[ExI] Atheism again

[Keith Henson]

Giulio Prisco <giulio at gmail.com> wrote:

> "There are no gods . . . Yet." is a good conclusion. Arthur Clarke
said that, and who am I to contradict him.

> Yes, perhaps our descendants will create/become God.

We can sort of see a way to modify the upcoming collision with the
Andromeda galaxy.  At least by current standards, that's close to
godlike power.

> Or other civilizations in the universe have already created/became God(s)....

We may be alone.  https://arxiv.org/pdf/1806.02404.pdf

"Dissolving the Fermi Paradox"

Anders Sandberg, Eric Drexler and Toby Ord

Anders is a highly respected researcher who used to post here, Eric
is, of course, the founder of nanotech upon which extropianism is
largely based.

> Or the potential for God-like awareness and power exists in the very
fabric of reality, and God-like entities implemented in quantum fields
or underneath came into being immediately after the beginning of the
universe...

I can't see any way to make this case from the evidence we have access
to.  Can you?

> Or one or another version of the simulation hypothesis...

I am not aware of any way to prove or disprove the simulation
hypothesis.  The only proposal I know about would end the simulation
if it worked.

> Or God will emerge in the far future but then is present at all places
and times...

That makes a case that something in the future can travel backward in
time.  If that is possible, it invokes
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Niven%27s_laws#Niven's_Law_(re_Time_travel)

"If the universe of discourse permits the possibility of time travel
and of changing the past, then no time machine will be invented in
that universe."

 snip

Time travel may thus act to erase itself . . . .

And there goes this kind of god in a puff of logic.

I find the universe strange enough and interesting enough that I can
get by without gods.  However, I have no problem with people who need
them except to wonder how evolution shaped humans to believe in gods.

Keith