DanielLC comments on [SEQ RERUN] The Amazing Virgin Pregnancy - Less Wrong

3 Post author: MinibearRex 04 December 2011 04:11AM

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Comment author: DanielLC 05 December 2011 02:31:55AM 5 points [-]

Eliezer said in the comments that the intent was to show how absurd religious beliefs would seem to someone who is a true outsider

But everything seems absurd to an outsider. Eliezer believes he can create God with a computer program, for example. Something being absurd doesn't make it false.

Comment author: KPier 05 December 2011 05:41:43AM 2 points [-]

See also absurdity bias and Yvain's "Talking Snakes: A Cautionary Tale".

Which is to say: you're right. I have updated in the direction of "this post was useless."

Comment author: r_claypool 06 December 2011 10:32:17AM 0 points [-]

Also Raising the Sanity Waterline

If you can't fight religion directly, what do you teach that raises the general waterline of sanity to the point that religion goes underwater? ...

Comment author: Vladimir_Nesov 05 December 2011 01:11:11PM *  0 points [-]

Some things should sound absurd (because they aren't true), and some shouldn't. Absurdity bias is where this judgment fails, but if you see absurdly wrong things as non-absurd, that would be the opposite, non-absurdity bias, also a problem.

Comment author: TheOtherDave 05 December 2011 03:21:16PM 1 point [-]

So, I agree with your main point, but at the risk of being pedantic: absurdity bias is the tendency of a system to judge absurd-sounding statements as false.

Judging as false an absurd statement that turns out to also be false might not be a case where "the judgment fails," but it's just as good an example of absurdity bias as judging as false an absurd statement that turns out to be true.

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