TheEncogitationer

[TheEncogitationerParticipant]

Hey, Dick Tracy!  Who are gonna believe, God or your lying eyes?

Greetings, Officer Friendly!

You have, no doubt, seen the slogan:
“IN GOD WE TRUST.”

You may have it as a decal on your patrol vehicle.

But if you believe this slogan is true, do you also…

Do without eyeglasses, contact lens, magnifying glasses, sunglasses with 100% UVA/UVB protection, flashlights, floodlights, zoom lenses on cameras and zoom features on smartphones, Infrared rifle scopes, and Ultraviolet body fluid detectors?

Do you do without all these products of centuries of human, rational, scientific research and development in Atomic Theory, Biology, Chemistry, Optics, Optometry, Opthalmology, Chemistry, Physics, The Electromagnetic Spectrum, Particle and Wave Theory, Industrial Methods of Mass Production, and countless other disciplines, fields, and practices?

Do you just shrug all this off and say:

“I look not at things seen, but at things not seen?”(2 Corinthians 4:18.)

or

“Live by faith, not by sight?” (2 Corinthians 5:7.)

If your answer to these questions is anything like “No,” then just what does “IN GOD WE TRUST” really even mean?

Instead of trusting a “Supernatural Being” that “works in mysterious ways,” why not trust what you know is true and in front of you right now, the human ways and tools of Reason, Science, and The Enlightenment?

You’ll never stop learning and improving, and you will “Protect and Serve” yourself and fellow citizens even better!

(THIS DOCUMENT HAS NO COPYRIGHT. FEEL FREE TO COPY AND REDISTRIBUTE WORLDWIDE BY ANY AND ALL MEANS. PLEASE RESPECT PERSONAL CONSENT OF PROSPECTIVE READERS AND PRIVATE PROPERTY RIGHTS IN REDISTRIBUTING THIS FLYER.)

[TheEncogitationerParticipant]

Now a flyer on “In God We Trust” vs. evidence of the senses:

Greetings, Officer Friendly!

You have, no doubt, seen the slogan:
“IN GOD WE TRUST.”

You may have it as a decal on your patrol vehicle.

But if you believe this slogan is true, do you also…

Do without evidence provided by dashboard cameras; body cameras; surveillance cameras from establishments; cameras on smartphones; sonar, radar and lasers to detect speeders or search underwater; or X-Rays and CAT/MRI scans to examine crime victims?

Do you do without all these products of human, rational, scientific research and development in Physics, Atomic and Sub-Atomic Theory, Particle and Wave Theory, Electricity, Electronics, The Electromagnetic Spectrum, Radiology, Acoustics, Optics, Photography, Anatomy, Biology, Physiology, and Industrial Methods of Mass Production and countless other disciplines, fields, and practices?

Do you just shrug all this off and simply say:

“…Seek not after your own heart and your own eyes, after which ye use to go a whoring?” (Numbers 15:39.)

or

“Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen?” (Hebrews 11:1.)

If your answer to these questions is anything like “No,” then just what does “IN GOD WE TRUST” really even mean?

Instead of trusting a “Supernatural Being” that “works in mysterious ways,” why not trust what you know is true and in front of you right now, the human ways and tools of Reason, Science, and The Enlightenment?

You’ll never stop learning and improving, and you will “Protect and Serve” yourself and fellow citizens even better!

(THIS DOCUMENT HAS NO COPYRIGHT. FEEL FREE TO COPY AND REDISTRIBUTE WORLDWIDE BY ANY AND ALL MEANS. PLEASE RESPECT PERSONAL CONSENT OF PROSPECTIVE READERS AND PRIVATE PROPERTY RIGHTS IN REDISTRIBUTING THIS FLYER.)

[TheEncogitationerParticipant]

Fellow Unbelievers,

I now have a new series of flyers for a very specific situation happening in a lot of communities.

City and Town Police and Sheriff’s Departments all over the nation have both individual members and entire departments with patrol cars sporting decals saying: “In God We Trust.”

These flyers are not intended to put down or intimidate law enforcement officers, (they get too much of that already,) but to get officers to ask themselves just how far they go with that slogan and ask what is really worthy of their trust.  To begin at the beginning:

Greetings, Officer Friendly!

You have, no doubt, seen the slogan:
“IN GOD WE TRUST.”

You may have it as a decal on your patrol vehicle.

But if you believe this slogan is true, do you also…

Disregard The U.S. Constitution, The Bill of Rights, and the other Amendments?

After all, the name “God” is not in the body of any of these documents, nor are “Judaism,” “Christianity,” nor the name of any other religion. These documents are secular and neutral on the Supernatural, not pro, not con. They simply recognize individual rights to freedom of thought and expression and forbid government establishment of the Supernatural.

These documents were also written by men who denied that governments were established and blessed by a God, men who fought the oppressive dogma of “The Divine Right of Kings.”

Do you oppose The U.S. Constitution, The Bill of Rights, The Amendments, and their authors?

Do you just shrug all this off and say:

“Thou shalt in any wise set him king over thee, whom the Lord thy God shall choose; one from among thy brethren shalt thou set king over thee…?” (Deuteronomy 17:15a)

or

“Let every soul be subject onto the higher powers. For there is no power but of God; the powers that be are ordained by God. Whosoever therefore resisteth the power, resisteth the ordinance of God; and they that resist shall receive to themselves damnation?”(Romans 13:1-2.)

If your answer to these questions includes “No,” then what does “IN GOD WE TRUST” mean?

Instead of trusting a “Supernatural Being” that “works in mysterious ways,” why not trust what you know is true and in front of you right now, the human ways and tools of Reason, Science, and The Enlightenment, including a secular government limited by individual rights?

You’ll never stop learning and improving, and you will “Protect and Serve” yourself and fellow citizens even better!

(THIS DOCUMENT HAS NO COPYRIGHT. FEEL FREE TO COPY AND REDISTRIBUTE WORLDWIDE BY ANY AND ALL MEANS. PLEASE RESPECT PERSONAL CONSENT OF PROSPECTIVE READERS AND PRIVATE PROPERTY RIGHTS IN REDISTRIBUTING THIS FLYER.)

[TheEncogitationerParticipant]

Unseen,

Oh, and don’t forget The Lollypop Guild that featherbeds and overprices all the work and Talking Trees that self-forbid the fruit of knowledge. 🙂

[TheEncogitationerParticipant]

Unseen,

“Woulda, shoulda, coulda” applies to past mistaken paths, but “Will, Ought, and Can” applies now, and are gold bricks on a path to The Land of Oz, where we learn that what we want and need can be within us all along.

As long as we don’t let the Poppies, Marching Winkies, and Flying Monkeys hold us back, we can have it good.

[TheEncogitationerParticipant]

Fellow Unbelievers,

Jakelafort wrote:

Unseen, as to your most recent scribbles I am in agreement. However we humans have given no indication we are capable of retarding or halting the advancement of tech. The experts i read/listened to opine that super intelligence is within a generation and at its genesis will be a gazillion power of magnitude greater than the human brain and that there is no putting the genie back in the bottle.

Jake is absolutely correct here.  Thomas Paine once observed that once men know the truth, you cannot make them un-know the truth, and it is just as true with the knowledge of how to make AI.

Banning AI would be just as futile as banning Nuclear/Biological/Chemical (NBC) weapons on the global stage or firearms and pharmaceuticals on our own streets. A ban only gives a monopoly of the technology to the worst among us.

The best we can do is forbid certain relationships between technology and humans and enforce it ruthlessly.  Humans who make and use AI to provide for their fellow humans should be praised to the skies.  Humans who make and use AI to victimize, enslave, and destroy humans and their creations should be treated like Ma Barker and her spawn.

Further it is my opinion that none of us can make an educated guess whether super intelligence AI will be indifferent, baleful, or kindly disposed towards us.

It is my guess that consciousness that arises over billions of years biologically is always impure with an unhealthy admixture of conscious and unconscious processes.

As the Aussies say: “Too right!”

• This reply was modified 4 years, 7 months ago by  TheEncogitationer. Reason: Addendum

[TheEncogitationerParticipant]

Unseen,

You wrote:

I will reiterate that basic problem every programmer knows and dreads: computers do what you tell them to do not what you thought you were telling them to do.

In this case, the problem is actually operator error, not the computer’s error.  The operator should make sure that what is wanted is expressed with precision so that the computer executes the desired effect.

Also, if humans are still the ones telling the computer what to do and the computer is still the one doing it to instructions, then what is involved here is not an independent AI.

As with Issac Asimov–(Hey! That’s almost a palindrome clause!)– I do not fear computers.  I fear the lack of them.

 

[TheEncogitationerParticipant]

Jakelafort,

No doubt fire-making was and still is a crucial skill of humanity.  Doing it with electricity, friction, flint-and-steel, a magnifying glass, or even with a well-placed drop of water is indeed a feat of mastery.  But for me it’s mastery over nature and my place in it, not to lord it over anybody.

Sadistic parents do indeed use scary stories as tools of control, but kids use them with each other too.  Seen and used properly, they can inoculate against fear as well.

• This reply was modified 4 years, 7 months ago by  TheEncogitationer. Reason: spacing

[TheEncogitationerParticipant]

Jakelafort,

You wrote:

In the same way a dater may reject a potential date based on profiling, or a handicapper may reject upon cursory examination a prospect to win a race; so it is that the nature of purportedly holy books is enough to safely eschew its contents although it may serve well to start a fire under the stars.

Now, now, Jake.  There’s no call for destroying even horrible books.  We humans have to know what barbarians we once were to keep from going back to that state, both now and in the future.

Besides, so-called “holy books” have some scary stories to share with hot dogs and s’mores around that campfire. 🔥🌭👹

[TheEncogitationerParticipant]

Glen D,

I am interested in getting into The Rig Vedas.  So I am led to understand, Hindus claim that the book is unauthored.

That is probably even more bizarre than claiming a book is “The Word of God” either directly or by proxy via an illiterate shepherd memorizing the words of Allah from The Archangel Jibril.

I mean, did the words of The Rig Vedas just float onto the pages from nowhere??? 🤔

• This reply was modified 4 years, 7 months ago by  TheEncogitationer.

[TheEncogitationerParticipant]

Ivy,

To answer your question, the works I’ve read that others consider sacred include: The Holy Bible (King James Version,)–actually written by a committee appointed by King James I, passages of The Mishnah (as part of a course on Judaism,) The Holy Qu’ran (as much as I could stomach; it is a boringly repetitive and violent book,) The Tao Te Ching (which actually has lots of insights on the nature of government,) plus The Book of the SubGenius and Revelation X: The “Bob” Apocryphon both by Rev. Ivan Stang of The Church of the SubGenius, “The joke that became a religion that became a joke.” “PRAISE ‘BOB’!” 🥳

(The latter two books were for giggles and guffaws and gee-jaws and gimcracks.  The Shish’Qa’Bob’Ballah alone is a scream to contemplate! Yes, I paid my $30 to Rev. J.R. “Bob” Dobbs and his wife/matriarch Connie.)

[TheEncogitationerParticipant]

Fellow Unbelievers,

Here is an update.  Now, the 1000 person convocation of the Charlotte United House of Prayer has resulted in 143 infections and 5 deaths, along with 7 hospitalizations. A Hell of a price to pay for piety and fellowship.  Even members are now condemning church leaders over this:

Some religious leaders continue to hold services online in light of super spreader event
https://www.wcnc.com/mobile/article/news/health/coronavirus/some-religious-leaders-continue-to-hold-services-online-in-light-of-super-spreader-event/275-946c15ff-5393-467a-87ac-a1ff31c7ece8

[TheEncogitationerParticipant]

Unseen,

I know that confirmed, conscious Atheists wouldn’t believe AI or anything or anybody is a god, but the narrator of the video did mention the possibility of AI as becoming a god, so I had to respond.

As for AI as a strictly natural entity, I think we should look at all of it’s potential, not just the worst ones and use what we know about raising intelligent human beings to bring out the best potential for AI.

We could impart to AI that we humans created it and the we want only good things for AI and ourselves at the same time, that ours could be a mutually beneficial relationship, and then follow through and demonstrate it.

If we’re dealing with an intelligent being, let’s treat it that way.

[TheEncogitationerParticipant]

Fellow Unbelievers,

I proport no technical expertise on the subject of Artificial Intelligence (AI..)  Judging, however, from the beginning video/sales pitch for SkillShare, I can say this much about AI that is of relevance to Atheism, Secularism, and Naturalism:

AI may have the potential to equal and exceed humans in knowledge absorption, intelligence, and mechanical abilities (to the extent AI is connected to mechanical systems.)  However, if AI takes up spatio-temporal coordinates in the Natural Universe, if it can commit error or break down, if it can lose the structural integrity and self-locomotion that we call life, then AI, contrary to the narrator, is not a god.

At most, AI is another natural being like ourselves that has super-augmented versions of our own traits, for either good or ill.  It certainly deserves our awe, it may deserve admiration or disdain, but not worship and blind faith and obedience that humans normally give to alleged gods.

Also, if we don’t yet know all of the potential good or ill of AI, it is no different, in this regard, then a newborn human.  Every outpatient of the maternity ward is either a potential boon and savior of our kind or potential enemy and destroyer of our kind.  It all depends on learning, nurturing, direction, and volition which path the outpatient takes.

Humans have had enough problems with other humans in the forms of superstition, dogma, ideology, prejudice, hatred, intentionally-inflicted poverty, starvation, war, barbarity, and tyranny, throughout history and in the Twentieth Century in particular.  Could AI make any of this any worse?  Could AI mean the end of all these horrors?  As with all other questions, rational beings can only go where the evidence takes us.

[TheEncogitationerParticipant]

Reg,

Oh, and there was only one reference to “Abba” (meaning “father.”)  Small wonder the Swedes are so secular.

👱‍♂️👱‍♀️👨‍🍳 “Ee deesh vur de Grim Fairy Tales, mit no ‘Dancing Queen’ or ‘Waterloo.’  No goot!”

[Author]

Posts