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Permalink Reply by DeafAtheist on September 6, 2010 at 4:15pm

I gotta say a spaceship carrying the DNA of each species of animal is actually more believable than the "real" story of putting 2 of every animal on a single boat.

I had actually never heard of Raelians before. It sounds interesting... deluded, but interesting.

Permalink Reply by DeafAtheist on September 6, 2010 at 4:34pm

True, it is another form of god theory, just replacing gods with a highly advanced alien species. However I would not associate it with supernaturalism because there's a difference between magically creating something and using an advanced technology to create something. It's like associating cloning with supernaturalism and it's not the same thing.

I wouldn't consider an advanced alien technology to be a religious artifact unless humans were to mistakenly consider it to be religious due to not knowing the true origins of it but knowing that it's not something that exists on earth. Mind control isn't really a far fetched idea when we have human so eagerly willing to believe in supernaturalism because having faith is easier than leaning facts. Pat Condell said in one of his videos:

[QUOTE]Of course not everyone who has religious faith is a complete idiot, but a lot of stupid people do have faith because they're stupid for the simple reason that believing is a hell of a lot easier than thinking. It takes time and effort to acquire knowledge, whereas any fool can acquire faith instantly and effortlessly.[/QUOTE]

Humans also often use mind-altering drugs... recreationally....voluntarily. So the idea of using some kind of technology to control them minds of humanity is not far outside of the realm of possibility. After all the brain functions by electrical impulses.

So I wouldn't associate a belief in alien influence on humanity as particularly religious or supernatural. It's a whole different kind of nuttery altogether.

Permalink Reply by Daniel on September 6, 2010 at 5:04pm

I think you're just splitting hairs here:

Law #3: Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic. - Arthur C. Clarke

>> I wouldn't consider an advanced alien technology to be a religious artifact unless humans were to mistakenly consider it to be religious due to not knowing the true origins

This is exactly case the game has put forward.

>> It takes time and effort to acquire knowledge, whereas any fool can acquire faith instantly and effortlessly

I don't know if this is true as I never had faith but it's still awesome.

>> So I wouldn't associate a belief in alien influence on humanity as particularly religious or supernatural

I lost you a little here, this goes back to my original complaint about setting aside disbelief for the sake of submersion. We have to assume the game is not meant to be allegorical to reality and that we won't encounter another deus ex machina. For all we know the aliens could be lizard men in disguise we are hallucinating, dreaming and in a VR inside another VR...

This is why I'm painting with such a broad stroke, "it's just another god theory".

Permalink Reply by DeafAtheist on September 6, 2010 at 5:54pm

Advanced technology would only be indistinguishable to someone who was unfamiliar with it. Say time travel was hypothetically possible today and one could travel to the past and bring present technology with them. Show someone a modern cell phone who lives in the early 1900's... That person might think it's magical, when the reality is it's not. It's an issue of perception, but a duck is still a duck.

You can't effortlessly or instantly acquire faith because you're not a fool. It's common knowledge that people with higher IQs tend to be more skeptical while people with lower IQs tend to accept simpler answers that have more certainty.

I do get your point, but my point is simply that there is a difference between supernaturalism and science fiction.

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