Show HN: The Lottery of Life • Hacker News Board

Re: Show HN: The Lottery of Life

#31

Post by aagha » Thu, Mar 19, 2026, 12:38 AM UTC

satisfice wrote: post #29

aagha wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

People will come up with any and all reasons to keep from believing in God. > As for those who dis-believe, it makes no difference whether you warn them or not: theywill not believe. God has sealed their hearts and their ears, and theireyes are covered. They will have great torment.

I don’t need a reason not to believe in God. It’s an incoherent idea. Even you don’t know what it means. You probably imagine some Santa Claus character on a throne. But I don’t know which God I should be imagining? Athena? Indra? The All Spirit? Spaghetti Monster? State the thesis clearly, then present your evidence.

You don't need to imagine something for it to exist.

You've never seen a black hole, nor--even with visualizations we have today--could you likely comprehend one if you saw it.

Re: Show HN: The Lottery of Life

#32

Post by applfanboysbgon » Thu, Mar 19, 2026, 11:22 AM UTC

aagha wrote: post #27

applfanboysbgon wrote: post #11

I've thought about this a lot in the past, and it seems like the strongest argument for our existence being a simulation. What are the odds of being born a human and not a bacteria, a fly, or, apparently, a nematode? What are the odds that I would be born into a wealthy country? What are the odds that I would be born into what appears to be the end of history -- the most prosperous species in the most prosperous time…

People will come up with any and all reasons to keep from believing in God. > As for those who dis-believe, it makes no difference whether you warn them or not: theywill not believe. God has sealed their hearts and their ears, and theireyes are covered. They will have great torment.

Whether God exists is of no concern to me. I feel the same way about a hypothetical God as I do about our hypothetical simulation overlords. If God exists, he is an evil, arrogant being. "It's God's plan" for somebody's child to be assaulted, "God's plan" for somebody else's child to get terminal cancer, and "God's plan" for millions of Jews to be gassed. Yet he is not above intervening on Earth, because he allegedly flooded it and killed almost every living thing on the planet[1]. I would never worship such a sick, twisted fuck even if it were proven that he exists. According to Catholic doctrine, 'hell' is merely eternal separation from God and his believers. I couldn't ask for a better reward in the afterlife.

[1] Today this is described as a metaphor by Christians, but that's obvious cope. Before we scientifically disproved the possibility of anything like this happening, this was historically regarded as something that literally happened by the Church. It would be a fucking stupid metaphor, anyways. If you interact with humans to impart your teachings only twice, which mankind is expected to uphold for thousands of years and use as the source of their morality, maybe do a better job of being a role model than all the "metaphorically" evil shit you did in Genesis.

Re: Show HN: The Lottery of Life

#33

Post by satisfice » Thu, Mar 19, 2026, 8:19 PM UTC

aagha wrote: post #31

satisfice wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don’t need a reason not to believe in God. It’s an incoherent idea. Even you don’t know what it means. You probably imagine some Santa Claus character on a throne. But I don’t know which God I should be imagining? Athena? Indra? The All Spirit? Spaghetti Monster? State the thesis clearly, then present your evidence.

You don't need to imagine something for it to exist. You've never seen a black hole, nor--even with visualizations we have today--could you likely comprehend one if you saw it.

"Black hole" is a coherent, testable idea. It has real world physical implications, and is the simplest explanation for what we do see. There isn't a Korean version of a black hole vs. a version accepted by the Kurds. There are no stories of black holes befriending humans. In fact, there is nothing about a black hole that seems to care about humanity.

"God" is a vague fantasy, invented by the first people and slightly updated as technology changed. It has been made concrete, yes, but in many different and irreconcilable ways since the dawn of human imagination. So you can't just "believe in God." You believe in some particular version of "God." And that version is probably dictated by whatever your parents believed, rather than by the actual state of reality.