Probability and God | Optimizing
You might land a competitive job (3/100), appear on the big screen at a sporting event (1/70,00), or win the lottery (1/12,271,512). It’s also possible for you to get a US green card (1/126), be struck by lightning (1/700,000), or have an idea so good it’s “like getting struck by lightning” (1/???). Whether it’s good or bad when the improbable becomes actual, there’s always a question lurking in the background: is this evidence of anything? If what seemed impossible is staring us in the face, what can we say about it? This question is fascinating with respect to life in the universe and God. “God” in this post will not refer to the God of the new testament, the God of the old testament, Allah, Shiva, Mahavira, Zeus, Ra, Spinoza’s God of substance, or any other popular deity. Formal religion aside, we will be interested in the quite general question of whether a being designed the universe to support life. This designer, whether s/he exists, will be referenced as “God.” I repeat, there
Probability and God | Textures Probability and God 2020/05/22 Occasionally, rare things happen to us. You might land a competitive job ( 3/100 ), appear on the big screen at a sporting event ( 1/70,00 ), or win the lottery ( 1/12,271,512 ). It's also possible for you to get a US green card ( 1/126 ), be struck by lightning ( 1/700,000 ), or have an idea so good it's "like getting struck by lightning" (1/???). Whether it's good or bad when the improbable becomes actual, there's always a question lurking in the background: is this evidence of anything? If what seemed impossible is staring us in
related reading
- Fine-tuning is a luck problemhilariusbookbinder.substack.com
- Derek Parfit · Why anything? Why this?lrb.co.uk
- Interpretations of Probability (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy)plato.stanford.edu
- Probabilities are not the right concept — LessWronglesswrong.com
- Answer to Jobslatestarcodex.com
- The Value of Probabilistic Thinking: Spies, Crime, and Lightning Strikesfs.blog
- Your Most Improbable Lifesubstack.com
- A Conversation with GoD – PUTANUMONITputanumonit.com
- Why I'm An Atheistsubstack.com
- Materialist Conceptions of God - by Ivan Vendrovnothinghuman.substack.com
- Answers to Jobbenthams.substack.com
- Basic Probabilityseeing-theory.brown.edu