All of metanat's Comments + Replies

metanat10

There is one feature in particular that would be good to implement before sending it to Eliezer. The ability to configure the calculators default values and labels would be really useful for this intuitive explanation page.

metanat90

A Bayesian Calculator with visualization that is easy to drop into existing web pages. It is built in JavaScript, HTML and CSS. I've been working on this for around a year on and off. Richard Carrier was looking for a replacement calculator for the one he uses in his introduction to Bayes Theorem material, and I was at the time looking to better understand and develop intuition for Bayes Theorem. There are a number of features I intend to add (more visualizations, more config options and other things identified here), and also some refactoring work that ne... (read more)

2Oscar_Cunningham
You should tell Eliezer. He sometimes updates his Intuitive Explanation of Bayes Theorem, and so might want to use your calculator.
metanat40

It is similar to the Witnesses as far as your description goes, though I am not very familiar with JW's beliefs to comment further on the similarities.

My only point was that this is an old idea (that you need a body to function and that you get given a new body of some wondrous sort upon death), and not one contrived as an escape from the physicalists death blow. The debate is over and done for me, and I as you see the moves of the dualist as always failing to substantiate the additional substance.

metanat150

Notice that those weren't the assertions before we learned about brains.

The first was an assertion before we knew more about brains. Richard Carrier in particular believes that this is pretty much what Paul and early Christians believed 1,2; that you need to be given a new body in the resurrection in order to have life after your normal body is destroyed. According to Carrier and others it wasn't an uncommon belief that humans gained another better body spiritual body at the resurrection. Spiritual body in this case doesn't mean non-physical, but instea... (read more)

0buybuydandavis
There are different variations. The Jehovah's Witnesses don't believe in immaterial souls separate from the body. All life occurs as a material body. They get rid of hell too. Rather sensible, I think. I couldn't quite tell from your comments whether you're referring to people with similar beliefs to the Witnesses, or people who say you have a soul, but it (waits around? exists but has no sensation?) until God gives it a shiny new body. I assume there are all conceivable permutations of when/where/how/if souls exist, and I don't have a stand on whether the first Christians believed in immaterial souls or not. Maybe some did, some didn't? Truth be told, I was thinking about a thousand years back, by which time I believe an immaterial soul was taken as given through most of Christendom. Mind body dualism seems to go a long ways back with animism, ghosts, and spirits. What do you have to say about the general history of materialism versus dualism?