Buddhist Catholic Contemplative Evangelical General Christian Hindu Jewish Latter-day Saint Muslim New Visions Progressive Christian

Beliefs

Topics

Columnists

Resource Library

Research Tools

Video

Podcasts

Thought Readers

Faith In Media Tracker

Newsletters

Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In Subscription Support

Follow Patheos

Home
Latter-day Saint
History and Religion
An Application of Ockham’s Razor to Apologetic Motivations

An Application of Ockham’s Razor to Apologetic Motivations

Last updated on: July 17, 2025 at 2:10 pm by Dan Peterson

0 Comments

An Application of Ockham’s Razor to Apologetic Motivations 2025-07-17T14:10:33-06:00 Dan Peterson

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

A portion of the second-century BC Great Isaiah Scroll from Qumran
(Wikimedia Commons public domain image)

It’s Thursday at the Interpreter Foundation, so here’s a chapter reprint for you: Seek Ye Words of Wisdom: Manipulating Text to Reinforce the Message: Content informs Form in the Bible and Book of Mormon,”

written by my long-time friend Paul Y. Hoskisson

Part of our book chapter reprint series, this article originally appeared in Seek Ye Words of Wisdom: Studies of the Book of Mormon, Bible, and Temple in Honor of Stephen D. Ricks, edited by Donald W. Parry, Gaye Strathearn, and Shon D. Hopkin. For more information, go to https://interpreterfoundation.org/books/seek-ye-words-of-wisdom/.

“The peoples of the ancient Near East, Israel, Babylon, Assyria, Ugarit, and Egypt manipulated their language and literature in ways that we, in our Western strictures, might deem at least playful, if not downright annoying. I have previously published on a few of these aspects of ancient Near Eastern writings pertaining to the Bible and the Book of Mormon. This essay will introduce to a Latter-day Saint audience the concept that the content of a passage can inform the form of the passage—that is, how the words, syntax, organization, etc. of a passage are deliberately assembled in such a way as to reflect the meaning of the passage individually or in consort with each other.”

Also, published in Meridian Magazine, this is an interesting article that was written from an interesting and unusual perspective: “The Sacred “And”: A Linguistic Witness in the Book of Mormon”

Maya ruins at Tikal, in Guatemala (Wikimedia Commons public domain image)
The structures shown here postdate the period of the Book of Mormon. Although they were long used quite uncritically in popular Latter-day Saint publications on archaeology and the Book of Mormon, many of the most spectacular ruins in Mesoamerica are actually too late to have been built by its peoples.

Just so that there will be no illusions here — alas, no cure exists for some of the denizens of the Peterson Obsession Board — I repeat (yet again) declarations that I’ve issued here multiple times before. And I expand upon them just a bit:

I make no money from Latter-day Saint apologetics. (My wife and I have been and continue to be [admittedly minor] donors to apologetics.)
I have no financial interest or investment in promoting limited-geographical models for the Book of Mormon and derive no profit from any of them.
I’ve seldom even written on the topic of Book of Mormon geography, and then typically only in passing.
Since I earn no money at all from promoting limited-geographical models, it’s highly unlikely that I earn hundreds of thousands of dollars from doing so.
I make no money from leading tours to Mesoamerica.
To the best of my recollection, I’ve been on only one tour to Mesoamerica during my adult lifetime, and I received no money for going on that tour.
My friend John Sorenson led no tours to Mesoamerica of which I’m aware (and, accordingly, is unlikely to have profited from leading such tours).
M. Wells Jakeman led no tours to Mesoamerica of which I’m aware (and, accordingly, is unlikely to have profited from leading such tours).
Janne M. Sjödahl led no tours to Mesoamerica of which I’m aware (and, accordingly, is unlikely to have profited from leading such tours).
L. E. Hills led no tours to Mesoamerica of which I’m aware (and, accordingly, is unlikely to have profited from leading such tours).

Those who want to speculate about the origins of limited-geographical theories set in Mesoamerica and about the factors that motivated their creation should read Matthew Roper, “Limited Geography and the Book of Mormon: Historical Antecedents and Early Interpretations,” FARMS Review 16/2 (2004): 225–275, before speculating further. And, of course, they should also have read the initial portion of John L. Sorenson’s seminal volume An Ancient American Setting for the Book of Mormon (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 1985), in which he sets out the textual analysis, followed by the archaeological reasoning, that impelled him to his “limited Tehuantepec model.” (See also John L. Sorenson, Mormon’s Map [Provo, UT: FARMS, 2000].) The reasons that Professor Sorenson offers are both adequate and sufficient to account for his position. No further reasons are needed to explain it.

Unnecessary, in this case. (Public domain image from Wikimedia Commons)

Here, it’s worthwhile to remember Ockham’s (or Occam’s) Razor, the famous “principle of parsimony,” which suggests that, all other things being equal, the simplest explanation is likely to be the best explanation. The Razor essentially states that, when faced with competing hypotheses, the hypothesis that requires the fewest assumptions or entities should be favored. Although the fourteenth-century English philosopher and theologian William of Ockham apparently never used these precise words, it is often stated as Entia non sunt multiplicanda praeter necessitatem, which can be rendered as “Entities must not be multiplied beyond necessity.”

For example, if someone has a headache it is more likely that she is dehydrated than that she has been deliberately targeted by rogue headache-inducing Jewish space lasers — or, even, that she has been dehydrated as an effect of such targeting. (Jewish space lasers are, in such cases — as in the case of California wildfires — dubious and, for explanatory purposes, quite unnecessary entities) And if your son’s room is a mess, it’s more probable that he had failed to clean it up as you asked him to do than that he actually did clean it up but that an unknown marauding prankster, perhaps even misreading your street address on the curb, stealthily entered your home, administered a sleep-inducing drug to your son, and, while he slept, disordered everything in his room as a tribute to the Norse trickster god Loki. Once the geographical data given in the Book of Mormon have been understood and once the archaeological data have been examined, there is nothing in the origins or motivations of limited-geographical settings in Mesoamerica that remains to be explained. No lucrative tours need be invented. No unevidenced greed or self-interest need be invoked. Nor do any Jewish space lasers or itinerant Loki-worshiping pranksters.

History and Religion

Travel and Religion

Previous Post

July 16, 2025

Dang it, we ran out of time

Next Post

July 18, 2025 "The Plates of Gardner"

Recent Comments

0 | Leave a Comment

"Sutherland's lecture sounds interesting. He seems to restate the Washington consensus that trade brings peace ..."

B. Wilson

Learning more about a region of ..."

"In a meeting today, I learned another important reason why accurate (or at least as ..."

the PROBLEM

From Serbia’s “White City,” Belgrade

"I've been watching a lot of video interviews of NDErs and researchers. I think in ..."

brotheroflogan

Accounts of Premortality?

"PL: "Let's hope he doesn't have your address..."I have to frankly confess that a few ..."

DanielPeterson

From Serbia’s “White City,” Belgrade

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category Uncategorized

Select a Month October 2026 September 2026 August 2026 July 2026 June 2026 May 2026 April 2026 March 2026 February 2026 January 2026 December 2025 November 2025 October 2025 September 2025 August 2025 July 2025 June 2025 May 2025 April 2025 March 2025 February 2025 January 2025 December 2024 November 2024 October 2024 September 2024 August 2024 July 2024 June 2024 May 2024 April 2024 March 2024 February 2024 January 2024 December 2023 November 2023 October 2023 September 2023 August 2023 July 2023 June 2023 May 2023 April 2023 March 2023 February 2023 January 2023 December 2022 November 2022 October 2022 September 2022 August 2022 July 2022 June 2022 May 2022 April 2022 March 2022 February 2022 January 2022 December 2021 November 2021 October 2021 September 2021 August 2021 July 2021 June 2021 May 2021 April 2021 March 2021 February 2021 January 2021 December 2020 November 2020 October 2020 September 2020 August 2020 July 2020 June 2020 May 2020 April 2020 March 2020 February 2020 January 2020 December 2019 November 2019 October 2019 September 2019 August 2019 July 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 March 2014 August 2013 February 2012

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

Who said, "Come, follow me, and I will make you fishers of men"?

Select your answer to see how you score.

Jesus Peter Paul John the Baptist