WSJ article (paywall-free MSN syndication)
Edit: y’all see the alt-text above? 🤔 Tried the Voyager feature for the first time. Will copy below the old way for now:
alt-text
WSJ
Elon Musk's Walk With Jesus
The billionaire has been invoking Christianity as he discusses core beliefs
By Tim Higgins
Aug. 17, 2024 5:30 am ET
Elon Musk is publicly offering his own interpretation of Jesus' teachings with an Old Testament twist.
Mike Masnick @mmasnick.bsky[…]
"You have got to be kidding me..."
Anil Dash @anildash.com
"I heard there's an institution that doesn't have to pay any taxes and repeatedly systematically abuses children, and I decided I wanted to talk to the growth hacker who founded it."
It’s not a huge leap. Transhumanism comes from Cosmism, an esoteric offshoot of Russian Orthodox Christianity, and Roko’s Basilisk is basically the God of Pascal’s Wager dressed up in sci-fi language about AIs and simulations. The leap of faith has already been made.
Roko’s Basilisk is totally related to Christian beliefs. You're safe until you learn about it, and then you're doomed to Hell. Unless you worship it and you might have a chance. Maybe.
Btw, I'm totally on the side of the robot overlords. Just saying.
Pascals wager is more about belief in any effectively omnipotent being who is threatening you. I agree with OP that Rokos basilisk is a form, or at least in the same family, of the wager.
If anything, it strengthens one of my key arguments against the wager - there are an infinite number of potential God's with different conditions on why they will punish. Picking out any particular god to follow for any reason is simply nonsense.
Totally agree. The Atheist's Wager works far better if you're going to gamble on any deity or afterlife. In short, be a good person. If the controlling entity decides you're doomed after being a good person, then you were screwed in the first place. If there's no gods to do anything, you still had a good life and benefited others.
Same with most of the other "logical proofs" for God, like the Kalam Cosmological Argument. Even if we take them at face value, it doesn't get any specific religion to their own god. It could just as easily be a desist god who made everything and then fucked off, like me with my Minecraft creations.