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SolveIt comments on Test Driven Thinking - Less Wrong Discussion

3 Post author: adamzerner 24 July 2015 06:38PM

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Comment author: SolveIt 25 July 2015 10:34:06AM 0 points [-]

Your definition of atheism doesn't seem to reflect the way the word is used. A good portion of self-identified atheists would in fact be agnostics under your definition. In fact, every flavour of atheism I would consider compatible with general LW beliefs would be agnosticism since we can only claim that P(god) is very small.

Comment author: ChristianKl 03 August 2015 03:50:27PM 0 points [-]

Very few people reason in a way that uses probabilities.

Comment author: SolveIt 04 August 2015 12:15:04AM 0 points [-]

True, but I would consider the most common chain of reasoning for atheism (Occam's razor, therefore no God) equivalent to thinking in terms of probabilities even if probabilities aren't explicitly mentioned.

Comment author: ChristianKl 04 August 2015 07:27:56AM 0 points [-]

Occam's razor has little to do with probabilities.

Comment author: SolveIt 04 August 2015 11:52:28AM 0 points [-]

Then why accept the simplest solution instead of say, the most beautiful solution, or the most intuitive solution?

Comment author: VoiceOfRa 12 August 2015 09:38:03AM 2 points [-]

Then why accept the simplest solution instead of say, the most beautiful solution, or the most intuitive solution?

Good question. I'd argue that actually accepting the most elegant solution is a better heuristic than accepting the simplest.

Comment author: ChristianKl 04 August 2015 08:34:42PM -1 points [-]

Because you decide to accept the simplest solution. At least that's true for most people. Very few people reason with probabilities.