RE: Why can't we just be "excellent" to each other?
November 30, 2015 at 3:15 am
(This post was last modified: November 30, 2015 at 3:24 am by Thumpalumpacus.)
(November 29, 2015 at 8:47 pm)Waitingforthemothership Wrote: I am suggesting, however, that this traditional distinction between gods and sufficiently technologically advanced extraterrestrials is mistaken; it is naive. It kinda-sorta made sense once, when humans axiomatically took natural law to be a thing which could not be altered by natural means. But the word "supernatural" becomes meaningless as soon as we seriously consider the idea of applying technology towards breaking natural law. Not just taking advantage of it, as we have done in the past, but breaking it-- literally altering it, at will.
Then you'll have to tolerate my disagreement. One is explicable by natural laws, and the other isn't, and in the context of discussing atheism, the latter is a god and the former is an alien, and they aren't exchangeable. You say that language is slippery, but it isn't. Words have meanings. Those meanings are in use daily. They do evolve, it is true, but they don't change meaning from one person to another in one conversation, because at that point communication is pointless. You can call an alien "god". You can call your dog "God". You can call a fish taco "god", for all I care. But that doesn't mean gods exist.
And if you cannot tell the difference between a dog and God, or a fish taco and God -- or more to the point, aliens and gods -- then why should I extend credence to your viewpoint? If you mean "aliens", say "aliens", and if you mean "gods", quit shilly-shallying and say it. There are two different words for those two different concepts for a reason. One is of the natural world an limited by the physical laws of the universe; the other isn't. If you'd like citations from holy books to clarify the matter, I'll grudgingly do your homework; but surely you can understand the difference between abilities gained by technological innovation which utilize the laws of the universe, and inherent abilities which defy those same laws. Surely you can.
As for "seriously consider[ing] the idea of applying technology towards breaking natural law", I'd be interested in seeing any serious consideration of such an event you have in mind. I know of no technology in the works which aims to violate natural laws rather than utilize them. Perhaps you would be so kind as to link to some of those projects?
