Ian_C. comments on Absolute Authority - Less Wrong

44 Post author: Eliezer_Yudkowsky 08 January 2008 03:33AM

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Comment author: Ian_C. 08 January 2008 05:30:48PM 0 points [-]

LG - Your objection is only valid if you assume I am starting with the idea of omnipotence and trying to use the evidence to disprove it. In fact, I am starting with the evidence and showing that the idea of omnipotence can't be arrived at without contradiction.

1) Objects behave in certain, predictable ways 2) Therefore the suggestion that someone could make an object behave arbitrarily contradicts the evidence 3) Therefore the idea of "omnipotence" contradicts the evidence 4) Therefore the idea of God contradicts the evidence

It's a different style of reasoning: starting with reality vs. starting with imagination and then using reality only as a test.