Posted by I do research for a living on July 19, 2009 at 11:57:21
In Reply to: Re: He made it up posted by Peace on July 17, 2009 at 22:59:21:
Edward's "hypothesis": There is a connection between the PT and the COG; both taught Revolutionary Suicide; Ricky did as he was taught and killed himself.
(I would rather call it conjecture than a hypothesis for what he is doing doesn't meet the criteria of a "hypothesis": a tentative explanation for an observation, phenomenon, or problem that can be proven by further scientific investigation; something taken to be temporarily true for the sake of argument; an assumption for the moment; the antecedent of a conditional statement.)
According to the principal of lex parsimoniae, better known as Occam's Razor, logic and proper deduction calls for pluralitas non est ponenda sine necessitate—the avoidance of positing plurality without necessity. This means that "the explanation of any phenomenon should make as few assumptions as possible, eliminating those that make no difference in the observable predictions of the explanatory hypothesis or theory."
Not content to throw in a fake citation to support an unsound theory, what Edward did was the opposite of the economical utilization of absolutely-essential data. He included superfluous data, citing general historical facts and general information about miscellaneous cults not directly related to the COG and what was taught in the COG, even in the secretive inner circle. These not only failed to support his foregone conclusions, but were entirely irrelevant to supporting his weak "hypothesis." He also muddled many issues, among others: daily daily self-sacrifice (by living, breathing entities) with suicide, and death by persecution at the hand of enemies with self-inflicted suicide.
Edward simply should take into the following phenomena: