As Omega led the creationist to the other room, you would (I know I certainly would) make a convulsive effort to convince him of the truth of evolution.
I could do that, but it seems simpler to make a convulsive effort to convince him that Omega, who clearly is no good Christian, almost certainly believes in the truth of evolution.
(Of course this is not relevant, but seemed worth pointing out. Cleverness is usually a dangerous thing, but in this case it seems worth dusting off.)
For a less convenient world, suppose that the creationist perceives Omega as God, offering a miracle. Miracles can apparently include one person being saved from disaster that kills hundreds, so the fact that Omega doesn’t just save everybody would not be compelling to the creationist.
Then I guess you’d have to try the “God is testing whether your compassion exceeds your arrogance” angle, and hope they didn’t counter with “God is testing whether my faith is strong enough to avoid being swayed by your lies”.
The assumption that the creationist actually buys “creationism is true iff omega believes it’s true” is by far the weakest aspect of this scenario. As always, I just assume that Omega has some off-screen demonstration of his own trustworthiness that is Too Awesome To Show
(insert standard ‘TV Tropes is horribly addictive’ disclaimer here)
For the same reason, I’ve often wondered what a worldwide prediction market on theism would look like, if there was any possible way of providing payouts. Sadly, this is the closest I’ve seen.
I could do that, but it seems simpler to make a convulsive effort to convince him that Omega, who clearly is no good Christian, almost certainly believes in the truth of evolution.
(Of course this is not relevant, but seemed worth pointing out. Cleverness is usually a dangerous thing, but in this case it seems worth dusting off.)
For a less convenient world, suppose that the creationist perceives Omega as God, offering a miracle. Miracles can apparently include one person being saved from disaster that kills hundreds, so the fact that Omega doesn’t just save everybody would not be compelling to the creationist.
Then I guess you’d have to try the “God is testing whether your compassion exceeds your arrogance” angle, and hope they didn’t counter with “God is testing whether my faith is strong enough to avoid being swayed by your lies”.
The assumption that the creationist actually buys “creationism is true iff omega believes it’s true” is by far the weakest aspect of this scenario. As always, I just assume that Omega has some off-screen demonstration of his own trustworthiness that is Too Awesome To Show
(insert standard ‘TV Tropes is horribly addictive’ disclaimer here)
For the same reason, I’ve often wondered what a worldwide prediction market on theism would look like, if there was any possible way of providing payouts. Sadly, this is the closest I’ve seen.