Free Will is a sign if God's inescapable weakness
November 20, 2017 at 12:46 pm
(This post was last modified: November 20, 2017 at 12:56 pm by AtheistNexus.)
Something from a book I am writing, that got my theist friend wiled up:
1. The job of machine learning researchers is to make smart software that do things that humans are effortlessly good at, like recognizing images.
2. These smart software are loosely inspired by the human brain, so they can learn somewhat like humans do.
3. These researchers, because they are non omniscient, they don't know how to make the perfectly smart software. As a result, the smart software that they build have to learn by trial and error/make mistakes in order to get better at doing tasks.
4. In a similar way, if Gods really gave humans free will, humans are using this free will to do both good and bad, but humans have actually learnt how to get better and better and less violent over the centuries.
5. This then has a surprising consequence; why would God need to give humans the chance to learn by free will, if God was smart enough to make perfect beings without the need to learn by trial and error? It implies that if free will is God given, God is non omniscient/non omnipotent in a similar way to how machine learning researchers are non omniscient, and therefore make smart software that need to learn by trial/error to get better at tasks!!!
1. The job of machine learning researchers is to make smart software that do things that humans are effortlessly good at, like recognizing images.
2. These smart software are loosely inspired by the human brain, so they can learn somewhat like humans do.
3. These researchers, because they are non omniscient, they don't know how to make the perfectly smart software. As a result, the smart software that they build have to learn by trial and error/make mistakes in order to get better at doing tasks.
4. In a similar way, if Gods really gave humans free will, humans are using this free will to do both good and bad, but humans have actually learnt how to get better and better and less violent over the centuries.
5. This then has a surprising consequence; why would God need to give humans the chance to learn by free will, if God was smart enough to make perfect beings without the need to learn by trial and error? It implies that if free will is God given, God is non omniscient/non omnipotent in a similar way to how machine learning researchers are non omniscient, and therefore make smart software that need to learn by trial/error to get better at tasks!!!
