Paradox Point

Tuesday, July 21, 2015

On Corrigibility of the Pope

On Corrigibility of the Pope

Elsewhere on this blog I have argued against papal infallibility on metamathematical grounds. As Goedel proved in his Second Incompleteness Theorem, no arithmetical deductive system can truthfully prove its own consistency. If it can prove that it can’t fail, then that proof itself is a failure. Perfectionism is jinxed!

This jinx afflicts not just papal theology, but also national security doctrines, corporate planning, and financial structures. In each case institutions are tempted by the deadly illusion of absolute self-justification.

Infallibilism fails because it cannot admit error, therefore it cannot correct for error, therefore it accumulates error. Counter to infallibility is error-correction, also known as corrigibility. Science is ostensibly based upon a philosophy of corrigibility. Note that I said ‘ostensibly’ based upon a philosophy of corrigibility, in keeping with that very philosophy!

The difference between infallibility and corrigibility is that the former demands our respect, and the latter merely deserves it.

The latest two Popes may be taking my advice to abandon papal infallibility and embrace papal corrigibility. Francis reversed course on several issues, and Benedict reversed course on being Pope.

Monday, July 20, 2015

Unconscious Autotheism

Unconscious Autotheism

Check out:

http://www.smh.com.au/technology/sci-tech/god-as-it-turns-out-looks-a-lot-like-you-20091201-k3xe.html

Quote:

Researchers led by Nicholas Epley, a professor of behavioural science at the University of Chicago, said believers often rely on what they think God wants them to do as a “moral compass”. But this is a poor analogy, they found. “The central feature of a compass is that it points north no matter what direction a person is facing,” they wrote. “Unlike an actual compass, inferences about God’s beliefs may instead point people further in whatever direction they are already facing.”

So really God is moral inertial guidance.

The Greek philosopher Xenophanes jested that if horses and oxen had hands and could make art then they would make statues of gods that look like themselves.

This skeptical insight is now confirmed by standard psychological testing. People tend to think God agrees with them about everything; and when you manipulate their beliefs, they tend to think that God, too, changed his mind.

I particularly like the brain scans. When people think about what they think, the same brain areas light up as when they think about what God thinks; whereas different areas light up when they think about what other people think.