[Suzerain of Sheol]

Originally Posted by Lawtan

Not meant as slander, honestly. More meant to illustrate his constructionist ideas with morality and maintaining the social/emotional benefits of religion, without religion. But, I digress...

Apologies, I misunderstood. It's the sort of thing your hear Christian fundamentalists use in debates, that "militant Atheists" just make a God of science and are as fanatical as they themselves.

It sort of is the question "what is a god?" It is hard to ascertain godhood, when the idea of a god is on the whole contradictory. There are some typical aspects, with which an approximation can be made (like has been done with the concepts of life, death, and will) - namely that a god has physical power, superior knowledge, and can manipulate the laws of the area (not all gods are omniscient, or even immortal)...but several would disagree. Some societies use "god" to explain why we irrationally value anything, and that god is rather impersonal and powerless. Others are almost like Greek Heroes - God-Kings.

So...I don't know how the construction of a powerful entity would resolve a definition-based dilemma/disagreement. Is it made more clear in Sam's thought-problem, or did I misread the idea?

(I hope I did not come across negatively or dismissive, but am honestly confused as the solution seems like answering a circle with a square)

It's not that I disagree with what you're saying, but I think you're putting too much stock into my use of the word God; it wasn't really the point of the problem. You can substitute "arbitrarily powerful intelligence" if it makes it clearer. Or are you saying that the question of whether it can be called God or not is relevant to the question of the moral imperative of creating it? Because that might also be an interesting question.

And just to clarify, most of what I'm saying here is my extrapolation and reaction to Sam's thoughts on the matter, he doesn't actually have all that much to say about it. I can find you the clip on youtube if you're interested, though.

(Also, Pigeon, I'm sorry if this is hijacking your thread. We can take this to PMs if needed.)