William Gillis 🏴Feb 13, 2023

One argument for Occam's razor in metaphysical matters that I've always suspected is roughly true is that once you start adding unnecessary undetectable epicycles to describe the content of the world, such arbitrarily more complex theories cancel each other out (at least at high complexity).

Anyway, it just occurred to me that the theist cosmological argument has an equal in a cosmological argument for an anti-god of *infinitesimal* rather than infinite capacity, etc.

Show threadWilliam Gillis 🏴

The argument is basically this: what could bridge the gap between non-existence and existence? Something of infinitesimal existence.

Indeed there are reasons to take this hypothesis more seriously than the "god" hypothesis. Consider: the existence of an infinitely capable, infinitely existing god doesn't really engage with the question of "why is there something rather than nothing?"

Whereas the "anti-god" hypothesis at least answers it!

Feb 13, 2023 at 4:07amWeb
Show threadWilliam Gillis 🏴Feb 13, 2023

Say what you will about "anti-god" but it makes at least as much if not more sense for there to be an (infinitesimally weak, semi-non-existing, semi-existing) bridge between nothing and something than for there to just be an infinitely powerful always existing thing surrounded arbitrarily by the void of non-being for infinity before randomly creating the universe.

Anti-god is strong enough to momentarily exist and create something from nothing but too weak to continue or influence it again.

Show threadWilliam Gillis 🏴Feb 13, 2023
Anyway, this is basically why I don't take the prospect of "unconceived alternatives" very seriously at the arbitrarily high levels of complexity necessary to get scientific anti-realism off the ground. Near the lowest-complexity explanation there may be alternative explanations, but that configuration space is still *structured* and constrained, whereas in the direction of higher complexity models the models *cancel out* (like Feynman diagrams).
Show threadBishop WhitewindFeb 13, 2023
@rechelon Something like this?
Show threadBishop WhitewindFeb 13, 2023

@rechelon Probably needs some context I guess.

"we" sit on the world, that being existence as we perceive and know it. on the left the positive, the all. on the right the negative the nothing. between the two, where the creases touch is existence.

Show threadanoreonFeb 13, 2023
@rechelon Clearly, the reason we don't see evidence of the supernatural is because god and anti-god collided and annihilated each other in the early universe.
Show threadAna ThemaFeb 13, 2023
@rechelon a long time ago I watched a video of a person talking about their culture (very unreliable cite here)'s traditional view of god, and they said god was totally ineffective, too far away in space and time to help anyone or do anything, a tiny prime mover like this. wish I could remember who it was
Show threadmutualFeb 13, 2023
@ana_thema @rechelon that feels like a bit from a terry pratchett book ngl
Show threadAna ThemaFeb 13, 2023
@mutual_ayyde @rechelon cosmic joke
Show threadAna ThemaApr 7, 2023

@rechelon I found it on accident https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mulungu

"All traditional Bantu cultures have a notion of a "creator god", a concept which was already established in the Niger-Congo cultures.[2] This creator god is usually seen as a remote deity, far and detached from men and living beings; in some cases, it is more of an impersonal "creating force" or a primum movens than a "God" in the usual sense of the word.[2][5] Even when described as a personal god, the Creator is believed to be far and detached from men and living beings; this detachment is the subject of a number of Bantu myths describing how the creator left the Earth, moving to the sky, as a consequence of him being upset with men or annoyed by their activities. It is thus a common trait of Bantu religions that no prayers, and usually no worship, is actually directed to the creator;[2] men interact with lower-levels gods and spirits that are closer and more interested in human affairs. These general lines are common to traditional concepts of Mulungu as found in Kikuyu, Ruvu, and other cultures.[2] A Nyamwezi myth about the departure of Mulungu from the Earth involves Mulungu being upset of the fires set by men to the landscape, and asking the spider to weave a web for him to climb up to the sky.[6]"

Mulungu - Wikipedia

Show threadTergenev has movedFeb 13, 2023
@rechelon I think Occam’s razor is just our experience of the developers reducing complexity in the simulation enough to get the refresh rate down below the Planck time in time to ship the product.
Show threadmastadon's illegitimate childFeb 13, 2023
@rechelon do you think this possibility also exists in a 4D block universe (B-theory of time and all that)?
Show threadWilliam Gillis 🏴Feb 13, 2023

@paresh_hate

okay, look, if you're gonna bring in serious physics or philosophy here you're just ruining the vibes