Comment by latexr
17 hours ago
> If we define a god as having magical powers, and there would be scientific, testable proofs for this.
If you can scientifically test and prove the magic, then it stops being magic and starts being science.
17 hours ago
> If we define a god as having magical powers, and there would be scientific, testable proofs for this.
If you can scientifically test and prove the magic, then it stops being magic and starts being science.
Man: “God, please make this mountain disappear”
God: “Ok”
Man: “We measure that the mountain is gone, its mass-loss has measurably changed Earth’s orbit, weather patterns have changed, visually it’s not there anymore, we can walk though the space where it used to be.”
God: “Where is the mass of the mountain, and how did I make it disappear?”
Man: “God only knows! Pardon me; If I saw you do magic and can measure and test it, then that means it wasn’t magic. Internet people said so.”
God: “that doesn’t sound like a satisfying explanation”
Man: “it didn’t sound like a satisfying claim when it was just words on the internet either, but what can you do?”
God: “I’m God I can do anything”
Man: “can you make a boulder so heavy you can’t lift it?”
God: “yes”
Man: “how?”
God: “haven’t we just gone over showing you that I can do ‘impossible’ things, and you seeing them happen with your own eyes, and still refusing to accept?”
Any documented examples of these disappearing mountains?
We do have examples of billions upon billions of tonnes of iron being moved that have altered (slightly) the spin axis, also examples of ground water pumping at scales that have done the same .. but I'm unaware of any mountain sized objects that have vanished overnight.
No, none. The point is not to claim that magic exists, but to to show the illogic in the claim “if magic exists then that makes it science”.
“Nothing happens unless it has an explanation within the laws of physics” is an assumption; if it was broken then it would be broken. The mountain would be inexplicably gone, not explicably gone.
3 replies →
The Appalachians haven't disappeared yet, but they're believed to be much smaller than they used to be.
Yes, I get your point...
God: "What is the mass of your consciousness? How is it formed? Where does it reside in space?"
Man: "Uhh..."
God: "How can you rectify quantum mechanics and relativity into a single coherent model? How does physics work, exactly?"
Man: "Well, you see, um. Hmm."
God: "And the Collatz Conjecture? Why does it always trend to 1?"
Man: "I'm obliged to say magic because I don't have a better answer?"
God: "Exactly. I did magic for all of those ones"
If a deity appears and by hand waving divide the red sea we could measure, observe it happen. And we can test, observe what fields, forces being used. But how the heck she project these forces may take a while to understand - be magical.
But my argument was more about comparing gods to AIs, that it is an incorrect comparison. What AI perform are not magical, and we can always figure out what the AI do.