Flüsterpost
Game Theory is the study of strategic decision making. It commonly involves multiple agents (players) in reward driven environments (games)
Disclaimer
I am not judging any religious believes, I am agnostic in nature.
This is my thought chain, sketching why western religions develop as they do and that christian values and its basic believes can be modeled rationally as a game-theoretical consequence of the multi-agent system, we call society.
These thoughts are raw and may therefor contain small inaccuracies in formulation, as I originally wrote it for my personal Obsidian notes, at first.
The ideas here are not complete, intended to add some fresh perspectives in your thought space.
They are also not novel. They are primarily inspired by Game Theory and ideas of the christian rationalist Thomas Aquinas and Joscha Bach, combined into a (hopefully) comprehensible thought chain, with some additional examples and thoughts of my own.
Flüsterpost (German)
Ich will was anderes als du. Es entstehen Dilemma, suboptimale Verhaltensweisen werden spieltheoretisch erzwungen.
Reputation funktioniert in kleinen Gruppen. Werden die sozialen Gefüge zu groß, wird direkter Informationsaustausch erschwert, Reputation ist nichtmehr vollständig implementierbar.
Es wird ein Ideal geschaffen, das spieltheoretisch optimales Verhalten für die gesamte Gesellschaft induziert. Der optimale transzendente Agent: Gott.
Wenn jede Person die Werte Gottes implementiert und das eigene Verhalten an dem Verhalten Gottes ausrichtet, lösen wir spieltheoretische Dilemma und erhöhen unser aller Wohl.
Gott ist eine Projektion der gesellschaftlich optimalen Verhaltensweisen um das Wohlergehen der Gesellschaft zu sichern. Somit lassen wir Gott entstehen indem wir seine Werte annehmen und ihn als transzendentes “Exoselbst” über all unsere Geister hinweg implementieren.
Er handelt durch alle die an ihn glauben (allmächtig) und läuft auf deren Geistern (allwissend).
Doch leider sind sinnvolle, logische, rationale Konzepte nicht für jeden nachvollziehbar. Doch um Gott wirksam zu machen müssen möglichst viele an ihn glauben, ihn implementieren. Man muss die Idee simplifizieren, durch Metaphern, Analogien und statt Logik, Emotionen nutzen.
Es werden Hoffnung und Ängste geschürt, Himmel und Hölle als Projektion für unendliche Reputation geschaffen.
Heute haben sich fast alle in den Metaphern verloren und nehmen sie wortwörtlich.
Eine reine Idee wird opaque und verformt sich iterativ mit jeder Weitergabe, wie Flüsterpost.
Chinese Whispers (English, with Annotations)
I want something different than you do. Dilemmas arise, and suboptimal behaviors are game-theoretically enforced.
Reputation works well in small groups. As social structures grow larger, direct information exchange becomes difficult, and reputation can no longer be fully implemented.
An ideal is created that induces game-theoretically optimal behavior for the entire society: the optimal transcendent agent, God.
If every person implements God’s values and aligns their behavior with God’s behavior, we resolve game-theoretical dilemmas and improve the well-being of all.
God is a projection of socially optimal behaviors to ensure the well-being of society. Thus, we allow God to emerge by adopting his values (The seven virtues) and implementing him as a transcendent “exoself” spanning its believer’s minds.
He acts through all who believe in him (omnipotent) and operates through their minds (omniscient).
Unfortunately, meaningful, logical, rational concepts are not understandable to everyone. To make God effective, as many people as possible must believe in him and implement him. The idea must be simplified, using metaphors, analogies, and emotions instead of logic.
Hopes and fears are stirred, with Heaven and Hell created as projections for infinite reputation. (Allows for solution of dilemmas such as the Prisoner’s Dilemma)
Today, almost everyone has become lost in the metaphors and takes them literally.
A pure idea becomes opaque and is iteratively distorted with each retelling, like in the game Chinese whispers / Telephone .
Related thoughts
Is god to us, what we are to our cells? On the topic of religion, ideologies, spirituality and mysticism many interesting sources can be found, one of my favorite bits are linked here, I currently want to write more about it in the future:
- The seven virtues mapped to principles for higher level agency (More verbose: Social Agency)
- Joscha Bach on Organisms, Gods and Civilization
- Joscha Bach on God