Saturday, May 19, 2007

miraculous?

It is said that for ourselves to exist, the physical constants of this universe have to be exquisitely fine-tuned. But here, probability only makes sense as frequency. I'm not trying to be a frequentist. Only the frequentist interpretation of probability makes sense here. Do we have access to other universes? If we do, we would be able to see in which of all these universes, life did form. Could it really have been any other way? The universe just is. Asking why only makes sense if asking "why not" is worse. "Why is the universe so?" and "Why not?" are equally good questions, of which the answers are equally hard to imagine.

Are necessary truths really necessary? Hardly, they are only the accidental workings of our minds. But if we take that into account, then anything is possible! Anything at all. Even God! To a lot of people, unfortunately, the existence of God is already so obvious as to be impossible to doubt. That's why I advocate apathetic atheism. Emphasizing the irrelevance of God in our lives, even if He does exist. There really is no "ought" from "is"...

Fortunately though, our universe seems to be consistent. And there are necessary truths. But only within this particular universe. Anything outside is just...anything. Conclusion? Only what affects us can possibly matter. Therefore only what does affect us matter. The supernatural is thus necessarily irrelevant. As irrelevant as (but not more than) fiction.

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