wedrifid comments on Belief in Belief - Less Wrong

66 Post author: Eliezer_Yudkowsky 29 July 2007 05:49PM

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Comment author: Eliezer_Yudkowsky 07 February 2010 08:28:41PM 16 points [-]

Think of the relation between the magisteria as a one-way relationship. The supernatural can affect the natural but there is no way to move backwards into the supernatural.

Then the natural can perceive the supernatural but not vice versa. To perceive something is to be affected by it.

The real problem with those who go on about separate magisteria is that they are emitting words that sound impressive to them and that associate vaguely to some sort of even vaguer intuition, but they are not doing anything that would translate into thinking, let alone coherent thinking.

I'm sorry to be brutal about this, but nothing I have ever heard anyone say about "separate magisteria" has ever been conceptually coherent let alone consistent.

There's just one magisterium, it's called reality; and whatever is, is real. It's a silly concept. It cannot be salvaged. Kill it with fire.

Comment author: wedrifid 08 February 2010 01:45:15AM 1 point [-]

There's just one magisterium, it's called reality; and whatever is, is real. It's a silly concept. It cannot be salvaged. Kill it with fire.

Do you consider it a useful concept for describing a particular kind of stupidity (eg. Aumann)? Or is a useless concept even then?

Comment author: MrHen 08 February 2010 06:13:30AM 0 points [-]

I think it is a useless concept even then. It doesn't make sense and doesn't compute. By the time you translate whatever "stupidity" you are describing into "magisterium" you (a) know enough about the stupidity to speak to it on its own terms and (b) aren't really talking about the stupidity; you are talking about magisterium which is a bastardization of two beliefs. How does that help?