[escepticos] El FAQ del detector de dios

["Alberto A. Villa" <albertovilla@...>]

Una delicia. :-)
Saludos
AAV


We try to answer all the questions we receive. If you have a question not
covered here, please email us and we'll try to answer it. Here are some of
the questions we've received so far.


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 How does the Yo-God God Detector work?
    We've all heard people claim that a certain event is a sign from God.
For example, a quick internet search turned up this story: "Romanian
prisoners have promised to behave after finding a cross-shaped turnip. ...
The inmates are reported to believe God is telling them to be good [and] the
priest at the jail in Satu Mare thinks the vegetable is proof that God
exists." The problem with using the turnip as evidence, of course, is that
the misshapen turnip could just be a sign that the prison farm is too close
to a nuclear plant.

Using the Yo-God God Detector, we don't need to rely on odd turnips or other
natural events as a way for God to communicate with us. It gives Him a
straightforward way to let us know he exists - He simply has to move the
dial. Once hundreds or thousands of us ask in unison with the Yo-God God
Detector, maybe God will respond.

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 Can the Yo-God God Detector show us anything about God?
    Yes, to some degree, it can. On the more practical side, it can make it
more reasonable to construe unusual events as simple oddities rather than as
supernatural communication. Imagine if all the Romainian prisoners (see
above) had their own Yo-God God Detectors. They would certainly be less
likely to attribute the turnip's shape to intentional Divine intervention.

To answer the question on a more theoretical level, we need time to collect
enough data. On the bottom of each God Detector are instructions to report
any movement of the detector's dial. After several years - once there are
thousands of God Detectors around the world - we should have some indication
of what percentage of God Detectors have registered movement.

If, for example, analysis of the reports indicate that the dials of 93% of
the detectors have moved, it would be strong evidence that some spiritual
force exists.

On the other hand, the Yo-God God Detectors can't prove that God doesn't
exist. If none or only a very few detector dials have been reported to have
moved, we can conclude only that God does not want to reveal Himself, that
He cannot move the dial, or that he doesn't know about the detectors. These
results do, however, present challenges for the standard interpretation of
God's nature - that he is all-loving, all-powerful, and all-knowing.

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 Doesn't the possibility of fraud make detector data meaningless?
    Although Yo-God God Detectors are sealed to prevent anyone from easily
moving the dial, some dishonest people may find a way to manually move the
God Detector dials or simply file false reports of movement. To reduce the
number of fraudulent reports, every God Detector also has a registration
number (on the bottom). Reports of movement (or lack of movement) are keyed
to registration numbers, thus preventing multiple, contradictory reports for
the same detector.

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 Isn't asking God for a sign blasphemous?
    Some people will think that it's wrong to ask God to reveal Himself ("An
evil and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign." - Matthew 12:39). In
fact, it's likely that some will believe that God may punish people for
owning a Yo-God God Detector! If that's the case, Yo-God owners become
living God detectors - so we encourage owners to report exceptionally good
or bad things that happen to them.

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 Are you an atheist?
    It doesn't matter. Yo-God promises that comments on the discussion page
will not be censored (except for offensive language), and any reports of
detector movement we receive will be included in our list of reports.

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