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PaperclipPerfector  5d ago (text post)   3113 thread views

Small-Scale Question Sunday for September 13, 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.

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Are you familiar with the atheist arguments that God's relationship to us could not possibly be loving, because it's based on coercion through threats and bribes? In my view, there's a pretty solid argument that it has to be this way for our choice to be freely made.

Interrogation of truthfulness is a good thing; my main objection is that most people I see attempting it seem to me to be doing it poorly: strict Materialists incapable of recognizing breaks in Materialism, for example.

You could argue that any relationship built on communication with a higher entity would necessarily be one built on coercion, sure. But without communication there is no relationship. When one can't be sure if he's speaking with God or with the echoes of his own mind refracted through religious culture, where does freely made choice even come into it?

When one can't be sure if he's speaking with God or with the echoes of his own mind refracted through religious culture, where does freely made choice even come into it?

Why do you need to be sure? Most (all?) major and highly consequential decisions you make in your life, you have to make without being "sure". Why should this one be different? You can, if you choose, believe in God. You can, if you choose, proceed under the axiom that he has communicated, and even that he continues to communicate. Many people do this, and many of those who do report good results. You can do likewise or not as you prefer.

You can argue that things ought to work a certain way or not at all, but this isn't generally how the world works in the cases where we can test it, and if others don't agree with your logic, why be confident that the way you think it ought to be is basic reality, and not your own biases and models echoing back to you?

Being unsure about some aspects of our reality and being unsure about God are very different kinds of unsure, as you've highlighted with your model of layered realities.

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