we know that our God is perfectly good, we also know that the eternal life that is on offer is one we will eternally relish.
|
|
