On 20 Sep 2012, at 08:01, meekerdb wrote:
On 9/19/2012 10:50 PM, Stathis Papaioannou wrote:
On Thu, Sep 20, 2012 at 11:09 AM, meekerdb<meeke...@verizon.net>
wrote:
On 9/19/2012 5:41 PM, Jason Resch wrote:
Also, the concept of a super intelligent entity torturing someone
may be
almost contradictory, for they may realize the identity of all
minds, and
therefore they would be torturing themselves.
That would be an inconsistency of values, but not a logical
contradiction.
The thing about religion is that we shouldn't believe it because it's
FALSE, not because it's BAD. Something could be BAD but TRUE. I find
it odd that both religious and anti-religious people often miss this
point and talk about the good or bad effects (respectively) of
religious belief.
Well of course that is because almost all religions claim that their
revelation defines what is good and bad, independent of mere human
opinion. So if one shows that the revelation's definition of good
or bad is preposterous (like an all loving God who tortures people
for not worshipping Him) then at least that much of the theology is
false.
Yes, the hope for God is most of the time a hope for Good, and for
ultimate justice. Of course once we do theology with the scientific
method, we have to keep in mind not to fall in wishful thinking, even
if it appears that wishful thinking might play a role in the building
of realities (as this can't be excluded too).
Of course I mean "ideal science", as the human science is also
influenced by wishes.
"Either God wants to abolish evil and cannot; or he can, but
does not want to; or he cannot, and does not want to. If he
wants to, but cannot, he is impotent. If he can, but does not
want to, he is wicked. If he neither can, nor wants to, he is
both powerless and wicked. But if God can abolish evil, and wants
to, then how comes evil in the world?'"
--- Epicurus
Good summary of a key theological problem. The platonist answer is
that God is impotent, on this. Matter is the evil locus where God lose
control, a bit like God cannot predict where you will feel after a
self-duplication. In comp and Platonism (in the greek old sense, not
in math), and perhaps in QM, evil and matter have a similar origin:
indeterminacy.
Bruno
http://iridia.ulb.ac.be/~marchal/
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