Scott Alexander (author/host)

Everyone here is a Catholic.

They're just really bad at it.

How can you possibly come up with a predictive model of God that predicts this?

Basilica.

You mean, instead of intervening here, God could intervene when the weak are oppressed by the strong?

As in the Holocaust, or Tokugawa's persecutions of the Japanese martyrs.

Or if he is specifically trying to spread the Christian religion, he could make the Crusades a success.

If God doesn't discriminate by Christian sect, he could preserve the Byzantine Empire.

And if he's specifically Catholic, he could have the Thirty Years' War last just five years and end with a permanent Catholic Holy Roman Empire.

Arundel.

Exactly.

Basilica.

Well, first, you don't know that he didn't interfere at the Crusaders' siege of Jerusalem.

Arendelle, if he did, I'm blaming him for the massacre.

Basilica, or the first dozen times Constantinople held off attack, or in aid of the defence of Malta.

Arendelle.

Sure, if you're religious, maybe your model says he does that.

But this still doesn't predict God the way that good guys or Christians winning every battle they've ever fought against bad guys or pagans does.

And they don't.

But even if he is, why, in addition, do it here?