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Kaj_Sotala comments on Naturalism versus unbounded (or unmaximisable) utility options - Less Wrong Discussion

34 Post author: Stuart_Armstrong 01 February 2013 05:45PM

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Comment author: Kaj_Sotala 03 February 2013 08:09:21PM 3 points [-]

This suggests a new explanation for the Problem of Evil: God could have created a world that had no evil and no suffering which would have been strictly better than our world, but then He could also have created a world that was strictly better than that one and so on, so He just arbitrarily picked a stopping point somewhere and we ended up with the world as we know it.

Comment author: Kawoomba 03 February 2013 08:32:25PM *  1 point [-]

This was brought up in the recent William Craig - Rosenberg debate (don't waste your time), the Sorites "paradox" answer to the Problem of Evil. Rosenberg called it the type of argument that gives philosophy a bad name, and acted too embarrassed by its stupidity to even state it. (Edit: changed the link)

Comment author: BerryPick6 03 February 2013 09:34:15PM 1 point [-]

Man, Rosenberg looked lost in that debate...

Comment author: Kawoomba 03 February 2013 09:40:59PM *  1 point [-]

(This one versus Peter Atkins is much better; just watch the Atkins parts, Craig recites the same spiel as always.

Atkins doesn't sugar-coat his arguments, but then again, that's to be expected ... ...)

Comment author: BerryPick6 03 February 2013 09:49:56PM 1 point [-]

I stopped watching Craig's debates after Kagan smoked him so thoroughly that even the steelmanned versions of his arguments sounded embarrassing. The Bradley and Parsons debates are also definitely worth listening to, if only because it's enjoyable (and I must admit, it was quite comforting at the time) to hear Craig get demolished.