Looks More Like a Puma

Here’s my answer to the question posed in the last post:

I will answer your question with a question. How would you distinguish between the following two possibilities?

(1) The “real world” exists.

(2) The “real world” is actually a complex computer program created by sentient machines to keep human beings under control. Your Second Life avatar is actually a third life avatar.

Or maybe you’re a brain in a vat. Or maybe you’re just plain insane. You can’t deny that any one of these theories is logically possible. Somehow, though, I don’t think you’re going to wake up tomorrow crushed by uncertainty as to whether or not the real world is real.

It is true that your “Cosmic Trickster” theory is logically possible. I reject it for three reasons:

1) It fails Occam’s Razor. While you can’t prove it false, there’s not any evidence for it either.

2) It is my experience that malicious deceit generally requires some motive. It’s hard to imagine what an omnipotent god would stand to gain by trickery.

3) The theory is, for practical purposes, useless. Even if I knew it was true, I wouldn’t know what to do about it.