{"id":178875,"date":"2023-12-22T16:29:57","date_gmt":"2023-12-22T22:29:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2023\/12\/research-argues-that-occams-razor-is-an-essential-factor-that-distinguishes-science-from-superstition"},"modified":"2023-12-22T16:29:57","modified_gmt":"2023-12-22T22:29:57","slug":"research-argues-that-occams-razor-is-an-essential-factor-that-distinguishes-science-from-superstition","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2023\/12\/research-argues-that-occams-razor-is-an-essential-factor-that-distinguishes-science-from-superstition","title":{"rendered":"Research argues that Occam\u2019s razor is an \u2018essential factor that distinguishes science from superstition\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a class=\"aligncenter blog-photo\" href=\"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog.images\/research-argues-that-occams-razor-is-an-essential-factor-that-distinguishes-science-from-superstition2.jpg\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Occam\u2019s razor\u2014the principle that when faced with competing explanations, we should choose the simplest that fits the facts\u2014is not just a tool of science. Occam\u2019s razor is science, insists a renowned molecular geneticist from the University of Surrey.<\/p>\n<p>In a paper published in the <i>Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences<\/i>, Professor Johnjoe McFadden argues Occam\u2019s razor\u2014attributed to the Surrey-born Franciscan friar William of Occam (1285\u20131347)\u2014is the only feature that differentiates science from superstition, pseudoscience or <a href=\"https:\/\/phys.org\/tags\/fake+news\/\" rel=\"tag\" class=\"\">fake news<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Professor McFadden said, \u201cWhat is science? The rise of issues such as <a href=\"https:\/\/phys.org\/tags\/vaccine+hesitancy\/\" rel=\"tag\" class=\"\">vaccine hesitancy<\/a>, climate skepticism, <a href=\"https:\/\/phys.org\/tags\/alternative+medicine\/\" rel=\"tag\" class=\"\">alternative medicine<\/a>, and mysticism reveals significant levels of distrust or misunderstanding of science among the general public. The ongoing COVID inquiry also highlights how scientific ignorance extends into the heart of government. Part of the problem is that most people, even most scientists, have no clear idea of what science is actually about.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Occam\u2019s razor\u2014the principle that when faced with competing explanations, we should choose the simplest that fits the facts\u2014is not just a tool of science. Occam\u2019s razor is science, insists a renowned molecular geneticist from the University of Surrey. In a paper published in the Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, Professor Johnjoe McFadden [\u2026]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":661,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,412,1490,224],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-178875","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-biotech-medical","category-genetics","category-government","category-science"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/178875","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/661"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=178875"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/178875\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=178875"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=178875"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=178875"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}