Poll: Portal Phrase Turned into Atheist Metaphor

[Echelon_3]

Sex causes hatred and murder every day. Money causes hatred and murder every day. The thing these things have in common? People.

So why give people another, powerful reason to act ill towards each other? Especially one that isn't as obviously necessary as sex or as grudgingly necessary as money.

 

[Kubanator]

Sex causes hatred and murder every day. Money causes hatred and murder every day. The thing these things have in common? People.

Humans are evil? That's impossible. Literally. Because if humans were evil, that wouldn't be considered wrong. It'd be called good.

The question asked was why should an atheist respect the hatred and murder caused by religion. You responded by saying that money, the work of men, and sex, the growth of men, both do the same. However, we can live without religion, and yet we cannot live without reproduction or the work of men. Simply because he's a hypocrite, doesn't make your position correct.

So why give people another, powerful reason to act ill towards each other? Especially one that isn't as obviously necessary as sex or as grudgingly necessary as money.

Money is the product of labour, therefore represents the work of men. The work of men is not grudgingly necessary. Men should be happy of their capability to change the world, not annoyed.

 

[Pegghead]

You know, if you have enough time on your hands to break down the deep philosophical meaning on an overused phrase from a video game then you need to find more things to do. Oh and by the way, there was also money to be paid at the end of the testing so that gets that theory of the cake being the lone motivator out of the window.

 

[Woem]

The OP is like explaining a joke. The whole "The cake is a lie" is a metaphor in itself, one that doesn't need explanation, and one that can be applied to anything.

 

[Agema]

There's no compelling reason to think that the cake in Portal is anything more than a motivational technique for Aperture employees as applied by a thoroughly loopy supercomputer.

An analogy is only useful or valid if there's sufficient other information to clearly link the analogy with its intended target. As there's no mention of religion anywhere in the game, there is no good logical reason to think it's an analogy for religion. Indeed, I don't think you should make an analogy about the cake to anything at all.

 

[jamesworkshop]

Hi people do any of you have pets?

Do they believe in gods?

have they ever denied gods?

I'm guessing no on both accounts, your pets lack a belife in gods without actually actively denying them

pets are as much atheists as humans atheists are

 

[Zeroththeking]

You know, if you have enough time on your hands to break down the deep philosophical meaning on an overused phrase from a video game then you need to find more things to do. Oh and by the way, there was also money to be paid at the end of the testing so that gets that theory of the cake being the lone motivator out of the window.

And she didn't get either, because she died. Ill say it again, see a pattern?

 

[gerrymander61]

Religion is all about faith. Chell had faith in that the cake existed and wasn't a lie, and in the end was rewarded for her faith in that she left Aperture Science for a better place. If Portal is meant to be compared to religion, then you have it the wrong way around. "The cake is a lie" isn't meant to ridicule the idea of religion, but rather strengthen the ideas of perseverance and faith, two very important parts of religion and human spirituality.

Let's assume that Chell = humanity, GlaDos = God and Cake = Heaven.

We assume she initially had faith in the promises of cake by GlaDos. She went through all the tests she was prescribed. Then she turned AGAINT GlaDos when it is revealed GlaDos is insane trying to kill her in the same way it is implied she killed all of Aperture Science. Chell even goes so far as to KILL GlaDos (possibly giving Neitszche something to think about) and then gets a 'reward' far DIFFERENT from the one she was promised. A reward she couldn't have gotten without metaphorically killing God - being set free from the lab and released into the 'real world'.

Remember, at the end when we finally see the cake, it is implied that it is a trap. (The pincher comes down) And even then, the cake recipe (you do hear it, but it can be easily missed, I recommend you look for it on YouTube) would produce something utterly inedible and probably toxic.

"The Cake Is A Lie" means just that; the promise of a reward is in fact nothing more than a false motivator by an ultimately insane overlord that must be overthrown and destroyed in order for true liberation.

But hey, that's just my theory.

And that's a pretty legit theory. But the fact that the cake is proven to exist at the end makes me see GLaDOS more like a false prophet, a corrupter of the one true word. Sort of like the Taliban or Al-Quaeda is to Islam.

It's kinda like the parable of the sower in the Gospels where instead of the crows representing the Devil, they represent GLaDOS with all her lies.

 

[Riff Raff]

Hey, Why does it matter if the Bible or religion is cake. All that matters is the truth. Reality. Finding reality is the thing, the rest is words, perhaps, or not. All that is for real is an honest search. A few things have struck me. One is: How has order come about in randomness. I mean, if it's all random, or it was, there was a big bang in chaos to more chaos, where did order come from? Or is order an illusion? If so, how does it all work?
Who needs cake. Look for the truth.
Regarding time. Does it exist as an absolute. If time slows down as you move faster, eventually coming to zero movement at the speed of light, how absolute is that?
If this whole thing is infinite, and I am a part of it, am I infinite?
Me? Yes, I believe that God exists. Now. And that is the God of the Bible.
Good hunting!

 

[michael_ab]

is the universe real?? how can something with infinate boundries be defined as a thing? i think we would have to know the boundries of the universe before we can without a doubt prove its existance

It does not have an infinite size. Due to the curvature of space-time, the universe is curled up in a sphere, where if you go in a straight line faster than then speed of light, you'd end up where you started.

ok just to make this eaisier, imagine a hollow ball.

if you travel along the inner wall of this ball, you will reach right were you began, true.

but if you start closer inward and headed straight to the outside, you would run headfirst into that wall. but according to most people this "wall" dosent exist, so therefore the universe has no boundries. unless your saying its like the wraparound map in the first level of the super mario bros 2 game

 

[michael_ab]

oh and to be OT yes it is logical, but logic CAN be wrong

 

[Zeroththeking]

Its the OP, and yes logic can be wrong, but can be proven in a different way. Just was something for people to chew on and digest. Metaphorically of course.

 

[Zeroththeking]

To a human, lie can be the preferred thing, only if you never figure out the truth. Once you figure out the truth, its usually preferred that either you wanted the truth first and foremost, or you never wanted to know. Humans are about as enigmatic as this metaphor.

 

[Zeroththeking]

But then again, its humans. Nothing you can do about that.