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dctoedt · 2014-05-04 · Original thread
Riffing off of Robert Wright's book Non-Zero [1]:

* Consider the apparent self-assembling of the universe over the last 13.8 billion years.

* Consider the seeming overall long-term trend (certainly not a monotonic one) of "improvement" in life. Adapting Gregg Easterbrook's thought experiment [2]: Would you permanently trade places with a random person who lived 1,000 years ago? How about 10,000 years ago? Would anyone, at any time, do so?

It's a defensible proposition that, as theologian Philip Hefner put it, we are created co-creators [3]. To what end? Who knows. But if past performance is any indication, it'll be pretty neat.

From this perspective, conducting one's life in accordance with (a weak version of) Pascal's Wager [4] seems like a reasonable course of action.

[1] http://www.amazon.com/Nonzero-The-Logic-Human-Destiny/dp/067... (not an affiliate link)

[2] http://www.amazon.com/Beside-Still-Waters-Searching-Meaning/... (ditto)

[3] http://currentsjournal.org/new_currents_ed_06_01.html

[4] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pascal's_Wager

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