Science, God and Ockham's razor: can science explain God away?

Tue 17 May 2016

St Edmund's College

While the ‘conflict thesis’ of the historical relationship between science and religion may be dead, at a popular level the idea that science undermines belief in God is still very much alive. The suggestion is that as science explains more and more about the world there is less and less need for God. To put it another way, science has explained God away, or at least is in the process of doing so. Sometimes this is expressed in terms of Ockham’s razor, according to which ‘it is futile to do with more things that which can be done with fewer’. Applied to science and God, the claim is that there is no need for science and God if science can explain the world around us on its own. There is no need for two explanations when one will do.
This type of reasoning occurs in many contexts and so the seminar will explore how Ockham’s razor works in general before evaluating its application to science and God. This will be achieved through the use of questions that help to determine whether Ockham’s razor can be applied in a given context. This approach helps make sense of why the perceived conflict between science and religion persists, but also highlights why appeals to science to undermine belief in God are very unlikely to succeed.

Cost: Free