RE: A Computational Perspective of Religion
March 26, 2012 at 11:34 pm
(This post was last modified: March 27, 2012 at 12:37 am by The Grand Nudger.)
Rayaan, it isn't impossible to be "sure" about the ideas expressed in this post.
"Like" a computer does not equal "is". It's a reversal of objects to begin with. Computers are information systems that work "like" many other systems we find in nature because they are made of natural materials, exploiting natural laws. A safety pin is "like" an analog computer. It has an input, an output, a reset line, and two bits of memory.
The Qu'ran makes no prophecy, nor is any prophecy fulfilled in your subjective opinion of it's "eloquence" as prose.
AI does not equal "God", let alone "Allah".
You keep mentioning "possibility" but I fail to see what metrics you could have leveraged to assign any possibility whatsoever to any of this. "Whatever can be imagined is possible". It seems possible to imagine, but where do we go from there?
You don't get to claim pagan gods for Allah, nice try, see it often, but there are too many contradictory claims. You could wave this away by invoking "human interference"...and clearly you have. Sadly, that's all you're doing, waving your hands.
You may "think" that this or that has been revealed, but I bet you aren't prepared/willing to demonstrate that this is so. When did "believe" become such a dirty word btw?
When the authors say trumpet..they mean trumpet. As in a trumpet, not a black hole, a trumpet. Since we're on this subject anyway, black holes, computational theory, evolutionary processes? I think you're worshipping at the altar of science on this one my friend. Similarly, when the authors wrote of your actions being recorded in a book, they meant it. That's supposed to scare the living shit out of you. Some cosmic boogeyman that records your every action or thought, mull it over awhile. Apparently the authors figured that they might be able to "scare us straight". At what point do you think that the lord of the cosmos required your services as an interpreter in the first place?
Now, Rayaan, we're on to the gaming bit. I don't even know where to begin. The level of callousness required to simply brush off the suffering of others (both the demonstrable suffering in this life, and the claimed fucking torture in the next) as part and parcel of a sidescrolling RPG.......how about you go down to the nearest children's hospital and explain to the parents there how this is all just a game. Maybe my daughter will score points with your boogeyman for "completing the game at a more difficult stage" due to the paralysis in her right arm? Kiss my ass.
This is not Islam, this is not reasonable, this is pure human folly, drawing connections where none exist. A particularly horrid attempt to salvage a dated belief system.
(was there any point in your writing this that you realized that the majority of your analogies were centered on man-made objects btw? Computers, games, etc. Why does it seem so easy to draw a comparison between these things we've created and God, do you figure?)
"Like" a computer does not equal "is". It's a reversal of objects to begin with. Computers are information systems that work "like" many other systems we find in nature because they are made of natural materials, exploiting natural laws. A safety pin is "like" an analog computer. It has an input, an output, a reset line, and two bits of memory.
The Qu'ran makes no prophecy, nor is any prophecy fulfilled in your subjective opinion of it's "eloquence" as prose.
AI does not equal "God", let alone "Allah".
You keep mentioning "possibility" but I fail to see what metrics you could have leveraged to assign any possibility whatsoever to any of this. "Whatever can be imagined is possible". It seems possible to imagine, but where do we go from there?
You don't get to claim pagan gods for Allah, nice try, see it often, but there are too many contradictory claims. You could wave this away by invoking "human interference"...and clearly you have. Sadly, that's all you're doing, waving your hands.
You may "think" that this or that has been revealed, but I bet you aren't prepared/willing to demonstrate that this is so. When did "believe" become such a dirty word btw?
When the authors say trumpet..they mean trumpet. As in a trumpet, not a black hole, a trumpet. Since we're on this subject anyway, black holes, computational theory, evolutionary processes? I think you're worshipping at the altar of science on this one my friend. Similarly, when the authors wrote of your actions being recorded in a book, they meant it. That's supposed to scare the living shit out of you. Some cosmic boogeyman that records your every action or thought, mull it over awhile. Apparently the authors figured that they might be able to "scare us straight". At what point do you think that the lord of the cosmos required your services as an interpreter in the first place?
Now, Rayaan, we're on to the gaming bit. I don't even know where to begin. The level of callousness required to simply brush off the suffering of others (both the demonstrable suffering in this life, and the claimed fucking torture in the next) as part and parcel of a sidescrolling RPG.......how about you go down to the nearest children's hospital and explain to the parents there how this is all just a game. Maybe my daughter will score points with your boogeyman for "completing the game at a more difficult stage" due to the paralysis in her right arm? Kiss my ass.
This is not Islam, this is not reasonable, this is pure human folly, drawing connections where none exist. A particularly horrid attempt to salvage a dated belief system.
(was there any point in your writing this that you realized that the majority of your analogies were centered on man-made objects btw? Computers, games, etc. Why does it seem so easy to draw a comparison between these things we've created and God, do you figure?)
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