Eliezer said in the comments that the intent was to show how absurd religious beliefs would seem to someone who is a true outsider
But everything seems absurd to an outsider. Eliezer believes he can create God with a computer program, for example. Something being absurd doesn’t make it false.
Some things should sound absurd (because they aren’t true), and some shouldn’t. Absurdity bias is where this judgment fails, but if you see absurdly wrong things as non-absurd, that would be the opposite, non-absurdity bias, also a problem.
So, I agree with your main point, but at the risk of being pedantic: absurdity bias is the tendency of a system to judge absurd-sounding statements as false.
Judging as false an absurd statement that turns out to also be false might not be a case where “the judgment fails,” but it’s just as good an example of absurdity bias as judging as false an absurd statement that turns out to be true.
But everything seems absurd to an outsider. Eliezer believes he can create God with a computer program, for example. Something being absurd doesn’t make it false.
See also absurdity bias and Yvain’s “Talking Snakes: A Cautionary Tale”.
Which is to say: you’re right. I have updated in the direction of “this post was useless.”
Also Raising the Sanity Waterline
Some things should sound absurd (because they aren’t true), and some shouldn’t. Absurdity bias is where this judgment fails, but if you see absurdly wrong things as non-absurd, that would be the opposite, non-absurdity bias, also a problem.
So, I agree with your main point, but at the risk of being pedantic: absurdity bias is the tendency of a system to judge absurd-sounding statements as false.
Judging as false an absurd statement that turns out to also be false might not be a case where “the judgment fails,” but it’s just as good an example of absurdity bias as judging as false an absurd statement that turns out to be true.