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PaperclipPerfector  10mo ago (text post)   4055 thread views

Small-Scale Question Sunday for January 14, 2024

Do you have a dumb question that you're kind of embarrassed to ask in the main thread? Is there something you're just not sure about?

This is your opportunity to ask questions. No question too simple or too silly.

Culture war topics are accepted, and proposals for a better intro post are appreciated.

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Religious people by definition are more open to metaphysics

No, by definition we have much stronger commitments to given metaphysical ideas. There’s a pretty big difference.

Eh, I find that most atheists are extremely implicitly committed to the a metaphysical ontology that is just, "Oops, I have the methodological constraints of science, and I've mistaken them for an actual metaphysical ontology." When you poke them on this, they don't clarify, "No, actually, I'm not making this extremely boneheaded mistake." They're still committed to it. They just get angry that you pointed it out.

I remember someone made the claim that something was only true to the extent it was useful. To this I replied that some math concepts were discovered long before they were useful in physics, and there are still many math concepts that we don't have an application for yet. Some of these might be applied in the future, but it's not impossible that some math concepts are never useful. Does that make a valid theorem as false as 2+2=fish?

I didn't get a response back but I have wondered since if it changed their mind at all.

Might be a definition issue. Obviously I don't know the specifics of that discussion, but the person might have meant "useful" as in the "all models are wrong, but some are useful" (i.e., "useful" in the sense that they can be used to build theorems on or make falsifiable hypotheses), rather than in the sense of "having practical applications". If so, I'd be tempted to agree.

He made it clear that useful meant, "measurably impacts my day to day life, all else is mental masturbation."

For example, most historical details were also considered false, regardless of how sure we are that they really happened.

Ah, nevermind, then. Thanks for the context.

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