Atheism

4069 readers

29 users here now

Community Guide

Archive Today will help you look at paywalled content the way search engines see it.

Statement of Purpose

This is a support and conversation community for people who don't believe in gods.
Superstition hucksters have no reason to subscribe or post here at all.
If you are looking to debate or proselytize, options will be linked lower in the sidebar.

Acceptable

Honest questions or conversations.
Discussions on parenting or advice.
Struggles, frustrations, coming out.
Atheist memes. We can have fun!
News headlines relevant to atheism.

Unacceptable

Depending on severity, you might be warned before adverse action is taken.

Anything against site rules.
Illegal and/or NSFW material.
Troll posts and comments. There will be no attempt to explain what that means.
Leading questions, agenda pushing, or disingenuous attempts to bait members.
Personal attacks or flaming.

Inadvisable

Self promotion or upvote farming.
Excessive shitposting or off-topic discussion.

Application of warnings or bans will be subject to moderator discretion. Feel free to appeal. If changes to the guidelines are necessary, they will be adjusted.

If you vocally harass or discriminate against any individual member, you will be removed.

Likewise, if you are a member, sympathizer or a resemblant of a group that is known to largely hate, mock, discriminate against, and/or want to take lives of any other group of people, and you were provably vocal about your hate, then you you will be banned on sight.

Provable means able to provide proof to the moderation, and, if necessary, to the community.

 ~ /c/nostupidquestions

If you want your space listed in this sidebar and it is especially relevant to the atheist or skeptic communities, PM DancingPickle and we'll have a look!

Connect with Atheists

Matrix: #atheism:envs.net

Help and Support Links

Streaming Media

This is mostly YouTube at the moment. Podcasts and similar media - especially on federated platforms - may also feature here.

Orgs, Blogs, Zines

Mainstream

Bibliography

Start here...

...proceed here.

Proselytize Religion

Convince an Atheist

From Reddit

As a community with an interest in providing the best resources to its members, the following wiki links are provided as historical reference until we can establish our own.

founded 1 year ago

MODERATORS

Rhynoplaz

1093

What the trolly problem actually looks like (lemmy.world)

submitted 1 year ago by bobby_hill to c/atheism

113 comments fedilink hide all child comments

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments

[–] Sterile_Technique 9 points 1 year ago (1 children)

As a thought experiment, if we think of a god as a being that exists in the 5th dimension, it could be omnipotent/omniscient to the lower 4 (3 spacial + time) but only have a limited presence/influence regarding things like probability, and no influence whatsoever on things like other realities.

Similar to how we exist in the 4th dimension and can fully manipulate the lower three; but while we exist and are aware of time, we can't manipulate it outside of trying to nudge it with extreme speed or gravity.

A god in 5th dimension then would kinda look like someone playing the Sims and making use of save states to try to optimize every decision in the game; and while you might be aware that other games exist, -this- one can only ever be Sims.

This would make omnipotence a question of scope - to the individual sim, the player is all powerful in the ways that an individual sim can experience, so, omnipotent; but that player can't do shit to Minecraft, or instances of Sims running on other computers, so, simultaneously not omnipotent.

Basically the Many Worlds theory, but each reality would have its own god.

...which still doesn't really pass the all-knowing, all-powerful, all-good test, but it does at least frame the concept of god in a more interesting way from a mythology perspective.

No religion that I'm aware of acknowledges things like dimensions, but then they present their god as existing in a way that's clearly outside the scope of the 4 we experience... So, there's wiggle room even in actual religious lore in how we package things like "omnipotence".

[–] phx 7 points 1 year ago

I love movies and books that touch on topics like this, like situations where you've got a super-being but they build in limitations.

one who can "see" into the future for hundreds of years but can only actually view one timeline simultaneously and in real-time (meaning they could see any event in the future but would need to burn time in "the now" like watching a recorded video)
beings that constantly lose track of what the "current" reality/timeline is in a seas of possibilities (MIB3's "Griffin" is a fun example of this)
being able to know what significant future events will occur but unable to influence whether they do or not. Unavoidable destiny (e.g. Emma's Death in "the Time Machine" is unavoidable, though the exact many it occurs changes)
Knowing what "bad things" will happen but still being on the "best track" timeline as deviations make things worse (Loki, Butterfly Effect)
Macro level knowledge overcrowding micro level suffering in the backdrop of inter-galactic scales and infinite time
semi-autonomous superpowers commanded by unfathomable beings without fine control and a limited self-awareness

None of this of course is an argument for the existence of an actual deity that loves us but ignores us, however they are fun ways to think of how one might know the future yet not want or be able to change it.