I would probably put much less trust in their statements containing “it’s going to be okay”, because I would assume that their assumed reason why things are going to be okay is a supernatural intervention.
And practically zero trust in any excuses they make about history of religion (such as “actually, inquisition was not that bad; they only tortured you if you were a bad guy, and they didn’t hurt you much”), because there is practically an entire industry of motivated thinkers whitewashing the history of religion.
But on topics of practical life, there is little difference. Well, except for some sensitive topics such as gender norms and sexual behavior, because I would expect that they talk about what should be (according to Bible) rather than what actually is.
.
By the way, you are probably not going to find many people who believe in God here. If you want answers from a smart but religious audience, you might have better luck at Astral Codex Ten. (For maximum engagement wait until November 27th when Scott makes Open Thread 304, and post there. The current Open Thread already contains too much.)
But on topics of practical life, there is little difference. Well, except for some sensitive topics such as gender norms and sexual behavior, because I would expect that they talk about what should be (according to Bible) rather than what actually is.
TBF that’s specifically if the god they believe in is the Christian one. But in general I think some other points hold: someone who believes in an intelligent creative force behind the universe (even a non-conventional one) is more likely to believe intervention at some point is possible, or to hold moral realist views. But neither is a requirement; the most bare form of belief in a God, the “clockmaker deity” of Voltaire and such, pretty much comes with no strings attached. It’s just saying “the universe’s first cause possesses self-awareness and intentionality”, which as far as we can tell is impossible to prove or disprove.
I suppose you could still imagine that if said first cause was also superintelligent, then they might have set things up just right that eventually they went the way they wanted, with no need for further interventions; but I’d contend that you can probably show that no ordinary computation could predict you the universe without outright simulating the universe, so the universe itself would be the computation. Unless of course which ever layer of existence this first cause subsists on somehow obeys not just different physical laws, but different logical/mathematical ones, such that it allows things that are computationally impossible here. Hard to even imagine how that works though, mathematics seems just so… absolute. I’m not sure what a world in which the halting problem is solvable would have to look like. Maybe acausal?
It’s just saying “the universe’s first cause possesses self-awareness and intentionality”, which as far as we can tell is impossible to prove or disprove.
I would still assume that someone who believes such weird hypothesis for no good reason probably also believes other things for no good reason.
(If there is no evidence either way, there is still Occam’s razor. If you ignore it, so be it, but I will assume that you also ignore it in other situations.)
I would probably put much less trust in their statements containing “it’s going to be okay”, because I would assume that their assumed reason why things are going to be okay is a supernatural intervention.
And practically zero trust in any excuses they make about history of religion (such as “actually, inquisition was not that bad; they only tortured you if you were a bad guy, and they didn’t hurt you much”), because there is practically an entire industry of motivated thinkers whitewashing the history of religion.
But on topics of practical life, there is little difference. Well, except for some sensitive topics such as gender norms and sexual behavior, because I would expect that they talk about what should be (according to Bible) rather than what actually is.
.
By the way, you are probably not going to find many people who believe in God here. If you want answers from a smart but religious audience, you might have better luck at Astral Codex Ten. (For maximum engagement wait until November 27th when Scott makes Open Thread 304, and post there. The current Open Thread already contains too much.)
TBF that’s specifically if the god they believe in is the Christian one. But in general I think some other points hold: someone who believes in an intelligent creative force behind the universe (even a non-conventional one) is more likely to believe intervention at some point is possible, or to hold moral realist views. But neither is a requirement; the most bare form of belief in a God, the “clockmaker deity” of Voltaire and such, pretty much comes with no strings attached. It’s just saying “the universe’s first cause possesses self-awareness and intentionality”, which as far as we can tell is impossible to prove or disprove.
I suppose you could still imagine that if said first cause was also superintelligent, then they might have set things up just right that eventually they went the way they wanted, with no need for further interventions; but I’d contend that you can probably show that no ordinary computation could predict you the universe without outright simulating the universe, so the universe itself would be the computation. Unless of course which ever layer of existence this first cause subsists on somehow obeys not just different physical laws, but different logical/mathematical ones, such that it allows things that are computationally impossible here. Hard to even imagine how that works though, mathematics seems just so… absolute. I’m not sure what a world in which the halting problem is solvable would have to look like. Maybe acausal?
I would still assume that someone who believes such weird hypothesis for no good reason probably also believes other things for no good reason.
(If there is no evidence either way, there is still Occam’s razor. If you ignore it, so be it, but I will assume that you also ignore it in other situations.)