Occam’s razor is the problem-solving principle that recommends searching for explanations constructed with the smallest possible set of elements. Another interpretation holds that the simplest answer is often the best.
The story goes that a second-year university chemistry student asked the professor at the beginning of class “why doesn’t water burn?” The professor, now blissfully diverted from the day’s topic, proceeded spend the hour filling the blackboard with equations as he sought to explain the problem.
The students, meanwhile, were left puzzled. So, a couple students went to their high school chemistry teacher with the question. “Well, water doesn’t burn because it’s already oxidized.”
We tend to overthink many things.
Didn’t Jesus often take complex questions thrown at him by adversaries, turn them around on themselves, and then offer a simpler, but difficult, answer?
What are laws and the prophets? “Love the Lord your God and your neighbor as yourself.”
What should we do? “Follow me.”
At the end of his physical life on Earth, “Love one another as I have loved you.”
I didn’t say simple was easy. But the simplest answer is easiest to remember. And therefore the clearest to follow.
Faith Venture 
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