wjr@x.UUCP (Bill Richard) (09/10/85)
<damager god> Do it, line eater! Please note: This article is by a guest on /frog/wjr's account. Please flame STella Calvert if you've got problems with what follows. Send mail via wjr, but don't blame him for anything but believing in free speech. In article <311@pyuxn.UUCP> pez@pyuxn.UUCP (Paul Zimmerman) writes: > >The possibility of an evil God is not only present, >it is much more likely than no God or good God scenarios, as supported >by the evidence of the world around you. Paul, I came late to this discussion, so if there are articles you think would give me a better understanding of your views, send 'em, please. But as I understand it, you feel evidence from abcessed teeth to zoophobia suggests that if there is a general organizing device cranking the world, then he/she/it/they is/are a malign thug. In some moods, I agree. However, there's another possibility. Belief in something increases the likelihood of observing it. When people believed in unicorns, they were more frequently sighted. I do not believe in unicorns. Therefore, when Ringling Bros., et al., put one on TV, I observed a deformed (or perhaps just mutant) goat. I suspect from this principle (What the thinker thinks, the prover proves) that sentients create god in their own image. A group of slaves leaving Egypt may have grounds to be paranoid, since the folks that have been holding them captive are likely to object to the departure of their valuable human property. The slaves therefore project their view of the world, and observe a god that is suspicious, proud, and violently opposed to the enemies of the people. Whether this general organizing device has "reality" (whatever that means) is damn near irrelevant -- the consensus belief of the god's followers will set up self-fulfilling behavior and interpretation. If there is an entity created by their beliefs, so much the worse (or maybe, someday, better). OK. That's the part of this that I believe all the time, unless my blood sugar or other chemical balance gets munged. Now, on to a hypothesis that I play with sometimes, but can't design an experiment to test. Suppose that intense belief (whorship if you like -- and I LOVE the spelling) creates a god, gives it some sort of reality. Suppose this god is shaped by the aggregate beliefs of all sentients. So long as we lend our energy and our beliefs to a world where poor folks' abcesses go untreated, nuclear terraforming devices are used as weapons, and coercion excites a response other than immediate negative reinforcement by all adjacent sentients, the god (general organizing device, remember -- I make no claims for the Godhood of this god) will be nasty, brutish, and short (of temper). God is not necessarily a malign thug -- but could it be an incompletely debugged system? And man, IF this were true (I have no data and no demonstrable opinion) we're all on the committee. I don't feel responsible for what I see as your unhappiness -- I regret it, but it's none of my damn business. However, I AM writing to you, and posting it to the net. Why? Suppose I'm correct in this hypothesis -- please don't believe, just suppose. Then your belief in Our Thuggee gives that evil scum reality. Maybe only in your world, but possibly in mine too. When I'm not believing in this, my only reason for wanting to talk to you about my point of view is that I've been happier since I discovered this possible resolution to the "thug". But when I believe that just might be how god works, well, I need all the help I can get to counteract the energy provided by people who think that god created AIDS to kill people who break one of his alleged laws, that killing the heathen is an act of piety, etc. It's like free will. If there is no free will, and I perceive and act as if there is, I haven't lost anything (well, I've been wrong, but who can avoid that -- especially if they were determined :-)to be wrong). But if there is free will (a discussion I choose to avoid for now, SO LET ME), and I sit on my responsibility assuming there's nothing I can do, I have missed the opportunity to shape my life as I prefer it. So, in the absence of evidence one way or the other, whether there is really free will or a thermoplastic god is doesn't seem an important question. As long as I act as if I had free will and the general organizing device is programmable, I've covered my ass. Besides -- the idea that this might be true makes me happier than I otherwise would be. If Paul's view of the Thug is correct, my attitude has got to grate the Evil One, because he (sorry guys, but we don't have a convenient neuter personal pronoun yet -- and I hope it does have testicles if it exists!) can't touch me until that hypothetical afterlife. And Paul, if god is the kind of scum you describe, I'll see you at the foot of his throne -- I'll be carrying a bomb, or hoping for one kick. Be there! STella Calvert (via ...!decvax!frog!wjr) P.S. I swiped some of this from Robert A. Wilson's book, _Prometheus Rising_, but don't blame him either. Every man and every woman is a star. General Obligatory Disclaimer: I am a guest on frog. I do not speak for CRDS, wjr, the general organizing device, or anyone other than the point of view presently doing business as STella Calvert.