[glenstein]

I'm definitely on your side in terms of where I ultimately lean, but I don't feel satisfied that this is a strong enough answer.

I think the deist can insist "My explanation is the most parsimonous. I have just the one thing, a deity. You have a kludge of a dozen different forces and laws and variables."

[TeMPOraL]

That's why you see "Kolmogorov complexity" being mentioned all around this thread.

The "parsimony", the "simplicity", the unit in which we count entities - is that of Kolmogorov complexity. "A dozen different forces and laws and variables" is significantly simpler, Kolmogorov-wise, than a thinking entity. There is orders of magnitude less things to specify about the former than about the latter for a complete description.