Bugmaster comments on Self-Congratulatory Rationalism - Less Wrong

51 Post author: ChrisHallquist 01 March 2014 08:52AM

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Comment author: CCC 03 March 2014 02:31:43PM 2 points [-]

Well, as a Christian myself, allow me to provide a data point for your questions:

"Do you think the evidence goes more for or more against your belief in Christ?"

(from the grandparent post) More for.

young-earthers who obsess with clearly false evidence

Young-earthers fall into a trap; there are parts of the Bible that are not intended to be taken literally (Jesus' parables are a good example). Genesis (at least the garden-of-eden section) is an example of this.

And then I would ask them: if the evidence was different and was in fact strongly against Christianity - if new evidence was found or existing evidence disproved - would you change your opinion and stop being a Christian?

It would have to be massively convincing evidence. I'm not sure that sufficient evidence can be found (but see next answer). I've seen stage magicians do some amazing things; the evidence would have to be convincing enough to convince me that it wasn't someone, with all the skills of David Copperfield, intentionally pulling the wool over my eyes in some manner.

Would you want to change your opinion to match whatever the evidence turned out to be?

In the sense that I want my map to match the territory; yes. In the sense that I do not want the territory to be atheistic; no.

I wouldn't mind so much if it turned out that (say) modern Judaism was 100% correct instead; it would be a big adjustment, but I think I could handle that much more easily. But the idea that there's nothing in the place of God; the idea that there isn't, in short, someone running the universe is one that I find extremely disquieting for some reason.

I imagine it's kindof like the feeling one might get, imagining the situation of being in a chauffeur-driven bus, travelling at full speed, along with the rest of humanity, and suddenly discovering that there's no-one behind the steering wheel and no-one on the bus can get into the front compartment.

...extremely disquieting.

Comment author: Bugmaster 05 March 2014 01:41:00AM 1 point [-]

I find your post very interesting, because I tend to respond almost exactly the same way when someone asks me why I'm an atheist. The one difference is the "extremely disquieting" part; I find it hard to relate to that. From my point of view, reality is what it is; i.e., it's emotionally neutral.

Anyway, I find it really curious that we can disagree so completely while employing seemingly identical lines of reasoning. I'm itching to ask you some questions about your position, but I don't want to derail the thread, or to give the impression of getting all up in your business, as it were...

Comment author: CCC 05 March 2014 04:21:02AM 2 points [-]

Reality stops being emotionally neutral when it affects me directly. If I were to wake up to find that my bed has been moved to a hovering platform over a volcano, then I will most assuredly not be emotionally neutral about the discovery (I expect I would experience shock, terror, and lots and lots of confusion).

I'm itching to ask you some questions about your position

Well, I'd be quite willing to answer them. Maybe you could open up a new thread in Discussion, and link to it from here?