Ati comments on Disguised Queries - Less Wrong

57 Post author: Eliezer_Yudkowsky 09 February 2008 12:05AM

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Comment author: ignoramus 17 December 2011 12:32:44PM *  2 points [-]

Indeed.
For example:

Eliezer: Religion sucks, because of this and Bayes...
Jesus: Ah, not so fast, chap. You see, atheism is also a religion, because of this and that...

I think that Jesus' response is a non sequitur (a well designed one (by using a technique similar to equivocation), which is why it makes for such good "blocking" technique). So there's no disguised query, since Jesus isn't querying at all, he's just trying to "win" the argument.

Comment author: Tsujigiri 17 December 2011 02:08:14PM -1 points [-]

There is a similarity between Christians and many atheists in their moral philosophy, however. Atheists may not believe in God, but I think they mostly adhere to the 10 commandments.

At least Christians can say they follow their moral philosophy because God told them so. What reason do atheists have?

Comment author: [deleted] 13 April 2012 09:28:14PM 2 points [-]

Well, for myself, it's because game theory says the world works better when people aren't dicks to one another, and because empathy (intuitive and rational) allow me to put myself in other peoples' shoes, and to appreciate that it's good to try to help them when I can, since they're very much like myself. I have desires and goals, and so do they, and mine aren't particularly more important simply because they're mine.

Comment author: Swimmer963 13 April 2012 09:37:21PM 2 points [-]

I have desires and goals, and so do they, and mine aren't particularly more important simply because they're mine.

This is the base of my whole moral philosophy, too. And you know what? There are people who actually disagree with it! Responses I've gotten from people in discussions have ranged from "I don't give a shit about other people, they're not me" to "you can't think like that, you need to think selfishly, because otherwise everyone will trample on you."