Keep in mind that I have very limited knowledge of probability or analytic philosophy, but wouldn’t a very easy answer be that if you can conceive of a scenario with the same outcome assigned to NOT doing the action, and that scenario has an equal probability to be true they’re both irrelevant?
If it’s possible that you can get an infinite amount of gain by believing in god, it’s equally possible you can get an infinite amount of gain by NOT believing in god.
“Give me five dollars, or I’ll use my magic powers from outside the Matrix to run a Turing machine that simulates and kills 3^^^^3 people.”
If there’s an arbitrarily small probability that this statement is true, there’s an equal arbitrarily small probability of the same result if you do nothing.
So the probability of those deaths remains the same regardless of your actions. So the statement is meaningless.
Obviously this doesn’t always apply.
If this overlooks something incredibly obvious then I’m just a stupid teenager and please be kind.
Keep in mind that I have very limited knowledge of probability or analytic philosophy, but wouldn’t a very easy answer be that if you can conceive of a scenario with the same outcome assigned to NOT doing the action, and that scenario has an equal probability to be true they’re both irrelevant?
If it’s possible that you can get an infinite amount of gain by believing in god, it’s equally possible you can get an infinite amount of gain by NOT believing in god.
“Give me five dollars, or I’ll use my magic powers from outside the Matrix to run a Turing machine that simulates and kills 3^^^^3 people.”
If there’s an arbitrarily small probability that this statement is true, there’s an equal arbitrarily small probability of the same result if you do nothing.
So the probability of those deaths remains the same regardless of your actions. So the statement is meaningless.
Obviously this doesn’t always apply.
If this overlooks something incredibly obvious then I’m just a stupid teenager and please be kind.