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The magic genie has appeared to grant you your wish. What small thing do you wish for that would have the biggest positive impact on the world? (lemmy.ml)
submitted 2 years ago by to c/asklemmy@lemmy.ml
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[โ€“] 47 points 2 years ago (8 children)

Everyone religious wakes up tomorrow realizing that it's just a social club and none of the god stuff is real.

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  • [โ€“] 23 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (5 children)

    So in this scenario where you have a magical Genie, you would use a supernatural being to stop others from believing in supernatural beings?

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  • [โ€“] 1 point 2 years ago (2 children)

    Who said the genie was supernatural? If I can see the genie in front of me and sufficiently measure it's existence, then it is real and natural. "Super natural" literally means "outside of nature", i.e. stuff that doesn't have any evidence of ever existing.

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  • [โ€“] 3 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    OP said so.

    OP called it a magical genie. Magic is by definition outside of nature.

    If presented by observable evidence the supernatural exists in one specific case (the genie) then it is reasonable to suppose there may be other supernatural beings.

    If this were a highly advanced alien with probability manipulating technology, that would be a different question.

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  • [โ€“] 1 point 2 years ago

    Magic is by definition outside of nature.

    A magician would disagree with you :D

    If this were a highly advanced alien with probability manipulating technology, that would be a different question.

    "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic."

    If presented by observable evidence the supernatural exists in one specific case (the genie) then it is reasonable to suppose there may be other supernatural beings.

    Imagine I was a person who had never seen a narwhal, and thus didn't believe they were real; suppose I believed them to be supernatural creatures. So to prove me wrong, you bring me to an aquarium and show me a narwhal and say, "look, a live narwhal. See? They are naturally occurring creatures". I could respond with, "well no, that's obviously a supernatural creature, and now it's reasonable for me to also suppose that unicorns exist!" Do you see any flaws in my logic?

    We've hypothesized of a situation where we have an observable creature in front of us. At that point, regardless of how "magical" we believe it to be, it is, by the definition of "supernatural", not supernatural. However, when it comes to supernatural beings that we have not observed, this genie has not given us any more evidence for their existence.

    Happy halloween!

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