Home > Work > God's Debris: A Thought Experiment
1 " The best you can hope for in a relationship is to findsomeone whose flaws are the sort you don’t mind. It isfutile to look for someone who has no flaws, or someonewho is capable of significant change; that sort of personexists only in our imaginations. "
― , God's Debris: A Thought Experiment
2 " You can change only what people know, not what they do. "
3 " The human mind is a delusion generator, not a window to trurh. "
4 " Intelligence is a measure of how well you function within your level of awareness. "
5 " it is not belief to say God exists and then continue sinning and hoarding your wealth while innocent people die of starvation. When belief does not control your most important decisions, it is not belief in the underlying reality, it is belief in the usefulness of believing. "
6 " The ability to work hard and make sacrifices comes naturally to those who know exactly what they want. "
7 " A woman needs to be told that you would sacrifice anything for her. A man needs to be told he is being useful. When the man or woman strays from that formula, the other loses trust. When trust is lost, communication falls apart. "
8 " How can one part be more important if each part is completely necessary? "
9 " Women define themselves by their relationships and men define themselves by whom they are helping. Women believe value is created by sacrifice. If you are willing to give up your favorite activities to be with her, she will trust you. If being with her is too easy for you, she will not trust you. "
10 " Everything he talked about had a kind of logic to it, but so do many things that are nonsense. "
11 " I think I’d know it if we were part of an omnipotent being,” I said.“Would you? Your skin cells are not aware that they are part of a human being. Skin cells are not equipped for that knowledge. They are equipped to do what they do and nothing more. Likewise, if we humans—and all the plants and animals and dirt and rocks—were components of God, would we have the capacity to know it?”“So, you’re saying God blew himself to bits—I guess that was the Big Bang—and now he’s piecing himself back together?” I asked.“He is discovering the answer to his only question.”“Does God have consciousness yet? Does he know he’s reassembling himself?”“He does. Otherwise you could not have asked the question, and I could not have answered. "
― Scott Adams, , God's Debris: A Thought Experiment
12 " A God who knew the answer to that question would indeed know everything and have everything. For that reason he would be unmotivated to do anything or create anything. There would be no purpose to act in any way whatsoever. But a God who had one nagging question—what happens if I cease to exist?—might be motivated to find the answer in order to complete his knowledge. ... The fact that we exist is proof that God is motivated to act in some way. And since only the challenge of self-destruction could interest an omnipotent God, it stands to reason that we... are God's debris. "
13 " What does it mean to be yourself?” he asked. “If itmeans to do what you think you ought to do, then you’redoing that already. If it means to act like you’re exemptfrom society’s influence, that’s the worst advice in theworld; you would probably stop bathing and wearing clothes.The advice to ‘be yourself’ is obviously nonsense. But ourbrains accept this tripe as wisdom because it is more comfortableto believe we have a strategy for life than to believewe have no idea how to behave. "
14 " The best any human can do is to pick a delusion thathelps him get through the day "
15 " Your inability to see other possibilities and your lack of vocabularyare your brain’s limits, not the universe’s. "
16 " Awareness is about unlearning. It is the recognitionthat you don’t know as much as you thought you knew. "
17 " Every generation of humans believed it had all theanswers it needed, except for a few mysteries they assumedwould be solved at any moment. And they all believed theirancestors were simplistic and deluded. What are the oddsthat you are the first generation of humans who will understandreality? "
18 " Everything that motivates living creatures is based onsome weakness or flaw. Hunger motivates animals. Lustmotivates animals. Fear and pain motivate animals. A Godwould have none of those impulses. Humans are driven byall of our animal passions plus loftier-sounding things likeself-actualization and creativity and freedom and love "
19 " It is a human tendency tobecome what you attack. "
20 " Scientists often invent words to fill the holes in their understanding. These words are meant as conveniences untilreal understanding can be found. Sometimes understanding comes and the temporary words can be replaced with wordsthat have more meaning. More often, however, the patch words will take on a life of their own and no one will remember that they were only intended to be placeholders. "
