If you believe in G-d then you believe in a being that can change reality just by willing it. So therefore you believe it’s possible for consciousness to change/control existence.
So that could explain why Guardians fear too many non-believers: they feel threatened by what they perceive as the power of other people’s consciousness. They fear that if there are too many non-believers that it might change the truth somehow.
But scientists (Seekers) know that reality is what it is regardless of what other people think, so they don’t ascribe so much power to their fellow beings, and therefore don’t feel as threatened by them.
If you believe in G-d then you believe in a being that can change reality just by willing it
OK, so by that definition...if you instead believe in a perfect rationalist that has achieved immortality, lived longer than we can meaningfully express, and now operates technology that is sufficiently advanced to be indistinguishable from magic, including being involved in the formation of planets, then—what label should you use instead of ‘G-d’?
Khepri Prime, if the sequel to “Worm” goes the way I hope. More seriously, I don’t believe any of that, and physics sadly appears to make some of it impossible even in the far future. Most of us would balk at that first word, “perfect,” citing logical impossibility results and their relation to idealized induction. So your question makes you seem—let us say disconnected from the discussion. Would you happen to be assuming we reject theism because we see it as low status, and not because there aren’t any gods?
“Would you happen to be assuming we reject theism...”
Some LWers reject theism because they see it as low status, some for better reasons, and some do not reject it.
I do have an opinion on your personal motivations as opposed to those of other LWers, but it would be obviously unproductive to give it. So it is also an unproductive question.
I’d probably have to invent a name for it. Or I might use the term “godlike being”, implying that the being has some, but not all, characteristics in common with what people think of as God.
Christians believe that God doesn’t change reality just by willing it. No one really knows how he supposedly created the universe. The theory is that Jesus doesn’t perform miracles by bending the laws of nature. I’ll explain: Potassium + water = big explosion. But if you added something to the water or to the potassium, you could keep it from exploding. So, on earth, nothing ever happens to water that will turn it into wine. But if God exerted a supernatual force on it, it would, without bending the laws of nature. The idea is that the laws of nature incorporate supernatual meddling, but these are laws that we may never discover because we can’t meddle with things supernatualy. God doesn’t change reality. And anyways, the Guardians thought that God was all-powerful, and that humans weren’t, so I’m not even sure they’re thoughts went down that road.
If stochastic means what I think it means (random) then yup! Water + divine intervention = wine. But it had to be weird to attract people’s attention. Or there’s something about the universe that would make sense of all this that we don’t know yet. O_o
If you believe in G-d then you believe in a being that can change reality just by willing it. So therefore you believe it’s possible for consciousness to change/control existence.
So that could explain why Guardians fear too many non-believers: they feel threatened by what they perceive as the power of other people’s consciousness. They fear that if there are too many non-believers that it might change the truth somehow.
But scientists (Seekers) know that reality is what it is regardless of what other people think, so they don’t ascribe so much power to their fellow beings, and therefore don’t feel as threatened by them.
OK, so by that definition...if you instead believe in a perfect rationalist that has achieved immortality, lived longer than we can meaningfully express, and now operates technology that is sufficiently advanced to be indistinguishable from magic, including being involved in the formation of planets, then—what label should you use instead of ‘G-d’?
Khepri Prime, if the sequel to “Worm” goes the way I hope. More seriously, I don’t believe any of that, and physics sadly appears to make some of it impossible even in the far future. Most of us would balk at that first word, “perfect,” citing logical impossibility results and their relation to idealized induction. So your question makes you seem—let us say disconnected from the discussion. Would you happen to be assuming we reject theism because we see it as low status, and not because there aren’t any gods?
“Would you happen to be assuming we reject theism...”
Some LWers reject theism because they see it as low status, some for better reasons, and some do not reject it.
I do have an opinion on your personal motivations as opposed to those of other LWers, but it would be obviously unproductive to give it. So it is also an unproductive question.
I’d probably have to invent a name for it. Or I might use the term “godlike being”, implying that the being has some, but not all, characteristics in common with what people think of as God.
There’s “demigod” or if you like the Eastern flavour, “bodhisattva”.
Christians believe that God doesn’t change reality just by willing it. No one really knows how he supposedly created the universe. The theory is that Jesus doesn’t perform miracles by bending the laws of nature. I’ll explain: Potassium + water = big explosion. But if you added something to the water or to the potassium, you could keep it from exploding. So, on earth, nothing ever happens to water that will turn it into wine. But if God exerted a supernatual force on it, it would, without bending the laws of nature. The idea is that the laws of nature incorporate supernatual meddling, but these are laws that we may never discover because we can’t meddle with things supernatualy. God doesn’t change reality. And anyways, the Guardians thought that God was all-powerful, and that humans weren’t, so I’m not even sure they’re thoughts went down that road.
Presumably God, if He exists, implements this by having a Universe that’s inherently stochastic. :)
If stochastic means what I think it means (random) then yup! Water + divine intervention = wine. But it had to be weird to attract people’s attention. Or there’s something about the universe that would make sense of all this that we don’t know yet. O_o