site banner
PaperclipPerfector  1mo ago (text post)   2314 thread views

Small-Scale Question Sunday for April 12, 2026

Do you have a dumb question that you're kind of embarrassed to ask in the main thread? Is there something you're just not sure about?

This is your opportunity to ask questions. No question too simple or too silly.

Culture war topics are accepted, and proposals for a better intro post are appreciated.

1
Top Bottom Old Controversial Comments
Jump in the discussion.

No email address required.

Did you know that Christ is risen from the dead, putting down death by death?

I never found faith. Hopefully God can forgive that little design flaw in my wetware, if He is indeed out there.

I keep coming back to the thought that He could at least announce himself loud and clear if He actually cares to be heard.

As is, I'm willing to believe in a creator and lord over all that is, I just find it much harder to believe that He actually has any interest in us humans.

What constitutes 'loud and clear'? Genuine question.

I have a budding(but never actually written up) ten thousand word effort post on miraculous evidence for the truths of Christianity. Unfortunately, I would be unable to handle the blasphemies surely uttered against it, probably I would get an AAQC and a permaban in the same thread. This is why I avoid faith topics/proofs in general(my dm's are open to inquirers, sure). But this stuff... exists, even if I'm not the person to make the argument. What constitutes sufficient evidence?

My problem is something similar to the problem of evil, but it's not evil that's the issue, but unclear communications.

If God is all-powerful and all-benevolent and our cognizance of God matters, then why isn't he just talking to each and every one of us directly in clear, impossible-to-ignore language that we dumb people actually understand?

Instead it's all symbols and vague feelings and reports from questionable sources, all of which make it seem like divinity is a barely-coherent concept kept alive by wishful thinking.

I can kind-of square that circle through either:

  • Lack of power: God created the world and all that is in it, and cares about us, but is not actually able to to interact with us.
  • Lack of benevolence: God created the world and all that is in it, and is able to interact with it, but doesn't actually care about us.
  • Lack of God: The world and everything in it is some materialist accident, existence is a fluke.

None of which seem particularly satisfying, but "God dropped us off with a confusing book and some maybe-miracles a few thousand years ago and now we just need to take it on faith, even though he could of course have angels turmpeting right in front of us and informing us of divinity in plain English on a daily basis, but chooses not to, because [apologetics]." doesn't really it do it for me either. Sorry for that. Much like @KingOfTheBailey, He wired me up wrong.

If you were creating an LLM, would you train on the test set? If not, does that mean that you lack benevolence? You could just clearly and directly give it the answers!

Of course I lack benevolence towards an LLM. I can be polite to it out of habit, but I wouldn't hesitate to do horrible things to it if that made it work better.

if that made it work better

It seems to me that you are saying that you have goals for what you want the end product to be like. As such, I think you're implicitly affirming that you would choose to not do things like train on the test set. That is, you wouldn't just clearly and directly give it the answers, even though you could.

Now, the question seems to me, "What do you even mean by benevolence?" You originally said:

Lack of benevolence: God created the world and all that is in it, and is able to interact with it, but doesn't actually care about us.

But this sort of doesn't make direct sense. You care about the LLM you're creating. You deeply care about it, at least in that you very much care to "ma[k]e it work better". It seems like you're using some other sense of words that is not fully fleshed-out. Like, maybe to be benevolent, you have to care about some particular type of goal or in some particular way, but other types of caring/goals do not count, or something. I think we just don't have enough information to figure out whether this reasoning makes much sense.

but chooses not to, because it would be boring to watch

That's my explanation.

Can't fault Him for that, if so.

Amen! Don’t worry, He is big on forgiveness I hear.

And to those pissing in residing in the coffins gifting life?

No? A few people have been buried alive because they had an unnoticable heartbeat or something and then been rescued; but other than those arguable technicalities, Death stands undefeated with a perfect track record against humanity.

Far more than a few actually. In Britain at one point it was so common (enough to warrant a solution to the problem at least) that they tied bells to the foot of the deceased at the time of burial so the watchmen on duty could detect when someone had accidentally been buried alive.

;)

Aren't you a week late?

There are a ton of neat paradoxes in Christ's life and death and resurrection: "He became sin who knew no sin"

The orthodox are late to every holiday.

Pope Gregory and his ripping days off the calendar gets us all in the end.

And every service, and every event, and every informal gathering...

My parish has a custom of celebrating the Ascension every year by going up to the top of our local ersatz Mount Tabor. The first time I participated, I paid attention when the priest went to great lengths to make sure we all knew exactly where to park and what to do, and how long various routes would take, such that we could all be there on time and not miss the service. I was a single father at the time and did my best, but was sweating because I could tell I was gonna be about 20 minutes late.

When I got there, no one else was around. Had I missed it entirely?

The first other parishioner arrived about an hour after that. They trickled in over time, and we did the service about two hours after we'd all agreed we would. No one seemed the slightest bit surprised by this.

Punctuality is about the only thing I miss about Protestantism.

...

My priest told me not long ago that he has such different experiences counseling (ethnic) Americans and Greeks. The Americans, he says, are perpetually-terrified about their own salvation, but generally seem to rock it in life. The Greeks have no concerns about salvation, but he has to work extra hard to get them to do things like hold down gainful employment or make smart decisions about the future. Since I don't know what to say about that I guess I'm presenting it without comment.

Didn’t know you were orthodox.

Byzantine Catholics start services late(but usually use the Latin calendar for feasts in the US), too, it’s just an eastern rite thing- but our stereotype is for technically a Latin mainstream Americans who go there to be the ones who can’t manage their personal lives, and the ethnics to be successful diaspora types.

I'm Orthodox baby!!!!

Carry on! Happy Easter!

Glazed raisin cakes are some of the best parts of Christian culture that I'm glad to appropriate.

Did you know that the glaze symbolizes semen?

Is it taboo to eat that cake in prison?

It is taboo to tell them this.

Extra glaze here please, hold the raisins.

What is this place?

This website is a place for people who want to move past shady thinking and test their ideas in a court of people who don't all share the same biases. Our goal is to optimize for light, not heat; this is a group effort, and all commentators are asked to do their part.

The weekly Culture War threads host the most controversial topics and are the most visible aspect of The Motte. However, many other topics are appropriate here. We encourage people to post anything related to science, politics, or philosophy; if in doubt, post!

Check out The Vault for an archive of old quality posts. You are encouraged to crosspost these elsewhere.


Why are you called The Motte?

A motte is a stone keep on a raised earthwork common in early medieval fortifications. More pertinently, it's an element in a rhetorical move called a "Motte-and-Bailey", originally identified by philosopher Nicholas Shackel. It describes the tendency in discourse for people to move from a controversial but high value claim to a defensible but less exciting one upon any resistance to the former. He likens this to the medieval fortification, where a desirable land (the bailey) is abandoned when in danger for the more easily defended motte. In Shackel's words, "The Motte represents the defensible but undesired propositions to which one retreats when hard pressed."

On The Motte, always attempt to remain inside your defensible territory, even if you are not being pressed.


New post guidelines

If you're posting something that isn't related to the culture war, we encourage you to post a thread for it. A submission statement is highly appreciated, but isn't necessary for text posts or links to largely-text posts such as blogs or news articles; if we're unsure of the value of your post, we might remove it until you add a submission statement. A submission statement is required for non-text sources (videos, podcasts, images).

Culture war posts go in the culture war thread; all links must either include a submission statement or significant commentary. Bare links without those will be removed.

If in doubt, please post it!


Rules


Recommended Posts And Communities

Recommended Realtime Chats