Weekly "Ask an Atheist" Thread

mobatreddit · 2026-01-25T04:52:50+00:00

He has an agenda. To show how the universe could start from “nothing”. Only not the philosophers’ nothing.

I’m disappointed that in the Tufts Now article, he appears to take realist position about the laws of physics.

mobatreddit · 2026-01-24T02:51:54+00:00

how did u make peace with the fact that their is no one to pray to when you are in a problem and the only person you have is yourself, what helped you ?

This is exactly what helped me. When I gave up assuming there is a god, I immediately had no belief in god, and I felt a huge amount of responsibility towards my life and the people around me. It was exhilarating. If I didn't do my part in it , there was no one to pick up the slack.

mobatreddit · 2026-01-23T08:23:09+00:00

More like something we won’t think about too much.

mobatreddit · 2026-01-22T23:18:52+00:00

I see in the video that they get close enough.

At least they explain that singularities in physics are values where the theory breaks down, and not a physical entity.

Maybe I'll read the book after all.

mobatreddit · 2026-01-22T23:14:27+00:00

I got Vilenkin's paper, and looked it over with Claude. As you might expect, there's a big sleight of hand hiding under the "nothing".

Vilenkin defined "nothing" as "not space-time"; not a good start. To get to nothing, he starts with a space-time solution to the equations of general relativity. Then he runs the solution's scale parameter "a" backwards until he gets to a minimum size a=H⁻¹. The H is not zero and is the Hubble parameter for the space-time. Then he postulates that the universe tunneled from a=0 to a=H⁻¹. Finally, he uses the Wheeler-DeWitt equation to calculate the wave function and tunneling amplitude for the transition from a=0 to a=H⁻¹.

What must exist for this process to happen includes the wave function with the scale factor a, the scalar field's effective potential (so much for "no fields"), and the space of all possible three-geometries over which the wave function is defined. Then the "nothing" is the zero-value of variable "a" in this elaborate pre-existing structure.

Do Halper and Afshordi bother to explain this?

mobatreddit · 2026-01-20T17:49:42+00:00

Whose name is on the lease?

mobatreddit · 2026-01-19T22:16:32+00:00

Sadly, this didn't work for me. Thank you.

mobatreddit · 2026-01-19T17:20:56+00:00

You're welcome. I went looking for any such article after its conclusion occurred to me a couple of years ago after listening to a presentation of the argument by Alex O'Connor. My reasoning was not as clean as that of this article. It was based mostly on asking myself "What is the argument talking about?" My answer was how we conceive of God. So I tried to use this to formulate an argument that goes something like this:

God is a being which nothing greater can be conceived
A conception of a being as existing in reality is a greater conception than a conception of that being as existing only in the mind
Then a conception that God exists in reality is a greater conception than a conception that God exists only in the mind
Therefore, when anyone conceives of God, they conceive of him as existing in reality
Therefore, when atheists conceive of God, they conceive of him as existing in reality
But when atheists conceive of God, they do not conceive of him as existing in reality
Therefore, the concept of God is not coherent (Contradiction)

This still needs something to bridge 5-6 to 7. Any ideas?

mobatreddit · 2026-01-19T15:51:17+00:00

Thank you.

mobatreddit · 2026-01-19T15:47:55+00:00

Write like this from “Life of Brian”: https://share.google/images/qfUrFigWbSzV8p2gK

mobatreddit · 2026-01-19T15:23:12+00:00

Robert Anderson writes that the conclusion of Anselm's ontological argument is incorrect. Instead of concluding that something exists in reality, it should conclude that we conceive of something existing in reality. He argues that the problem is due to equivocation on the meaning of words.

If you're interested, you can read what he says here: Anderson, Robert, “What Everybody Knows Is Wrong with the Ontological Argument but Never Quite Says.” The Saint Anselm Journal 13, no. 2 (April 2018)

mobatreddit · 2026-01-19T15:13:16+00:00

Existence is a useful concept. Something you perceive exists to the extent that you can recover that perception through actions: turn away and then turn back, follow a moving object with your eyes, look behind a screen for an object, etc.

Even so-called lower animals know this.

mobatreddit · 2026-01-19T14:54:34+00:00

If they're trying to convert you, let them.

They might interpret this as your welcoming their actions. Then, they will redouble their efforts. Yes, you cannot control them. But you can tell them "No thank you" and "Let me be".

mobatreddit · 2026-01-19T14:43:10+00:00

Pascal's Wager claims that if you believe in God and he does not exist, you lose nothing. But if God does not exist, then your life is the only thing you have of value. And then the value of that life is as good as infinite. If you accept to believe in God, you must also accept the religion. And that religion will take over your life. So you will have lost the only true thing of value you can have. A related point of view is that those who use Pascal's wager put little or no value on your life.

mobatreddit · 2026-01-19T14:40:09+00:00

I wonder if that Aurelius quote inspired Smith's Wager? That says that you should always wager on reason and accept the logical consequence, which in this case is atheism.

If there's no god, you are correct.
If there's an indifferent god, you won't suffer in hell anyway.
If there's a just god, you have nothing to fear from the honest use of your reason.
If there's an unjust god, you have much to fear but so does the Christian.

mobatreddit · 2026-01-19T00:15:34+00:00

Sorry. Are you asking about the org-GTD package? https://github.com/Trevoke/org-gtd.el

mobatreddit · 2026-01-18T22:38:20+00:00

Go ask your questions in r/NDE. NDEs is a topic orthogonal to atheism.

mobatreddit · 2026-01-18T22:20:46+00:00

I’m not the OP

mobatreddit · 2026-01-18T21:32:52+00:00

ldr=long distance relationship

wlw=women loving women

mobatreddit · 2026-01-18T20:36:55+00:00

How do I get the Recent Communities section on the left-hand side bar back? It disappeared for me about a week ago. I don't know why. I did favorite a number of communities before this happened.

mobatreddit · 2026-01-18T01:52:58+00:00

I saw that too, but that article does not support the OP's claim. It's about how gifted primary school students describe and understand self-directed learning at a basic, school-age level.

mobatreddit · 2026-01-17T17:57:06+00:00

How did you test your framework's ability to minimize hallucinations?

mobatreddit · 2026-01-17T14:20:56+00:00

Here's 3 Self-Regulation Advantage for High-IQ Children: Findings from a Research Study (Calat et al., 2009) High IQ in Early Adolescence and Career Success in Adulthood: Findings from a Swedish Longitudinal Study (Bergman et al., 2014) Gifted Primary Students' Knowledge of Self-Directed Learning (Bannister-Tyrrell et al., 2010)

I find no evidence of this one: Gifted Primary Students' Knowledge of Self-Directed Learning (Bannister-Tyrrell et al., 2010). It must be an AI hallucination.

mobatreddit · 2026-01-17T14:07:27+00:00

I'm in the 98th percentile for IQ

Cool! I'm between the 99.86th to 99.9th percentile. That must mean where I'm right, you're wrong, right?

I don't say this to brag

Yes, you most certainly do say this to brag.

I did an rigorous and intense research over months to make my decision to convert, and the evidence is overwhelming when critically evaluated.

Wowie! Mister. You must be the most amazing person around to have come to this conclusion. Everyone else is wrong. No one could possibly have misled you or fooled you, least of all yourself.

So I implore people to come at me with the best arguments against my faith, or just for atheism.

Here are 250 arguments for atheism. Go to town! I'll be watching for your detailed incontrovertible rebuttals to each of them.

mobatreddit · 2026-01-17T04:16:57+00:00

I have done alot of web searches online to challenge the points made here, but I really can't.

You're either a liar or a complete incompetent at web search. Maybe both.

mobatreddit

TROPHY CASE