Game for atheists and theists

[Aino Ailill]

Rilian

Aino Ailill

There is no correct answer. The purpose of the test is to see if your logic is consistent.

If you answer the question of omnipotence as True, then the correct answer for square circles is True, yet it takes away points for that.

Basically what it is telling you is that if you think a being which deserved to be called God would be omnipotent, then you are being unreasonable. And yet on the do-it-yourself deity, they say that a God SHOULD be omnipotent.

Not mine...

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So that means the right answer to the omnipotence question is True, and the right answer to the square circles question is also True, and they take off points for it because they didn't scan for internal consistency in their website.

Did you take a direct hit or bite the bullet?

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Don't respond by telling me that I am taking it too seriously or w/e. I'm not taking it seriously. I'm just saying what the problem with the game is.

I had no intention of doing so.  

[Prince Rilian]

The game asks "is something worth calling God omnipotent?" And I think the answer is yes. But the game will not allow you to get the highest award if you answer that way. And yet elsewhere on the website, they say that a God should be omnipotent.

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The metaphysical engineers are happy to report that, to the best of their knowledge, the God you conceive is internally consistent and could exist in our universe. But they are less sure that what you have described deserves the name of God. She is not, for example, all-powerful. A God which knows everything or is totally benign may be a wonderful ideal, but is she really a God unless she has ultimate power?

1. God exists. False. I define God as omniscient and omnipotent, because otherwise it would simply be an organism that evolved.



3. Any being which it is right to call God must be free to do anything. True, because any being that isn't omnipotent is simply an evolved organism, or not the ultimate cause behind the things that happen in the universe. God must be omnipotent.



5. Any being which it is right to call God must have the power to do anything. True. This is the same as question #2.




8. Any being that it is right to call God must know everything that there is to know. True.






12. If God exists she could make it so that everything now considered sinful becomes morally acceptable and everything that is now considered morally good becomes sinful. True.

16. If God exists she would have the freedom and power to create square circles and make 1 + 1 = 72. TRUE. I have previously stated that God is omnipotent, so of course he would have the power to do ANYTHING. The game should have taken note that I answered the first question as FALSE. Because an omnipotent God would the power to do something that is impossible, an omnipotent God cannot exist.

However, the game responds like this:

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In saying that God has the freedom and power to do that which is logically impossible (like creating square circles), you are saying that any discussion of God and ultimate reality cannot be constrained by basic principles of rationality. This would seem to make rational discourse about God impossible. If rational discourse about God is impossible, there is nothing rational we can say about God and nothing rational we can say to support our belief or disbelief in God. To reject rational constraints on religious discourse in this fashion requires accepting that religious convictions, including your religious convictions, are beyond any debate or rational discussion. This is to bite a bullet.

There is indeed something rational we can say about a God who is omnipotent (which includes the power to make square circles). We can say that that God doesn't exist. There is something I can say in support of disbelief in God: that he is an impossible being, and therefore does not exist. This technique is common in disproving things. You start by assuming that what you are trying to disprove is true. Then, if it gives rise to a contradiction, you know it is not true. So I start by assuming that an omnipotent God exists, and then it gives rise to the contradiction of square circles, so LOGICALLY, RATIONALLY I know that an omnipotent God cannot exist.

This is in no way "beyond any debate or rational discussion".

Also, I do not have any religious convictions. I do not believe in this impossible God. Even though on the first question I told the game that I do not believe in God, it seems to assume that I BELIEVE in the God I am describing throughout the rest of the game.

I answered all of these questions correctly. Assuming that a God would be omnipotent, the only right answer is that YES God would be able to make square circles, and NO, God is not real.

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You have to bite a bullet if your choices have an implication that most would find strange, incredible or unpalatable.

But this would only apply if I believed this God existed. I don't actually believe that God can make square circles, because I don't believe that God exists or even could exist. Atheists who think a God would not be able to make square circles clearly don't think omnipotence is a requirement for being called God.