If...

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When you get your son innoculated, the doctor doesn't keep the baby. That, plus residual doubt.

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I just go along with the OPs hypothetical. "God asked" so there is no doubt. Now, "a voice claiming to be god" ..that'd be a different question.

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I personally find it hard to construct an interpretation of OP's hypothetical that removes all doubt. Note: I am not talking about an attack-on-inductive-reasoning "how do we really know the sun will rise tomorrow?" sort of doubt. Humans reason about and conceive of animate entities much differently than they do inanimate ones, and animate things are inherently "tricky."

(Edit in bold)

[chezlaw]

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Side point: my residual doubt reason is not addressed by this.

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Surely you're not suggesting that Abraham might have been mistaken?

and not eating cake because it would spoil your tea seems about the right analogy which is why I describe it as a tiny sacrifice not no sacrifice.

chez

Does it have to be the Christian God? What if this God doesn't give humans an afterlife, so he is essentially making you kill your son prematurely with no reward in sight? Also, you don't know what he will do if you say no.

[chezlaw]

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Does it have to be the Christian God? What if this God doesn't give humans an afterlife, so he is essentially making you kill your son prematurely with no reward in sight? Also, you don't know what he will do if you say no.

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I kinda assumed we are talking about your everyday god. I'd talk about defying a bad god (check the archives if you're really bored) but Mr Sklansky would tell you how silly I would sound.

chez

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Side point: my residual doubt reason is not addressed by this.

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Surely you're not suggesting that Abraham might have been mistaken?

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If you mean mistaken in that Abraham had no doubt (I do not know the story well enough to know if this is so):

It is hard for me to answer this in a serious way because an amusing vision of Abraham's [censored] buddies standing around afterwards laughing their asses off keeps on intruding into my head. However, I will try. I suspect that Abraham would have verified that there were no plausible technological hoax possibilities, which would have been rather easier in his day than it would be now. I also suspect that Abraham's theological theoretical commitments would have prevented him from seriously entertaining the malicious entity possibility, theoretical commitments that I lack. Finally, it is possible that Abraham was socialized in a culture that found child sacrifice more palatable than we do today. All of this is, it goes without saying, supposing that it all went down as written.

If you mean mistaken in the actions he took:

I didn't say I wouldn't do it, just that it would "irritate" me, which was a somewhat sloppy way of referring to a serious, lingering negative emotional response.

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and not eating cake because it would spoil your tea seems about the right analogy which is why I describe it as a tiny sacrifice not no sacrifice.

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The right analogy, I think, in one way but a poor analogy when it comes to magnitude.

[chezlaw]

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Side point: my residual doubt reason is not addressed by this.

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Surely you're not suggesting that Abraham might have been mistaken?

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If you mean mistaken in that Abraham had no doubt (I do not know the story well enough to know if this is so):

It is hard for me to answer this in a serious way because an amusing vision of Abraham's [censored] buddies standing around afterwards laughing their asses off keeps on intruding into my head. However, I will try. I suspect that Abraham would have verified that there were no plausible technological hoax possibilities, which would have been rather easier in his day than it would be now. I also suspect that Abraham's theological theoretical commitments would have prevented him from seriously entertaining the malicious entity possibility, theoretical commitments that I lack. Finally, it is possible that Abraham was socialized in a culture that found child sacrifice more palatable than we do today. All of this is, it goes without saying, supposing that it all went down as written.

If you mean mistaken in the actions he took:

I didn't say I wouldn't do it, just that it would "irritate" me, which was a somewhat sloppy way of referring to a serious, lingering negative emotional response.

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and not eating cake because it would spoil your tea seems about the right analogy which is why I describe it as a tiny sacrifice not no sacrifice.

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The right analogy, I think, in one way but a poor analogy when it comes to magnitude.

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I reckon giving up the cake would be the greater sacrifice. The other is such sweet sorrow.

chez

[imported_luckyme]

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I'd talk about defying a bad god (check the archives if you're really bored) but Mr Sklansky would tell you how silly I would sound.


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Since there is only one way to be a good god, and an infinite number of way to be a bad god ( one would be lying to me by telling me he's a good god) then when i put him on a range of hands, EV calcs say bad by infinity over 1. So, if this isn't the garden variety xtrian god assumed here, I'm going to negotiate at least.

I'm not that concerned with sounding silly to Mr Sklansky after he spoofed me.

[chezlaw]

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I'd talk about defying a bad god (check the archives if you're really bored) but Mr Sklansky would tell you how silly I would sound.


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Since there is only one way to be a good god, and an infinite number of way to be a bad god ( one would be lying to me by telling me he's a good god) then when i put him on a range of hands, EV calcs say bad by infinity over 1. So, if this isn't the garden variety xtrian god assumed here, I'm going to negotiate at least.

I'm not that concerned with sounding silly to Mr Sklansky after he spoofed me.

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ok in that case, if god asked me to do anything I'd ask him to explain why and if I didn't understand and agree, I'd tell him to go away and and do it himself

chez

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ok in that case, if god asked me to do anything I'd ask him to explain why and if I didn't understand and agree, I'd tell him to go away and and do it himself

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Will you play poker with me in hell, Chez? [img]/images/graemlins/wink.gif[/img]

[imported_luckyme]

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Will you play poker with me in hell, Chez?

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So far tonite, I think I am.