Why Hitchens’ Razor is Bad Epistemology

Why Hitchens’ Razor is Bad Epistemology

Few modern slogans in popular atheism have the enduring appeal of Hitchens’ Razor: What can be asserted without evidence can also be dismissed without evidence. It is elegant and sharp. And it is an effective epistemic heuristic—a rough and dirty rule that gets things right often enough. So, at first glance, the razor looks like an epistemic principle for distinguishing rational belief from mere assertion. Unfortunately, despite its pith, if tak…