Comments

  • Even programs have free will
    I guarantee you 95%+ of incompatibilists will say "screw oracles, free will is incompatible with determinism period".flannel jesus

    I use the term "predeterminism" instead of "determinism" because of the possible confusion with the term "deterministic system".

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Predeterminism

    Predeterminism is the philosophy that all events of history, past, present and future, have been already decided or are already known (by God, fate, or some other force), including human actions. Predeterminism is closely related to determinism.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deterministic_system

    In mathematics, computer science and physics, a deterministic system is a system in which no randomness is involved in the development of future states of the system.

    A deterministic system that is incomplete is not predetermined. Further confusion is also caused by tying the term "determinism" to "causality":

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Determinism

    Determinism is the philosophical view that all events in the universe, including human decisions and actions, are causally inevitable.

    Causality is not a usable notion in mathematics. It is replaced by "provable from its theory". We don't need to know what the individual causes are for a particular fact. We don't care about that. We just need to know that the system can correctly predict the fact. Hence, the idea that all facts are "causally inevitable" translates into all facts being "provable from theory". So, the term "determinism" in mathematical terms means "completeness". It does not mean "deterministic system".

    There are two fields involved here: metaphysics and mathematics. The vocabulary is not completely aligned.
  • Even programs have free will
    what is this incomplete determinism?flannel jesus

    Predeterminism implies that the system's theory is complete. In that case, every true fact about the system can be derived from its theory. If this is not possible, then the system's theory is incomplete.

    For example, the arithmetic theory about the natural numbers is incomplete.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/G%C3%B6del%27s_incompleteness_theorems

    The first incompleteness theorem states that no consistent system of axioms whose theorems can be listed by an effective procedure (i.e. an algorithm) is capable of proving all truths about the arithmetic of natural numbers.

    The arithmetic of the natural numbers is obviously a deterministic system. There is nothing random about it. Still, its truth is mostly unpredictable.
  • Even programs have free will
    no, incompatibilism implies that if determinism is true, free will doesn't existflannel jesus

    incompatibilism implies that if predeterminism is true, free will doesn't exist

    There is a massive difference between predeterminism and deterministic systems. If a deterministic system is incomplete, its future is not predetermined.

    So one can imagine a world where determinism is true, this oracle is impossible.flannel jesus

    It is exactly in a predetermined world, that the oracle can make flawless predictions.

    The universe consisting of just the oracle app and the thwarter app, however, is not predetermined because of its incompleteness. The construction theory of this world is capable of arithmetic. That is enough to make it incomplete and therefore not possibly predetermined.

    It is perfectly possible to deterministically build machines that are not predetermined.
  • Even programs have free will
    incompatibilism implies that if the oracle exists, free will doesn't.
  • Even programs have free will
    I really don't see that as free will in any meaningful sense.flannel jesus

    It is a contorted example.

    It is accepted as proof, however, that no oracle can exist that can predict what choices programs will make.

    Even in a perfectly deterministic environment, free will can still exist, as long as its theory is incomplete.

    Therefore, we don't even need the physical universe to be nondeterministic for free will to be possible. It just needs to be incomplete.
  • Even programs have free will
    What makes you convinced thwarter is a genuinely possible program? Has anyone programmed one?flannel jesus

    Thwarter is trivially easy to implement. On input of string "halt" it prints "loop forever" and on input "loop forever" it prints "halt".

    So, if the prediction (which is the input string) is that Thwarter will print "halt" or "loop forever", it won't.

    The problem is rather to implement oracle. Example:

    https://github.com/Solidsoft-Reply/Halting-Problem
  • Even programs have free will
    If you give me a program, say its listing printed out on paper; and you give me its inputs; and you give me a lot of pencils, paper, and time; I can deterministically and with no ambiguity determine exactly what it's going to do. I can not imagine this being false, and therefore Rice must be full of beans!fishfry

    You will never predict correctly what thwarter is going to do.

    A chaotic system is deterministic yet unpredictable. Nothing to do with incompleteness. There's no free will, none whatsoever, in a chaotic system.fishfry

    When you put thwarter in that chaotic system, you suddenly have something freely making decisions while you can impossibly predict what decisions it will make.

    Free will is a property of a process making choices. If it impossible to predict what choices this process will make, then it has free will.
  • Even programs have free will
    Hmmm. Let me mull that over. I don't agree. Computability, by its nature, is deterministic. Whatever free will is, it is not computable.fishfry

    Computability may be deterministic but is fundamentally still unpredictable too. It is generally not possible to predict what a program will be doing at runtime:

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rice%27s_theorem

    In computability theory, Rice's theorem states that all non-trivial semantic properties of programs are undecidable.

    A semantic property is one about the program's behavior (for instance, "does the program terminate for all inputs?"), unlike a syntactic property (for instance, "does the program contain an if-then-else statement?"). A non-trivial property is one which is neither true for every program, nor false for every program.

    The theorem generalizes the undecidability of the halting problem. It has far-reaching implications on the feasibility of static analysis of programs. It implies that it is impossible, for example, to implement a tool that checks whether a given program is correct, or even executes without error.

    The theorem is named after Henry Gordon Rice, who proved it in his doctoral dissertation of 1951 at Syracuse University.

    A deterministic system is unpredictable when its theory is incomplete. There is no need for randomness for a system to be unpredictable. Free will is essentially the same as unpredictability.
  • An Argument for Christianity from Prayer-Induced Experiences
    You are aware, I suspect, that as far as Islam in concerned, Christianity is false, right? Jesus is not god and and the Crucifixion story is a myth. So an Islamic person who has the experience of Allah and Mohammad is confirming his/her belief that Christianity is not the true religion. That is certainly what Muslims I have met have told me. Conversely, the Christian vison confirms that Islam is not true and Jesus is God. How do you resolve this psycho-cultural conundrum?Tom Storm

    The existence of doctrinal differences does not mean that other religions are wholesale "false". There are also doctrinal differences between Catholics and Protestants, or even between Lutherans and Calvinists. Does a Lutheran consider Calvinism wholesale "false"? I don't think so.

    Especially concerning Christology and Mariology, the Chalcedonian view has never been the only alternative in existence. Is Mary the theodokos ("mother of God") as the Chalcedonians want it or the christodokos ("mother of Christ") as the Nestorians insist? Are the religious persecutions over this by the Byzantine empire going to recommence again in all earnest? The number of people that were hunted down and put to death by the Byzantine secret police over just this doctrinal difference, is astonishing. Islam is compatible with the Ebionite-Nestorian Christology and Mariology. It was definitely not new.

    In my opinion, people just have to learn to agree to disagree concerning doctrinal differences.
  • Even programs have free will
    At each subsequent time, the output can be predicted from the input. The output is pre-determined by the input. At any time t + x, the output has been pre-determined by the situation at time zero.RussellA

    Yes, the oracle may perfectly well know that thwarter will do the opposite of what he predicts, but he has committed to his prediction already. It will be too late already.
  • Even programs have free will
    Terrific, readable paper. Hamkins rocks. https://arxiv.org/pdf/2407.00680fishfry

    Just finished reading it. It is very informative. I must say, though, that it is heavily vested in logic connected to the arithmetical hierarchy. It is still doable but admittedly an obstacle of sorts if you do not use that framework particularly often.

    Hamkins acknowledges that the contemporary version of the proof is arguably preferable to Turing's original "detour":

    Turing thus showed that the symbol-printing problem is undecidable by mounting a reduction to and through the undecidability of the circle-free problem. But let us illustrate how one may improve upon Turing with a simpler self-referential proof of the undecidability of the symbol-printing problem in the style of the standard contemporary proof of the undecidability of the halting problem. There was actually no need for Turing’s detour through the circle-free problem.

    I have tried to turn Hamkins' phrasing of the standard contemporary proof into a narrative:

    = Original ==

    Namely, assume toward contradiction that the symbol-printing problem were computably decidable, and fix a method of solving this problem. Using this as a subroutine, consider the algorithm q which on input p, a program, asks whether p on input p would ever print 0 as output. If so, then q will halt immediately without printing 0; but if not, then q prints 0 immediately as output. So q has the opposite behavior on input p with respect to printing 0 as output than p has on input p. Running q on input q will therefore print 0 as output if and only if it will not, a contradiction.

    == Narrative ==

    Namely, assume toward contradiction that the symbol-printing problem were computably decidable, and fix a method of solving this problem. Using the oracle as a subroutine, consider the thwarter program which asks to the oracle whether any program p on input p would ever print 0 as output. If the oracle answers that it will print 0, then thwarter itself will not print 0; but if the oracle says that thwarter doesn't print 0, then thwarter does print 0. Running thwarter on itself as input will therefore print 0 as output if and only if the oracle says that thwarter will not, a contradiction.

    For the original circle-free problem, the proof is actually trivially easy.

    Say that we call programs with infinite output "infinitist" ("circle-free") and programs with finite output "finitist" ("circular"). Can we list all possible infinitist programs? No, because if we list their infinite output in a table, then we can create a brand new infinite output by flipping the bit on the diagonal, i.e. by diagonalization.

    The real difficulty is related to how Turing uses the circle-free problem to prove that the symbol-printing problem is undecidable:

    He mounts an unusual kind of reduction, showing that if symbol-printing were decidable, then also the circle-free problem would be decidable, which he had already proved is not the case.

    This is not a straightforward reduction of one problem to another, but rather an argument that if one problem were actually computably decidable, then so would be the other.

    I agree with Hamkins' take on the matter. I also find the contemporary standard version of the proof much simpler than Turing's original approach. Turing's "unusual kind of reduction" feels like an exercise in painful shoehorning.

    By the way, humans may or may not have free will.
    Programs, by their very nature, do not have free will.
    fishfry

    I think that humans have a soul while programs do not. However, since programs also make choices, they can just as humans appear to be "free" in making them or not. That is why I think that it is perfectly possible to analyze free will as a computability problem.
  • Do I really have free will?
    You define the terms for the sake of progress?frank

    For the sake of keeping things predicable. If it is not predicable, we cannot implement it. Nothing will be actionable. So, we have no other option than to build on the best predicable definition.
  • Even programs have free will
    Somehow that doesn't follow from the impossibility of such an app since the app is impossible even in a pure deterministic universe.noAxioms

    The natural numbers are also a pure deterministic universe. Most of its truth, however, cannot be predicted by arithmetic theory. A pure deterministic universe can still have free will as long as its theory is incomplete.

    The real requirement here, is incompleteness of the theory.
  • Do I really have free will?
    Free will is about possibility. If you're going to make a choice, there must be multiple possibilities, as if time is a branching thing and you can choose the path you'll take.frank

    I was using the constraint of incompatibilism to define free will:

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Incompatibilism

    Incompatibilism is the view that the thesis of determinism is logically incompatible with the classical thesis of free will.

    I am not doing this because I necessarily believe or disbelieve in incompatibilism but because it is eminently actionable. As far as I am concerned, a good definition does not need to be entirely correct. First and foremost, it needs to be predicable. In that sense, a predicable definition is better than a correct one.

    So, by defining free will as incompatible with predeterminism, it is possible to investigate the matter as a computer science problem:

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Predeterminism

    Predeterminism is the philosophy that all events of history, past, present and future, have been already decided or are already known (by God, fate, or some other force), including human actions.

    We can define free will in other ways, but there is a risk that we won't make any progress if we do that.
  • Do I really have free will?
    What would free will look like then?Igitur

    Imagine that you install an app on your phone that can tell you minute by minute what you will be doing at any point in the future along with all possible details?

    The existence of this app would prove that you are just an automaton, i.e. a robot. In that case, it would be ridiculous to claim that you have free will.

    Conversely, you can prove the existence of free will by proving that it is impossible to construct such app. Hence, the existence of free will is a mathematical problem. It is effectively about an incompleteness proof.
  • Is multiculturalism compatible with democracy?
    How odd!Vera Mont

    Not at all.

    If you were interested in the foundational crisis of mathematics and its metaphysics, you would be talking about that instead of talking about other people.
  • Is multiculturalism compatible with democracy?
    Nailed it, finally!Vera Mont

    Eventually, I did end up telling him that I don't like conversing with him. I don't particularly like conversing with you either. You are just like him. You seek to personally attack other people. I don't.

    My own hobby is to explore particular ideas, especially on how the foundational crisis in mathematics translates into surprisingly interesting answers to core questions in metaphysics.

    https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foundations_of_mathematics

    This led, near the end of the 19th century, to a series of paradoxical mathematical results that challenged the general confidence in reliability and truth of mathematical results. This has been called the foundational crisis of mathematics.

    The resolution of this crisis involved the rise of a new mathematical discipline called mathematical logic that includes set theory, model theory, proof theory, computability and computational complexity theory, and more recently, several parts of computer science.

    For example, the existence of free will turns out to be a model-theoretical problem.

    It is actually quite difficult to find someone interested in discussing the metaphysical implications of the foundational crisis in mathematics.

    So, my own hobby is not to personally attack other people. I find that a silly waste of time. Of course, as your colleague bitterly complained, if I were interested in attacking other people, I would indeed be better than him at it.
  • Is multiculturalism compatible with democracy?
    Of course you were, rambling about the economic status of someone you know nothing about. Disingenuous and malicious, pretending his sour character attacks were his "haha humour".Lionino

    At least, I pretend that I am trying to be helpful. You don't.
  • Is atheism illogical?
    I don't know neither do I care about some fringe github application you pretend to know about, crank.Lionino

    Well, I successfully scripted it online to locate the roots of a polynomial. So, what exactly did I pretend?

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Macsyma

    Macsyma (/ˈmæksɪmə/; "Project MAC's SYmbolic MAnipulator")[1] is one of the oldest general-purpose computer algebra systems still in wide use. It was originally developed from 1968 to 1982 at MIT's Project MAC.

    In 1982, Macsyma was licensed to Symbolics and became a commercial product. In 1992, Symbolics Macsyma was spun off to Macsyma, Inc., which continued to develop Macsyma until 1999. That version is still available for Microsoft's Windows XP operating system.

    The 1982 version of MIT Macsyma remained available to academics and US government agencies, and it is distributed by the US Department of Energy (DOE). That version, DOE Macsyma, was maintained by Bill Schelter. Under the name of Maxima, it was released under the GPL in 1999, and remains under active maintenance.

    I used to have it installed locally, but nowadays, I am less interested in it than I used to be:

    $ sudo apt install maxima
    Reading package lists... Done
    Building dependency tree... Done
    Reading state information... Done
    The following additional packages will be installed:
    aglfn gnuplot-data gnuplot-x11 liblua5.4-0 libpcre2-32-0 libwxbase3.2-1
    libwxgtk3.2-1 maxima-share tex-common
    Suggested packages:
    gnuplot-doc texmacs maxima-doc xmaxima maxima-emacs wish debhelper
    The following NEW packages will be installed:
    aglfn gnuplot-data gnuplot-x11 liblua5.4-0 libpcre2-32-0 libwxbase3.2-1
    libwxgtk3.2-1 maxima maxima-share tex-common
    0 upgraded, 10 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
    Need to get 23.7 MB of archives.
    After this operation, 112 MB of additional disk space will be used.
    Do you want to continue? [Y/n]Abort.

    I am interested in different things than you are. This is normally not a problem but with you it is.
  • Probability Question
    The multiverse I understand as a "place" where universes exist much as galaxies in the universe.tim wood

    If alternative universes in the physical multiverse are structurally similar to nonstandard models/universes in the arithmetical multiverse, then alternative universes are not similar to galaxies.

    While the distance between galaxies is finite, there is no legitimate notion of distance between universes. The distance in between universes is "infinite" or "inapplicable" (whatever that may mean). It is not possible to reach them by physically traveling to them. With galaxies, you conceivably can.

    You can see light arriving from some galaxies (but possibly not from all galaxies). You cannot see light arriving from another universe. It would never be able to bridge the gap. Intergalactic space is still filled with background radiation. Inter-universal "space" is not, because it is not even "space" as in exists within a universe.

    These alternative physical universes actually influence each other, just like nonstandard models of arithmetic do, but the influence between universes is of a different nature than influences within a particular universe. For example, if a fact occurs in one universe but not in another, then this fact is fundamentally unpredictable. If a fact is predictable, however, then it occurs in all universes in exactly the same way.

    As to the uni-verse, the predictions are for either a hot death or a cold death.tim wood

    If it were possible to make such prediction, then the structure of the physical universe would be overly simple. It would be much simpler than the arithmetical universe. Its theory would have a single, finite model. Its theory would be able to tell you what exactly you are going to do next week, minute by minute. In that case, we are all just automatons.
  • Probability Question
    Is there any way for a teleporter machine to randomly select an Earth out of an infinite number of them in a finite amount of time, or is there always going to be, practically speaking, only a finite amount of Earths for Alice to teleport to because of the limitations of the machine?RogueAI

    The first part of the address of alternative universe is the infinite cardinal κ of its isomorphism class. Next, you may (or may not) need an infinite ordinal ω to locate the universe within its class. So, if you know what two-tuple (κ,ω) Alice has used, you can follow her where she happens to be.

    You will need the axiom of choice for this.

    If the representation of the two-tuple (κ,ω) is not finite in size, it may actually be impossible to transmit it in finite time to the machine. But then again, in that case, Alice would not have been able to transmit it either.
  • Is multiculturalism compatible with democracy?
    complaining about "ad hominem". Sprinkling a bit of hypocrisy in the sophistry, aren't we?Lionino

    That was just my weird sense of humor. In fact, I was trying to be helpful. Now you are even complaining about that!
  • Probability Question
    Mathematical infinity has nothing to do with any study of the universe (except as it may appear in some of the mathematics that describe the physics of the universe).tim wood

    Actually, indirectly, it does.

    It is actually a requirement that the (unknown) theory of the physical universe cannot predict its end.

    If it could predict its end, then the physical universe is effectively a finite structure, which cannot participate in a multiverse. Furthermore, in that case, the physical universe would be entirely predictable from its theory. This means, for example, that free will cannot exist either.

    The physical universe is finite but must be potentially infinite.

    If this requirement is satisfied, then even the perfect theory of the physical universe will not be able to compute when the universe will disappear or for what reason or how exactly that will take place.
  • Is atheism illogical?
    2x4+4x2+2Lionino

    Replace x² by u and then solve the resulting quadratic polynomial in terms of u.

    This is not interesting. This is not math. This is procedural symbol shuffling without any further insight. It amounts to doing manually what a machine can also do, only much slower.

    So, now my question:

    Where exactly is the general solution for the quartic polynomial implemented in the source code of the Maxima computer algebra system?

    https://github.com/calyau/maxima/blob/master/share/algebra/solver/Solver.mac

    Does the source code explicitly mention the general solutions for quadratic, cubic, and quartic? Where?

    I know from using Maxima that it will still try to solve quintic and higher degree polynomials in terms of radicals. How exactly does it do that?

    An online maxima solver: http://www.dma.ufv.br/maxima/index.php

    Quartic:

    solve([2*x^4+4*x^2+2=0],[x]);
    (%o1) 	[x=−i,x=i]
    
    Quadratic:

    solve([2*u^2+4*u+2=0],[u]);
    (%o1) 	[u=−1]
    
    The discriminant for the quadratic in u turns out to be zero. Would maxima use the same substitution to lower the degree of the polynomial prior to solving it? By the way, the first version of Maxima's source code was written in 1968. Programming the Maxima source code is the real math. Any paper-based fiddling to solve the problem manually, is not.

    Found it. As expected, Maxima does indeed "know" the general solution in terms of radicals for 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 4th degree polynomials. They are implemented separately in the solvelin, solvequad, solvecubic, and solvequartic functions.

    https://github.com/calyau/maxima/blob/master/src/solve.lisp

    (defun solve1a (exp mult) 
      (let ((*myvar *myvar)
    	(*g nil)) 
        (cond ((atom exp) nil)
              ((not (memalike (setq *myvar (simplify (pdis (list (car exp) 1 1))))
                              *has*var))
               nil)
    	  ((equal (cadr exp) 1) ([b]solvelin[/b] exp))
    	  ((of-form-A*F<X>^N+B exp) (solve-A*F<X>^N+B exp t))
    	  ((equal (cadr exp) 2) ([b]solvequad[/b] exp))
    	  ((not (equal 1 (setq *g (solventhp (cdddr exp) (cadr exp)))))
    	   (solventh exp *g))
    	  ((equal (cadr exp) 3) ([b]solvecubic[/b] exp))
    	  ((equal (cadr exp) 4) ([b]solvequartic[/b] exp))
    	  (t (let ((tt (solve-by-decomposition exp *myvar)))
    	       (setq *failures (append (solution-losses tt) *failures))
    	       (setq *roots    (append (solution-wins tt) *roots)))))))
    
    According to the source code, they wrote the first version of their polynomial logic in 1982.
  • Is multiculturalism compatible with democracy?
    Wrong. Everybody who lives in Europe knows why the far-right is rising. Funnily enough, it has nothing to do with the lack of religion, it has to do with the presence of (a certain) religion.

    Keep European politics for people who have skin in the game. If someone is backpacking in Siberia or being a sexpat in Thailand they typically wouldn't have a lot of investment in what is going on across the glope.
    Lionino

    I avoid responding to you because your comments are replete with ad hominems.

    As I have already asked you in a previous remark, why don't you talk with someone else instead? Why don't you discuss with someone who actually wants to speak with you? I don't. I really don't see the need to converse with someone like you.
  • Is atheism illogical?
    Is that why after I completely debunked your claim about birth rates one page ago you disappeared from the thread only to come back to repeat the same clownish nonsense that was already disproved — much in the same way that several of your claims throughout the site have been shown to be factually false or nonsensical?Lionino

    I avoid responding to you because your comments are replete with ad hominems.

    As I have already asked you in a previous remark, why don't you talk with someone else instead? Why don't you discuss with someone who actually wants to speak with you? I don't. I really don't see the need to converse with someone like you.
  • Probability Question
    The set would have to countable, wouldn't it? You could count the worlds. There's a one-to-one correspondence with each parallel world and the natural numbers. How could the multiverse be uncountably infinite?RogueAI

    The number of models (universes) depends on the spectrum of the theory:

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spectrum_of_a_theory

    Saharon Shelah gave an almost complete solution to the spectrum problem.

    Roughly speaking this means that either there are the maximum possible number of models in all uncountable cardinalities, or there are only "few" models in all uncountable cardinalities.

    The number of models is not necessarily countable, but according to Gitman, it happens to be countable for arithmetic.
  • Probability Question
    Multiverse cosmology is not about set theoretic models.fishfry

    It is.

    If the (unknown) theory of universe is not categorical, then the physical universe is part of a larger multiverse.

    Therefore, it is a mathematical problem.
  • Probability Question
    Are there a countable or uncountable infinity of worlds?fishfry

    According to Thoralf Skolem's construction, i.e. by injecting infinite cardinalities in the model's structure, which is a countable set of symbols, there is at most a countable number of models of arithmetic.

    The strong assumption here is indeed the continuum hypothesis:

    https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/L%C3%B6wenheim%E2%80%93Skolem_theorem

    It implies that if a countable first-order theory has an infinite model, then for every infinite cardinal number κ it has a model of size κ, and that no first-order theory with an infinite model can have a unique model up to isomorphism. As a consequence, first-order theories are unable to control the cardinality of their infinite models.

    In her lecture on the subject, Victoria Gitman confirms this:

    https://victoriagitman.github.io/talks/2015/04/22/an-introduction-to-nonstandard-model-of-arithmetic.html

    An easy application of the compactness theorem shows that there are countable nonstandard models of the Peano axioms, or indeed of any collection of true arithmetic statements.

    If the physical multiverse is somewhat structurally similar to the arithmetical multiverse, it should also have a countable number of physical universes.

    If we deny the continuum hypothesis, however, then most of the then uncountable universes would be unreachable because there can still only be a countable number of infinite cardinality symbols to do so.
  • Is atheism illogical?
    By destroying people's freedom and ability to think, theism can cause untold damage.Tom Storm

    Religion does not destroy anybody's freedom. Religion just reminds you of the fact that some forms of freedom are fake. If you do not want to keep the laws of God, then don't. Religion merely reminds you of the fact that it will backfire, if not later in this life, then in a later life.
  • Is atheism illogical?
    Nietzsche called one of his books “beyond good and evil” and belittled those with a “will to truth” as lying to themselves, and said “God is dead” to make his point thoroughly.Fire Ologist

    Aspirational beliefs are incredibly autosuggestive.

    For example, if you do not believe that there is hope, then there isn't. If an athlete does not believe that he will win the gold medal, then he won't.

    These things are ultimately self-fulfilling prophecies.

    The ability to strongly believe -- "lying to themselves" -- is a survival skill.

    That is why the most repugnant individuals are the ones who destroy other people's hope:

    - there is no hope for you
    - you cannot do it
    - nobody will help you
    - you will fail
    - there is no god who will help you
    - ...

    By destroying other people's hope, they cause untold damage. The step from unbeliever to satanically evil is very small. All one needs to do, is to project one's own despair onto others. It even works because misery loves company.
  • Is atheism illogical?
    Nietzche having made predictions about the future based on his limited perspective isn't something I am all that interested in.wonderer1

    So, why do you want to discuss the matter? My starting point has always been this view ascribed to Nietzsche.

    Suppose a substantial portion of our fellow social primates can't cope emotionally with having an atheistic perspective. Do you recognize that that doesn't have any bearing on whether God exists?wonderer1

    I have never used this argument to "prove" that God exists.

    I consider the objective impartial position to be that we cannot rationally know that. This decision can only be made at the spiritual level. It is an individual choice to make.

    But then again, the abjuration of spirituality is known to have potentially dangerous consequences.

    As an atheist, Nietzsche was clearly aware of that. He proposed that an "atheistic revaluation" could be an alternative to religion. In my impression, his solution hasn't gained particularly much traction.

    In the meanwhile, the ongoing atheist rebellion against the absurd continues unabatedly with no solution in sight.

    You see, God does not even need to exist for religion to develop survivorship bias. Since atheism exhibits a very noticeable tendency to drop out of the race, religion will trivially win by default.

    There is simply not enough time to keep struggling with vaporware such as Nietzsche's "atheistic revaluation". Either you manage to keep the absurd at bay or else the absurd wins.
  • Is atheism illogical?
    Sounds like fantasizing on your part, to me.

    Do you see yourself as someone likely to commit suicide if you came to have an atheist perspective? If so, do you think that might just be a personal issue you have?
    wonderer1

    The following view is ascribed to Nietzsche:

    Europe no longer needed God as the source for all morality, value, or order in the universe; philosophy and science were capable of doing that for us.

    Nietzsche believed that the removal of this system put most people at the risk of despair or meaninglessness.

    For some time now our whole European culture has been moving as toward a catastrophe.

    The absurdist philosophy also suggests that atheism leads to this result:

    Absurdism is the philosophical theory that the universe is irrational and meaningless.

    The three responses discussed in the traditional absurdist literature are suicide, religious belief in a higher purpose, and rebellion against the absurd.

    I am not an atheist. I cannot imagine ever becoming one.
  • Is atheism illogical?
    Nietzsche often considered suicide due to his physical suffering. It was his philosophy which rescued him.Joshs

    Would it work for anybody else?

    Getting along with others is the most difficult challenge in life, and making progress at it is our responsibility, not the gods.Joshs

    The problem of getting along with others is not new. It is the society-wide inability to deal with the problem that is rather new. By destroying the old system, without bringing a new one, the atheist impetus has left a lot of people stranded.

    People used to be able to deal with difficult life circumstances.

    The standards of living in past centuries were in comparison very low. People even had to deal with famines, wars, pestilence, high child mortality and largely inexistent health care, but they seem to have been less traumatized than people today.

    It is not possible to bring back spirituality to people who do not believe in it. So, that is not what I am advocating. I guess that instead they will have to try something like Nietzsche's "atheistic revaluation". Maybe it works for them.
  • Do I really have free will?
    There is nothing to understand. You are writing gibberish about free will and Gödel.Lionino

    The following paper makes the same connection between free will and Gödel:

    https://arxiv.org/pdf/1401.1800

    Gödel, Tarski, Turing and the conundrum of free will

    Free will exists relative to a base theory if there is freedom to deviate from the deterministic or indeterministic dynamics in the theory ...

    For free will to be possible in a particular universe, it is necessary that not all facts in the universe can be predicted by the universe's theory. Otherwise, free will is simply not possible.

    If Gödel's incompleteness theorem is provable from the theory, then we have exactly that situation required for free will: the existence of facts that are unpredictable from the theory.

    Hence, the connection between Gödel and free will.
  • Do I really have free will?
    You write like someone who is on welfare. The words "ultra-high net worth" have never come out of the mouth of a rich person.Lionino

    You are truly ignorant, aren't you?

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High-net-worth_individual

    It is a standard term in financial services. People in private banking need a way to distinguish between the rich, the very rich, and the extremely rich. It is obvious that they would never talk to you. You are clearly not even on the lowest rung of the ladder. Otherwise you would know.

    No shit.Lionino

    Again, you don't know what you are talking about.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foundations_of_mathematics

    Foundations of mathematics

    This has been called the foundational crisis of mathematics.

    The resolution of this crisis involved the rise of a new mathematical discipline called mathematical logic that includes set theory, model theory, proof theory, computability and computational complexity theory, and more recently, several parts of computer science.

    Model theory deals with the foundations of mathematics. Vector calculus does not. It is even irrelevant to the foundations of mathematics.

    Did you have many pizza coupons at the "operations research" department, SEAsia sexpat?Lionino

    With your ad hominems, you just prove that you are stupid.

    I don't care about operations research. That was decades ago. I have never used it in any shape or fashion. There was no money in it. So, why bother?

    The supposedly pious believer turns out to be a degenerate who needs to lie to online strangers about his Calvinistic god: money. Not shocking.Lionino

    For a starters, I was raised a Catholic. I don't mind Calvinism, but I can hardly be called one. Furthermore, I believe that the reformation most predictably failed. It raised serious issues with the Holy Apostolic Church, but it did not solve them in any way.

    In this world, every living being will have to put in effort to survive. So, every person, especially every man, will have to make money. I just turned out to be much better at that than most other people. That is why I am wealthy. No other reason. If you are going to do something, you could as well do it properly.

    You obviously have to do that too. So, how good are you at it?
  • Do I really have free will?
    This is the same script run by the clinically online on welfare everytime they are pressed about their non-existant qualifications.Lionino

    I am considered a ultra-high net worth individual. What about you?

    The crank cannot solve a simple mental computation that every single person in science and technology learns in their undergrad.Lionino

    Vector calculus was not a subject in my degree. It is of absolutely no use in operations research. They may teach it elsewhere, but so what? By the way, how much money have you already made from vector calculus?

    And yet he insists that he understands things that would only be taught to people in mathematics post-grad.Lionino

    I became stinking rich from writing code that deals with elliptic-curve cryptography (ECDSA) at a point at which no university even taught it. At that point, (only some) universities dealt with RSA and DSA (if even) which is the old system based on the intractability of prime-number factorization. Some part of ECDSA was actually still patented, which created trouble and still does till this day. That is one reason why we can only now start using Schnorr signatures.

    Post-grads are people who don't make money and who will never make money. I don't want to be compared to them.

    No one who seriously studies foundations of mathematics is ignorant of nabla and the cross product operator — it is like solving quadratic equations and not knowing how to calculate the area of a triangle. Unserious crank rambling nonsense about a field he hasn't been introduced to.Lionino

    There are plenty of degrees that don't deal with vector calculus. Furthermore, vector calculus has nothing to do with the foundations of mathematics. So tell me, how much money have you in the meanwhile made from vector calculus?

    Seriously, you are more stupid than you think.

    I choose the subjects that I want to talk about. I choose the subjects that I want to investigate. Why would you choose them for anybody else? What have you got to show for? Seriously, what is your net worth?

    So, how much student debt do you still drag along? Will you ever be able to pay it off? If you can't sleep at night, and if the antidepressants no longer work, seek help.
  • Is atheism illogical?
    It is a hallmark of severe depression that the present hopelessness draws into itself the part and future, so that it becomes impossible to envision any change from one’s current state. One ceases to be able to remember or anticipate any hopeful state of mind.Joshs

    As believers in God and therefore in hope, we use a very simple -- largely auto-suggestive -- trick to address the issue: We simply hope that God will take care of it. In fact, we are convinced of this. The catch is that it only works for the ones who believe that it does.

    I doubt that Nietzsche's alternative has the same properties.

    If Nietzsche's "atheistic revaluation" really worked, why doesn't the suicide prevention hotline use it to give hope to their clinically depressed users?

    https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/neuroscience-in-everyday-life/201904/can-religion-help-depression

    Depression is the second leading cause of disability in the world.

    One variable that has been recently explored as a protective factor is religiosity, spirituality.

    Interestingly, the group who benefited the most from religiosity was the group at high risk for depression—those who had a depressed parent.

    In sum, it seems like religiosity/spirituality may confer resilience to the development/recurrence of depressive episodes in individuals in general and in ones with high risk in specific.

    The world needs a solution for the second leading cause of disability in the world. In fact, we have always had a solution until atheism started spreading.
  • Do I really have free will?
    Again, complete gibberish. Gödel has nothing to do with multiverses.Lionino

    You fail to understand the discussion about non-standard models of arithmetic.

    Let's see if that post-grad talk about math is backed by undergrad knowledge.Lionino

    Parts of model theory are my personal interest. It is my hobby. I am semi-retired. I can royally afford to spend my days reading up on what I like. Of course, I did not waste my time on additional degrees. Why would I?

    By the way, how do you make money from your post-grad? Is it about the $12/hour as an associate assistant student tutor? Do you actually have any money? Or have you had to apply for student debt relief because of your overall poor finances?

    By the way, I am not interested in vector calculus. I am using model theory to make a particular point. Who the hell cares about your irrelevant question? If you do not want to meaningfully engage, why don't you talk with someone else? For example, go and discuss student debt relief with the suicide prevention hotline.
  • Is atheism illogical?
    In fact , Nietzsche argued in his later works that religion and spirituality are nihilistic, because they represent a negation of life.Joshs

    Yes, he undoubtedly does that too, but I do not endorse these views. I consider these to be part of Nietzsche's personal rebellion against the absurd.

    He believed that only an atheistic revaluation and overturning of all religious, ethical and scientific values, such as the value of truth and goodness, can stave off nihilism.Joshs

    The alternative that he proposes is obviously unrealistic. I don't doubt that people have tried his recipe. Nietzsche did indeed rebel against the absurd -- but like everyone else who does -- with nothing particularly interesting to show for. His recipe certainly does not bring hope to anybody who has become hopeless. Any rebellion against the absurd is always in vain, including Nietzsche's.

    In fact, I was referring to Nietzsche's idea in the subtitle of the article:

    https://bigthink.com/thinking/what-nietzsche-really-meant-by-god-is-dead/

    The death of God didn’t strike Nietzsche as an entirely good thing. Without a God, the basic belief system of Western Europe was in jeopardy.

    I consider everything else that Nietzsche wrote on the matter to be his personal rebellion against the absurd. He clearly knew that there was a problem. He thought that he had found a possible solution, but he hadn't. Rebellion against the absurd only brings false hope. Salvation will never arrive. Not in the form of alcohol, or drugs, or any otherwise meaningless atheistic revaluations.