RE: Funny thing about theodicy
April 11, 2014 at 9:54 pm
(This post was last modified: April 11, 2014 at 9:57 pm by Heywood.)
(April 11, 2014 at 9:39 am)RobbyPants Wrote:(April 10, 2014 at 8:31 pm)Heywood Wrote: New research suggests that intelligence tries to maximize the diversity of future options. If God only allowed us to make "good choices" it would be an act of limiting our future options thereby making us less intelligent.
So this could be renamed the Problem of Intelligence?
(April 10, 2014 at 8:31 pm)Heywood Wrote: Better to be smart and capable of evil then dumb and only capable of good.Is it? I suppose if we figure things like intelligence leading to good medical advancements, that's certainly nice, but if you're saying that not being smart would keep us from killing each other, I don't think you have such a clear-cut case.
To be intelligence requires a reality to be intelligent about. An intelligent mind absent a reality is nonsensical(it irks me when theists describe God like this). If there is no reality what do you think about? To what do you apply your logic and reason? What problems can you solve or what things can you understand?
Intelligence cannot exist unless a robust reality exists. The more robust the reality, the more potential there is for intelligence.
Imagine a world in which only two things exist. A mind and good. In that world the mind can apply logic and reason to understand itself and good.
Now imagine a world in which only three things exist. A mind, good, and evil. In this world the mind can apply logic and reason to understand itself, good, and evil. Since the second world is a more robust reality the mind in the second world has the potential to be more intelligent then the mind in the first world.
Creating a world in which only good exists comes at cost of less intelligence for that world.