| I would suggest that the answer to that is "yes" in that the Spinozan God is... for lack of a better word the Universe. (Kaizō in 1923 https://books.google.com/books?id=vLm4oojTPnkC&pg=PA262#v=on... ) > Scientific research can reduce superstition by encouraging people to think and view things in terms of cause and effect. Certain it is that a conviction, akin to religious feeling, of the rationality and intelligibility of the world lies behind all scientific work of a higher order. > This firm belief, a belief bound up with a deep feeling, in a superior mind that reveals itself in the world of experience, represents my conception of God. In common parlance this may be described as "pantheistic" (Spinoza). https://www.gutenberg.org/files/3800/3800-h/3800-h.htm (Ethics was one of the hardest reads I had back in modern philosophy class) And while it is a gross simplification of Ethics, from news://rec.humor.funny ( https://everything2.com/title/Existence+of+the+System+Admini... ) 1. The System Administrator is defined as the most perfect user possible.
2. The property of necessary existence means that anything which possesses it must necessarily exist.
3. If existence is better than non-existence (see the ontological proof), then necessary existence is better still.
4. Any perfect user must possess the property of necessary existence.
5. Therefore the System Administrator must necessarily exist.
However:
6. Being perfect, the System Administrator cannot make mistakes, delete the wrong account, trash the root directory, mess up a tape load, etc.
7. Being perfect, the System Administrator can not be capable of goal-directed action, because such action would imply that the network is somehow less than perfect in its current state.
8. Therefore, the System Administrator is really more of a force of nature within the system.
9. Arguably, then the System Administrator *is* the system itself.
Counter-argument:
1. None, since the System Administrator has been defined to the point where it is a totally useless concept, there's no point in arguing.
At least this resolves one of the major issues: the Spinozist argument proves that *if* the System Administrator does exist, it cannot be intelligent.
---The God of Spinoza and Einstein is the magnificence of the universe as it reveals itself to us. The universe is real as is its majesty. |