But simplicity is, for scientists, more than a guide to truth. It is also, as Weinberg has observed, “part of what we mean by an explanation.” It is simplicity that distinguishes a “beautiful explanatory theory” in physics from a “mere list of data.” Richard Dawkins made a similar point. Complicated realities, Dawkins submits, are more improbable than simple ones, and therefore stand in greater need of explanation. Take the existence of biological life. To posit a God as its cause is a nonstarter, Dawkins argues, since “any God capable of designing a universe, carefully and foresightfully
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