Board index › Topical Discussion › Politics, Philosophy, and Religion

The Evil God Challenge

Page 4 of 4 [ 53 posts ]  Go to page Previous  1, 2, 3, 4

Previous topic | Next topic

techstepgenr8tion
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 6 Feb 2005
Age: 46
Gender: Male
Posts: 24,682
Location: 28th Path of Tzaddi

24 Feb 2026, 7:04 pm

techstepgenr8tion wrote:
I'd ignore the binary and say that any being comes from the wellspring of it's own necessities, ie. consciousness is functionalist. It's going to be the product of where it's been and where it is (leaving genes out momentarily because that's a substrate specific thing which may not always be the case for all things conscious). It's interactions with smaller agents will reflect where it is. It's likely to have both warm and cold attributes, just that much more likely than we could assign good or evil to it we wouldn't even find it's mind intelligible because our fitness landscape is too different. It would be like sorting out whether Nima Arkani Hamed's amplituhedron is good or evil, we generally don't apply moral valence to math.


Some nice shorts from Isaac Asimov, Phillip K Dick, and Stanislaw Lem:




_________________
The loneliest part of life: it's not just that no one is on your cloud, few can even see your cloud.


funeralxempire
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 27 Oct 2014
Age: 41
Gender: Non-binary
Posts: 34,202
Location: Right over your left shoulder

24 Feb 2026, 11:24 pm

quietbear wrote:
I already sent you the arguments that are available in a book. You can check it out if you want, or not.


It appears to be written by people.
Just like every other book, including the Quran and the Bible.

Believing a book was written by something other than people doesn't make it so. I can claim some book was written by an invisible pink unicorn but very few people would consider that claim to be based in reality. I can even point to where that book claims to have been written by an invisible pink unicorn and claim that as "proof" that the book was indeed written by an invisible pink unicorn, but that's just circular reasoning.

I don't believe any book that you can provide was written by anything other than humans and claims of divine authorship presuppose the existence of whatever divine entity is being claimed as the author. Treating such claims critically is a reasonable position, taking such claims at face value demonstrates a failure of critical thinking.


_________________
The Party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears. It was their final, most essential command.
If you're not careful, the newspapers will have you hating the people who are being oppressed, and loving the people who are doing the oppressing. —Malcolm X
Just a reminder: under international law, an occupying power has no right of self-defense, and those who are occupied have the right and duty to liberate themselves by any means possible.


quietbear
Tufted Titmouse
Tufted Titmouse

User avatar

Joined: 29 Dec 2025
Age: 49
Gender: Male
Posts: 26
Location: Malaysia

25 Feb 2026, 8:45 am

funeralxempire wrote:
quietbear wrote:
I already sent you the arguments that are available in a book. You can check it out if you want, or not.


It appears to be written by people.
Just like every other book, including the Quran and the Bible.

Believing a book was written by something other than people doesn't make it so. I can claim some book was written by an invisible pink unicorn but very few people would consider that claim to be based in reality. I can even point to where that book claims to have been written by an invisible pink unicorn and claim that as "proof" that the book was indeed written by an invisible pink unicorn, but that's just circular reasoning.

I don't believe any book that you can provide was written by anything other than humans and claims of divine authorship presuppose the existence of whatever divine entity is being claimed as the author. Treating such claims critically is a reasonable position, taking such claims at face value demonstrates a failure of critical thinking.


That's a tell me you didn't even look at it without telling me you didn't look at it situation :). The book isn't written by god.



Mona Pereth
Veteran
Veteran

Joined: 11 Sep 2018
Gender: Female
Posts: 9,050
Location: New York City (Queens)

25 Feb 2026, 9:42 am

quietbear wrote:
That's a tell me you didn't even look at it without telling me you didn't look at it situation :). The book isn't written by god.

What book are you referring to? Perhaps this one, which you inconspicuously linked to way back here?


_________________
- Autistic in NYC - Resources and new ideas for the autistic adult community in the New York City metro area.
- Autistic peer-led groups (via text-based chat, currently) led or facilitated by members of the Autistic Peer Leadership Group.


funeralxempire
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 27 Oct 2014
Age: 41
Gender: Non-binary
Posts: 34,202
Location: Right over your left shoulder

25 Feb 2026, 3:28 pm

quietbear wrote:
The book isn't written by god.


Then how does it support your claim that not all books were written by people? :scratch:

It's still a silly claim even if you're trying to let someone else do the heavy lifting of making such an argument.


_________________
The Party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears. It was their final, most essential command.
If you're not careful, the newspapers will have you hating the people who are being oppressed, and loving the people who are doing the oppressing. —Malcolm X
Just a reminder: under international law, an occupying power has no right of self-defense, and those who are occupied have the right and duty to liberate themselves by any means possible.