Homer's conjecture
I'm wondering if, one day, it will be discovered that all philosophical, ethical, moral and other questions can be answered with reference to The Simpsons. I've just noticed this Homer Simpson quote (on interesting new blog Topical Fish):
Suppose the god we've chosen isn't the real one. Every time we go to church we're just making him madder and madderWhich is, in rather simpler format than that usually used by philosophers, one of the objections to Pascal's Wager, and also, I should think but I haven't really tried it, a good way to wind up any religious zealot who tries to waste my time. After all most of them, with a few exceptions like the Unitarians, believe that their god gets rather upset if he's not worshipped in exactly the right way (because one of the side effects of omnipotence is a crippling lack of self-esteem leaving you requiring constant affirmation, it seems) so it's fun to ask them if they're sure they're worshipping the right god in the right way. OK, it's not normally enough to cause a severe crisis of faith there and then, especially when asked by a heathen like me, but it's just planting seeds...who knows whether they might take root?



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