In around the 13th and 14th Centuries, a basic principal developed that seeks to eliminate complex theories in favour of simpler ones. Somewhat surprisingly, this isn’t as daft an idea as it first appears and is frequently used by philosophers and scientists even today’s modern world. The razor (also called the “principal of simplicity”) takes its name from William of Ockham: a Franciscan Monk who lived around the time and frequently applied it in his thinking.

A perfect, and classic, example using the razor disproves the existence of Santa Claus. While most of us don’t know it at the time, the principal of Occam’s Razor is how we eventually deduce that Santa is merely an fairy tale used to keep kids in check around Christmas. (The irony of using a quasi-Christian festival and the use of control in this discussion isn’t lost on me either.)

At some point, as our childhood world expands beyond the our home, it becomes obvious to most of us that if Santa did exist, he would have to either stop time or instantaneously materialise at billions of homes simultaneously the world over; and do all that while carrying bundles of presents and without ever being seen, etc. Even the most trusting child is able to figure out that it’s far more likely that some other, worldlier, force is at work.

Who do you trust your letters to and who do you pester for the latest toys? Who else than your parents and family. Therefore at some point it becomes painfully clear that it’s much more likely that your parents are hiding presents in the house and dispersing them on Christmas Eve while you’re asleep? Without any prior knowledge of Occam’s Razor, you’ve just used it do determine between a complex fantasy (the enormous fib your folks have been telling you about this omnipotent philanthropist living at the frozen north pole) and the simple reality that this is all just Christian celebration hyped beyond belief by toy stores in order to sell more products.

Santa Claus is an invention; and for a lot of kids that’s a bitter pill to swallow.

Even Santa’s classic red suit is a bastardisation brought about by the Coca Cola Company who changed it from the traditional green some years ago as part of a marketing gimmick. If we apply Occam’s Razor to Creationism, Divinity and God (as both sides frequently do) logic comes apart at the seams; and surely William, a devout theist (who even accused a Pope of heresy) would be turning, nay, spinning in his grave to hear it.

Occams’s Razor comes in very handy for debunking the Darwinian theory of evolution and the argument goes something like this:

This is fairly typical of a Creationist’s argument in that it’s simplistic, sounds plausible and doesn’t stand up to any intelligent scrutiny whatsoever. Occam’s Razor does not state that the simpler a theory is the better it is, just that the simplest, rational, cohesive and above all, provable explanation is the most probable. If you cannot prove an explanation, then the razor can’t be used to consider it as a valid argument in the first place; much the same applies to Santa.

The big problem with the Creationist’s argument is that it pre-supposes the existence of something improvable; and when you insert the improvable into a theory, the theory isn’t returns to being an idea. Occam’s Razor no longer applies.

The more proofs you apply to a theory, the more robust that theory becomes until eventually it becomes accepted scientific doctrine: even though it remains a theory. But you can’t use the word theory in the sense that this is just an idea. The same can be applied to any so-called theory – from Einstein’s Special and General relativity – all the way down to fires causing burns.

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