Comment on Just 5 more minutes
Sotuanduso@lemm.ee 7 months agoSounds like the problem is with your definition of miracle. “An occurrence which is so unlikely that only the intervention of the divine can explain it.” A thing isn’t inexplicable by the mundane because of its probability, but because it violates natural laws. And something being truly impossible doesn’t necessarily imply the existence of divinity, but moreso suggests that the fault lies in your conception of natural laws.
The more common definition of miracle is “a surprising and welcome event that is not explicable by natural or scientific laws and is therefore considered to be the work of a divine agency.” For example, if an angel appears out of nowhere before you with a message from the Lord, that teleportation is not scientifically explicable. When you open the can of worms that things can break natural laws, you can always come up with an explanation that denies the divine, like that the “angel” is actually a telepathic shapeshifting alien that can teleport and wants to scam you, but that’s not the point. The point is that it’s considered to be a divine act, and it’s considered as such because divine is the word we have for higher powers that are unable to be explained by any level of science.
Also, once the can of worms is open, you no longer get to claim that God’s existence has an infinitely small likelihood, and you have to consider whether your alternate explanation is really more likely than the explanation that all the signs are pointing to. Frankly, I don’t think you get to claim it’s infinitely small in the first place, as whether God is likely to exist is an unsettled debate, but it’s not an unreasonable stance to hold.
GiveMemes@jlai.lu 7 months ago
Both of these long, thoughtful replies were downvoted for some reason. Wtf guys? Is this not a forum for communication?
Sotuanduso@lemm.ee 7 months ago
Oh, sorry, should I not have downvoted myself?
GiveMemes@jlai.lu 7 months ago
You really downvoted yourself? I stand corrected I suppose. If your question is serious: there’s obviously no problem with doing so, I think most people just assume that comment scores start at 1 from the original users upvote.
Sotuanduso@lemm.ee 7 months ago
Lol, I just did it as a joke after your comment. It do be a goofy community.
orphiebaby@lemm.ee 7 months ago
Most people use downvote and upvote as “disagree” and “agree” buttons. No real way to stop people from that either.
Pika@sh.itjust.works 7 months ago
The up vote and downvote system is one of the few things on Lemmy that I think is worth not having, it’s nice knowing the relative popularity of a post ahead of time but it should be used as a does this add to the conversation, and not a I agree or disagree with the conversation. When it’s used as an agree or disagree, the opposing side gets reduced visibility in many clients (whether this is lemmy side or client side idk)
Sadly a lot of people do it based off of their opinion of the post instead, it’s one of the reasons that I turned my scores off the other week I want to read the comments based off their contribution to the conversation at hand, and when people use downvote for opinion it creates a tunnel vision/echo chamber.
Sure by doing this you lose the ability to see up votes, but it also removes your subconscious judgement of a post before you enter, you get to read it as it is.
orphiebaby@lemm.ee 7 months ago
This may sound like a weird take, but the upvotes and downvotes system is a good way of learning about what people accept and don’t accept, and to help me understand people better. I’m autistic and had a sheltered history, and I’m also a novelist; and honestly seeing agrees and disagrees is really helpful for me. Most of the time they shouldn’t be taken too seriously, of course; and you should have or develop enough awareness to understand when you’re just plain valid, or when you actually might need to adjust your thinking.