How epigenetics works (Introduction)

by Balance_Maintained , U.S.A., Saturday, January 12, 2013, 21:49 (4123 days ago) @ David Turell

David:The impression I get from religion's description of God is that He is all powerful and can design and do anything He wants. he can intervene at any time and geet things done his way. You are not decribing that at all.
> -As a game designer, I guess I have a slightly different perspective. To the player, the designer is all powerful, but the good designer knows not only that they must exercise restraint in order to make a great game, but that the limitations inherent in what they are doing or their abilities is often beyond the understanding of the player. Does God have limitations? I do not know, but even if he did those limitations are beyond my understanding and so utterly meaningless to me. -
> David: Again, not the God as inferred by most religions. They say: He knows your every thought and can step into every system and fix it to his liking. your god is more like my concept.
> > -I do not agree with the interpretations of 'most religions' any more than you do. While I do think God CAN know your thoughts, and CAN intervene, that is not the same as saying that he does so at all times, which would be the text book definition of omnipresence. -
> > 
> An omniscient God should be able to expect every outcome of his invented system. Yours can't, therefore, yours has very definite limits in his powers.
> -Tarn Adams is a game designer that created one of the most complex simulation games on the planet, called Dwarf Fortress. If Tarn had perfect information, it is quite reasonable to expect that he could predict with a tremendous degree of accuracy the state of his game at any given moment. However, there is one thing that our 'simulation' has that his doesn't: free will. We have the ability to make choices that will affect the outcome of events at any given step. Now, it may be possible to predict with a reasonable degree of accuracy what the trends will be, but the individual outcomes are not predetermined. That is why throughout the bible you will see YHWH saying "I will make so&so do this thing..". He doesn't say that he already knows that they are going to do it, he says that he will make them do it. This would be akin to a game developer putting a cheatcode into his games that would allow him to manipulate what would otherwise be random events. -So yes, there is at least ONE very definite limit to God's powers. He does not know with 100% certainty what choices we will make, even if he can make a damn good guess.

--
What is the purpose of living? How about, 'to reduce needless suffering. It seems to me to be a worthy purpose.