Is atheist materialism the simplest theory to explain the universe?
Ockham's Razor is used to adjudicate between different, equally credible theories.
If the competing theories have all passed a basic credibility test and the evidence for each theory is equally good, THEN the simplest explanation is to be preferred.
What Ockham's Razor is NOT is a kind of stupid-atheist weapon!
William of Ockham was in the order of Francis of Assisi - and got involved in the complex papal politics of the 14th century. Everybody was interacting with the brilliant theology of Peter Lombard (as did John Calvin in the 16th century) - but because William of Ockham had a reforming, simplifying approach, he was involved in controversy.
William knew that the human intellect was not on an ontological continuum with the Divine Intellect - and therefore anything that the LORD Jesus Christ thinks has to be received totally on trust by the human intellect.
We cannot predict, anticipate or discover what the Living God thinks about anything until there has been revelation in and through the LORD Jesus.
Eternal or ultimate realities are NOT accessible to fleshly, worldly reason - because they are NOT based on a "Chain of Being" but entirely upon the creative will, wisdom and loving creativity of the Father through the Son by the Spirit.
In other words, reality is not about conformity to a general ontology but conformity to the will/love/grace of the Father, Son and Spirit.
Some have suggested that William of Ockham was a kind of medieval Barthian before Barth.
So, if there is no eternal, accessible, "universal" basis for the rationality of the cosmos, then we cannot judge theories by something like the "Chain of Being" or "transcendentals"/"universals" or anything like that.
If there is no transcendent basis to make epistemological judgements, then if competing theories all have equally plausible evidence then we should select the theory that is most simple.
THAT is Ockham's Razor.
When competing theories all have equally credible evidence then we should favour the one that is simplest.
So... there is nothing about Ockham's Razor that favours atheism, materialism or any other mindlessly simplistic worldview.
I have encountered atheists suggesting that the reason we should adopt an atheistic perspective on life, the universe and everything is... "Ockham's Razor"!!🤣😂😅🥲
In other words, in their minds they think that the "simplest" theory is
* that everything comes from nothing;
* that a rational, ordered universe can be produced by a chaotic, random process;
* that the logic of the human mind being replicated in the logic of the material universe requires no comment;
* that the extraordinary events recorded in the Bible - especially with reference to the LORD Jesus Christ - can be shrugged off, even while parasitically feeding off the incredible achievement of the scientific project based on the Christian worldview....
Ok. 🙄😳🙄
But....
What is the evidence for any of this!!
Atheism is an extraordinary theory.
We remain unconvinced.
If someone wants to assert the extraordinary and bizarre thesis that the universe comes from nothing;
that rationality is random;
that meaning is arbitrary;
that the events of the Bible written over 1500 years are some kind of conspiracy...
ok.
Bring forth your evidence.
BUT...
It had better be very, very, very good evidence to sustain such an extraordinary claim!
Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence - as someone once said....
(Was it someone called David?)
In all of our experience of life, on a day-to-day basis -
nothing at all comes from nothing;
order does not naturally arise from chaos;
the human consciousness is not obviously related to the basic ontology of the universe;
the LORD Jesus Christ forms the centre of the calendar, history and nearly every human philosophy.
Christians start from the simplest, basic matters and work out from them - and William of Ockham certainly approved of that.
If someone genuinely believes that the modern forms of atheism are the simplest theories of the universe... then they need to look more closely at all the baggage that is carried with these modern forms of atheism.
In my experience, the modern atheist sits on top of the immense intellectual achievement of Christian theology/thought - taking for granted a rational, reliable and real universe... and then sitting on top of the Christian worldview, turns around and spits on us all as if we were irrelevant!