[ExI] BICEP2 and the Fermi paradox

[Tom Nowell]

William Flynn Wallace asked:  Is there any one who doesn't think that Christianity (can't speak for the  other ones) wasn't made up as time went on?" 
 
Christianity, like everything else humans do, changes with the people who practise it. Every human language changes over time, every law is enforced or interpreted differently, in fact just about everything our species does changes. What makes you think religion would be any different?
 
We have lawyers and theologians simply because human language is imperfect, and no matter how clearly you may try to lay down guidance or a law, someone somewhere will find a loophole or pose a reductio ad absurdam or a strawman example that makes a mockery of it.
 
 As a thought experiment, imagine a perfect set of guidance was given to humanity - maybe an alien civilisation tells us this is what we need to do to join a galactic federation, or we are told by the guy running the simulation we're in these are the rules of his spam filter. How long would it be before the first arguments over meaning started, and how quickly would people start declaring a particular interpretation was the only true one? How quickly would people find loopholes to justify their own behaviour?
 
Right, I'm off to find pictures of kittens on the internet before any more pondering on human fallibility makes me spend all day contemplating the futility of human endeavour.
 
Tom