Edit: y’all see the alt-text above? 🤔 Tried the Voyager feature for the first time. Will copy below the old way for now:
alt-text
WSJ
Elon Musk's Walk With Jesus
The billionaire has been invoking Christianity as he discusses core beliefs
By Tim Higgins
Aug. 17, 2024 5:30 am ET
Elon Musk is publicly offering his own interpretation of Jesus' teachings with an Old Testament twist.
Mike Masnick @mmasnick.bsky[…]
"You have got to be kidding me..."
Anil Dash @anildash.com
"I heard there's an institution that doesn't have to pay any taxes and repeatedly systematically abuses children, and I decided I wanted to talk to the growth hacker who founded it."
"And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full. But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you."
I ain't Christian, but if you're going to pretend, go all the way:
As Jesus was starting out on his way to Jerusalem, a man came running up to him, knelt down, and asked, “Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?”
“Why do you call me good?” Jesus asked. “Only God is truly good. But to answer your question, you know the commandments: ‘You must not murder. You must not commit adultery. You must not steal. You must not testify falsely. You must not cheat anyone. Honor your father and mother.’”
“Teacher,” the man replied, “I’ve obeyed all these commandments since I was young.”
Looking at the man, Jesus felt genuine love for him. “There is still one thing you haven’t done,” he told him. “Go and sell all your possessions and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.”
At this the man’s face fell, and he went away sad, for he had many possessions.
23 Then said Jesus unto his disciples, Verily I say unto you, That a rich man shall hardly enter into the kingdom of heaven.
24 And again I say unto you, It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God.
I hope for elons sake that camels are smaller and better contortionist than they appear
It’s not a huge leap. Transhumanism comes from Cosmism, an esoteric offshoot of Russian Orthodox Christianity, and Roko’s Basilisk is basically the God of Pascal’s Wager dressed up in sci-fi language about AIs and simulations. The leap of faith has already been made.
Roko’s Basilisk is totally related to Christian beliefs. You're safe until you learn about it, and then you're doomed to Hell. Unless you worship it and you might have a chance. Maybe.
Btw, I'm totally on the side of the robot overlords. Just saying.
Pascals wager is more about belief in any effectively omnipotent being who is threatening you. I agree with OP that Rokos basilisk is a form, or at least in the same family, of the wager.
If anything, it strengthens one of my key arguments against the wager - there are an infinite number of potential God's with different conditions on why they will punish. Picking out any particular god to follow for any reason is simply nonsense.
Bet this is a setup for him to try and do what Trump did by running for president. He just has to wait for Trump to be out of the way and he can just grab the GOP reigns.