Learning Is The First Step
Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF) has engaged in problematic behavior that is highly documented at this point. He has ties to the effective altruism (EA) movement that will be noted shortly. Some have used such ties to lambast the entire movement. New York Magazine, for example, asks “Is Effective Altruism Now Defective?” The answer is “no.” I … Read more
There are a bunch of live debates on TikTok and the dynamic is really interesting. These debates are generally unstructured in contrast to anything resembling a formal or academic debate. It’s important to appear interesting to the audience over and above actually being correct. Hosts are often unabashedly biased. These debates sometimes resemble a verbal … Read more
I’ve previously written that Faith Without Certainty is OK, but in practice, many Christians act with certainty. Is there some contradiction here? This post argues against any contradiction. I distinguish between practical certainty and unqualified certainty, I show that all optimal and rational action is subject to constrained analysis, and I argue that applying a … Read more
This article argues that human flourishing is distinct from individual flourishing, individual utility optimization, and individual happiness optimization. Human flourishing is a long-run economic concern that will involve strong economic norms institutionalization. As a result of this distinction, oft-used arguments to substantiate secular morality on the basis of human flourishing are identified as plain misapplications. … Read more
When discussing Christianity, one objection that sometimes comes up is the timing of the incarnation. This timing objection relates to broader objections both from the problem of hiddenness and the problem of evil. This article gives a fine-tuning defense. If Jesus had come much earlier, ostensibly more evil could have been prevented. If Jesus had … Read more
This article describes my top 10 Christian Podcast Episodes and 5 interesting podcasts on Islam and Judaism. I use the term podcast loosely as these are largely a selection of YouTube videos. I chose the podcasts on Christianity with a few criteria in mind: Cover Christian fundamentals, evidence, and compatibility with science Recommend content creators … Read more
This article gives a few reasons to doubt the Simulation Hypothesis. First I link some related literature, then I steelman the argument, then I give some reasons to doubt it. On prior literature, Robin Hanson gives some good reasons to doubt that we live in a Simulation: 2021, Fading Past Blocks Simulation Argument 2020, Currents … Read more
A quora question asks “How many animals did Noah take into the ark?” One user answers, “Here is the Genesis and Genetics answer…Fundamentally, all of the species currently defined by modern science were on the Ark…Our study of the mouse was fascinating in that we found that there are more than one hundred mouse kinds/species, … Read more
In this article, I add a new argument that reinforces a preference for Protestantism on the basis of Pascal’s Wager, or more generally on the basis of probabilistic and utilitarian analysis. In the past, I have argued that Pascal’s Wager supports Christianity and in particular those denomination(s) that profess Salvation by Faith Alone (aka Sola … Read more
Given my background in economics, I was recently asked to compare and contrast the economy as economists understand it and God’s economy. Let me start by saying that I’m not a theologian, philosopher, or anything more than a layperson, so I’m completely out of my expertise on this topic. Still, out of respect to the … Read more