Part One of the Verbose Occam's Razor Debate

"Pip! Pip!

I would be the first to say that Occam's Razor is a great general principal against which to measure the likely validity of an explanation, but please remember that there are many exceptions, in large part because human beings frequently make assumptions or take for granted certain 'truths' which do not bear up under scrutiny once the details are known.

I can cite at least three instances (two impersonal, one personal) where Occam's Razor gets blown out of the water for just such reasons. Eg, books apparently signed by Mark Twain (pseud. Samuel Clemens) several years after his death, 50 of them to be exact. Occam's Razor would suggest that these were fakes when in reality, he signed 50 blank pages ten years earlier for the publisher, with the understanding that a posthumous collection of all his work would be produced. No one is going to make the assumption that he signed the pages before he died, because it just doesn't occur to a person to make that cognitive leap.

Occam's Razor depends upon a relatively complete understanding of all relevant facts, and reality rarely affords such text-book access to the convolutions which happen as a matter of course where the wandering variables of MOrc and the Universe are involved.

My position regarding Ms. Browne is one of skepticism at best, but I would hesitate to discount all such 'phenomenon' on the basis of my personal prejudice because the majority of the visible psychics have proven to be unreliable. 99.9% of everything is not tangible. The burden is, of course, on the psychics, who must prove their abilities in repeatable scientific trials. So far, none of them have done so. That doesn't mean it won't happen, just that I have a better chance of winning the lottery, without buying a ticket.

Also Pip! Pip!"