Minor annoyances

Ok, I know that I do it too.  But it annoys me when people misuse terms, especially published professionals.  For example, a paradox is a self-contradictory statement.  It isn’t really, and shouldn’t be thought of as “an interesting or counter-intuitive problem.” 

A square circle is a paradox.  “I am a married bachelor.” is a paradox.  Basically, it needs to be a logical contradiction in some way with itself. 

Also, while I’m on the subject:  The principle of Occam’s Razor says “Don’t multiply entities beyond necessity,” that is, given equal explanatory power the simplest explanation will tend to be the correct one.  This doesn’t mean that the simplest explanation is the best, it means the explanation that gives us the most accurate information and is as simple as possible is probably the best.

I’ll give you another example.  What seems to be the better explanation of life on Earth, evolution with all its scientific theories or that God simply created everything because he saw it fit?  If you argue that both offer equal explanatory power *cough* than which one is the better choice according to Occam’s Razor?

Evolution.  Yes, even with all its theories and so forth.  You see, the notion of God multiplies metaphysical entities beyond necessity, we would have the earth and all of us here, and we would also have God and the supernatural-type realm.  This raises a whole new world of problems (literally). 

Anyhow, I’ve breached into another topic of discussion, so I’ll let this one be for now.