A cool guide to Epicurean paradox - eviltoast
  • exanime@lemmy.world
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    3 months ago

    How could you apply, for instance, a rule that says “don’t murder” to a thing that is incapable of death in any way that we would understand it?

    What??!? Murdering is about ending other’s lives. If I were immortal, how does that prevent me from killing someone else who is mortal???

    It’s ok to have faith which literally means you believe in something without a shred of evidence (or worse, evidence to the contrary). But again the epicurean paradox is not about the existence of god, is about defining his character

    The actual “answer”, which is no answer at all, for this paradox is “god acts in mysterious ways”. That has been the cop out all religions have come up with

    • HelixDab2@lemm.ee
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      3 months ago

      Murdering is about ending other’s lives.

      But murder is also something that really only applies to rough equals; you wouldn’t call it murder to squish a mosquito. ‘Don’t murder’ is fundamentally a golden rule issue; you don’t want it done to you, so you shouldn’t do it to other people. If you can’t die, then that principle breaks down. (Unless there are other gods, and ‘death’ means something different to them? I think that’s getting into fantasy even more than religion usually does.)

      • exanime@lemmy.world
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        3 months ago

        But murder is also something that really only applies to rough equals;

        Why?

        you wouldn’t call it murder to squish a mosquito

        I wouldn’t because killing animals is not in the definition of murder, but certainly PETA people would call me a murdered for simply eating a cow. I get there is nuance in the language but ending a life doesn’t really have much to do with me having a life as well.

        ‘Don’t murder’ is fundamentally a golden rule issue; you don’t want it done to you, so you shouldn’t do it to other people

        You are conflating these 2; I see no relationship with these 2 concepts. I have never made a movie yet I have pirated some, do you imply I couldn’t possibly have pirated a movie since I do not have my own movie or similar intellectual property to be pirated from me?. The 10 commandments includes: “You shall not commit adultery.” If I am single, does that mean I am exempt?

        • HelixDab2@lemm.ee
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          3 months ago

          I wouldn’t because killing animals is not in the definition of murder,

          The definition of murder also doesn’t include a god killing another god.

          You are conflating these 2; I see no relationship with these 2 concepts.

          You shouldn’t pirate because, if you had intellectual property, you would not want it to be stolen. You should not commit adultery because if you were in a relationship, you would not want your partner to cheat on you. If a god can not die at all, then telling a god that killing is bad because they wouldn’t want to be killed simply isn’t going to be meaningful.

          • exanime@lemmy.world
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            3 months ago

            The definition of murder also doesn’t include a god killing another god.

            which, nobody mentioned this far?.. you can’t make a claim and then attack it to justify your point. That is the definition of a strawman argument

            If a god can not die at all, then telling a god that killing is bad because they wouldn’t want to be killed simply isn’t going to be meaningful.

            So, according to you, this means an immortal god would not even understand why killing is bad? Sorry but I do not see the correlation here. Assuming your point for a moment, then none of the commandments hold any meaning to god since I cannot steal, harm or cheat an all-powerful entity.