I have just noticed something that I think has been kinda unsatisfactory about the probability questions since for ever.
There’s a question about the probability of “supernatural events (including God, ghosts, magic, etc.)” having occurred since the beginning of the universe. There’s another question about the probability of there being a god.
I notice an inclination to make sure that the first probability is >= the second, for the obvious reason. But, depending on how the first question is interpreted, that may be wrong.
If the existence of a god is considered a “supernatural event since the beginning of the universe” then obviously that’s the case. But note that one thing a fair number of people have believed is that a god created the universe and then, so to speak, stepped away and let it run itself. (It would be hard to distinguish such a universe from a purely natural one, but perhaps you could identify some features of the universe that such a being would be more or less likely to build in.) In that case, you could have a universe that (1) created by a god in which (2) no supernatural events have ever occurred or will ever occur.
The unsatisfactory thing, to be clear, is the ambiguity.
For future years, it might be worth considering either (1) replacing “God” with something like “acts of God” or “divine interventions” in the first question, or (2) adding an explicit clarification that the mere existence of a god should be considered a “supernatural event” in the relevant sense even if what that god did was to make a universe that runs naturally, or (3) tweaking the second question to explicitly exclude “deistic” gods.
I have just noticed something that I think has been kinda unsatisfactory about the probability questions since for ever.
There’s a question about the probability of “supernatural events (including God, ghosts, magic, etc.)” having occurred since the beginning of the universe. There’s another question about the probability of there being a god.
I notice an inclination to make sure that the first probability is >= the second, for the obvious reason. But, depending on how the first question is interpreted, that may be wrong.
If the existence of a god is considered a “supernatural event since the beginning of the universe” then obviously that’s the case. But note that one thing a fair number of people have believed is that a god created the universe and then, so to speak, stepped away and let it run itself. (It would be hard to distinguish such a universe from a purely natural one, but perhaps you could identify some features of the universe that such a being would be more or less likely to build in.) In that case, you could have a universe that (1) created by a god in which (2) no supernatural events have ever occurred or will ever occur.
The unsatisfactory thing, to be clear, is the ambiguity.
For future years, it might be worth considering either (1) replacing “God” with something like “acts of God” or “divine interventions” in the first question, or (2) adding an explicit clarification that the mere existence of a god should be considered a “supernatural event” in the relevant sense even if what that god did was to make a universe that runs naturally, or (3) tweaking the second question to explicitly exclude “deistic” gods.