What I mean by “deity” and “created” is that either there is a conscious, intelligent mind (I think we all agree what that means) organizing our world/universe/reality, or there isn’t.
Ok. So in this context, why do you think that one universe is more likely than the other? It may help to state where “conscious” and “intelligent” and “mind” come into this argument.
And of course I’m not trying to sell you on my particular religion.
On the contrary, that shouldn’t be an “of course”. If you sincerely believe and think you have the evidence for a particular religion, you should present it. If you don’t have that evidence, then you should adjust your beliefs.
Even if one thinks one is in a constructed universe, it in no way follows that the constructor is divine or has any other aspects one normally associates with a deity. For example, this universe could be the equivalent of a project for a 12 dimensional grad student in a wildly different universe (ok, that might be a bit much- it might just be by an 11 -dimensional bright undergrad).
I’m just trying to point out that I think there’s not any more inherent reason to believe there is no deity than to believe there is one.
What do you mean as an “inherent” reason? Are you solely making a claim here about priors, or are you making a claim about what evidence there actually is when we look out at the world? Incidentally, you should be surprised if this is true- for the vast majority of hypotheses, the evidence we have should assign them probabilities far from 50%. Anytime one encounters a hypothesis which is controversial in a specific culture, and one concludes that it has a probability close to 1⁄2, one should be concerned that one is reaching such a conclusion not out of rational inquiry but more out of an attempt to balance competing social and emotional pressures.
Even if one thinks one is in a constructed universe, it in no way follows that the constructor is divine or has any other aspects one normally associates with a deity. For example, this universe could be the equivalent of a project for a 12 dimensional grad student in a wildly different universe (ok, that might be a bit much- it might just be by an 11 -dimensional bright undergrad).
I’d actually consider that deity in the sense of a conscious, intelligent being who created the universe intentionally. As opposed to it happening by cosmic hazard. (That is, no conscious creator.)
Would you assign that being any of the traits normally connected to being a deity? For example, if the 11 dimensional undergrad say not to eat shellfish, or to wear special undergarments, would you listen?
Yes, I would listen if was confident that was where it was coming from. This 11-dimensional undergrad is much more powerful and almost certainly smarter than me, and knowingly rebelling would not be a good idea. If this undergrad just has a really sick sense of humor, then, well, we’re all screwed in any case.
Clearly, then I need to make awfully sure it’s actually God and not a hallucination. I would probably not do it because in that case I know that the undergrad does have a sick sense of humor and I shouldn’t listen to him because we’re all screwed anyway.
Now, if you’re going to bring up Abraham and Isaac or something like that, remember that in this case Abraham was pretty darn sure it was actually God talking.
So this sort of response indicates that you are distinguishing between “God” and the 11-dimensional undergrad as distinct ideas. In that case, a generic creator argument isn’t very strong evidence since there are a lot of options for entities that created the universe that aren’t God.
This is confusing because we’re simultaneously talking about a deity in general and my God, the one we’re all familiar with.
Of course there are lots of options other than my specific God; the 11-dimensional undergrad is one of those. I’m not using a generic creator argument to convince you of my God, I’m using the generic creator argument to suggest that you take into account the possibility of a generic creator, whether or not it’s my God. I’m keeping my God mostly out of this—I think an atheist ought to be able to argue my position while keeping his/her own conclusions.
Ok. So in this context, why do you think that one universe is more likely than the other? It may help to state where “conscious” and “intelligent” and “mind” come into this argument.
On the contrary, that shouldn’t be an “of course”. If you sincerely believe and think you have the evidence for a particular religion, you should present it. If you don’t have that evidence, then you should adjust your beliefs.
Even if one thinks one is in a constructed universe, it in no way follows that the constructor is divine or has any other aspects one normally associates with a deity. For example, this universe could be the equivalent of a project for a 12 dimensional grad student in a wildly different universe (ok, that might be a bit much- it might just be by an 11 -dimensional bright undergrad).
What do you mean as an “inherent” reason? Are you solely making a claim here about priors, or are you making a claim about what evidence there actually is when we look out at the world? Incidentally, you should be surprised if this is true- for the vast majority of hypotheses, the evidence we have should assign them probabilities far from 50%. Anytime one encounters a hypothesis which is controversial in a specific culture, and one concludes that it has a probability close to 1⁄2, one should be concerned that one is reaching such a conclusion not out of rational inquiry but more out of an attempt to balance competing social and emotional pressures.
How about this, from Mormon user calcsam:
Seems legit to me.
I’d actually consider that deity in the sense of a conscious, intelligent being who created the universe intentionally. As opposed to it happening by cosmic hazard. (That is, no conscious creator.)
Would you assign that being any of the traits normally connected to being a deity? For example, if the 11 dimensional undergrad say not to eat shellfish, or to wear special undergarments, would you listen?
Yes, I would listen if was confident that was where it was coming from. This 11-dimensional undergrad is much more powerful and almost certainly smarter than me, and knowingly rebelling would not be a good idea. If this undergrad just has a really sick sense of humor, then, well, we’re all screwed in any case.
And if the 11-dimensional undergrad says you should torture a baby?
Clearly, then I need to make awfully sure it’s actually God and not a hallucination. I would probably not do it because in that case I know that the undergrad does have a sick sense of humor and I shouldn’t listen to him because we’re all screwed anyway.
Now, if you’re going to bring up Abraham and Isaac or something like that, remember that in this case Abraham was pretty darn sure it was actually God talking.
So this sort of response indicates that you are distinguishing between “God” and the 11-dimensional undergrad as distinct ideas. In that case, a generic creator argument isn’t very strong evidence since there are a lot of options for entities that created the universe that aren’t God.
This is confusing because we’re simultaneously talking about a deity in general and my God, the one we’re all familiar with.
Of course there are lots of options other than my specific God; the 11-dimensional undergrad is one of those. I’m not using a generic creator argument to convince you of my God, I’m using the generic creator argument to suggest that you take into account the possibility of a generic creator, whether or not it’s my God. I’m keeping my God mostly out of this—I think an atheist ought to be able to argue my position while keeping his/her own conclusions.