I just posted this to /r/atheism, and I was promptly insulted and it was deleted, because that sub lacks any and all critical thinking.

Y'all aren't like that, right?

I'll preemptively state that you need to click a minimum of five links to get involved.

We made it pretty stream-lined for you.

I love philosophy

It's where I started my degree before I got wrapped up in game theory and communication theory.

But, I've never lost my passion for a good thought experiment.

Would you like to participate in one with me?

Let's create a purely hypothetical situation.

Trust me, this is purely hypothetical.

cough

Let's say I made a claim. Not an outrageous one, but one that would take an amount of faith to believe.

For instance, what if I were to say I worked for some organization with a three-letter acronym for a name.

There are a lot of those. And they do require workers, no?

But, let's assume you just picked up what I put down.

It's a plausible, but brazen claim.

One would require proof for such a claim, no?

Well, being the intelligent organization that we hypothetically are, security is something of an importance.

So, how does one transmit information without compromising anything?

The transmitter would probably need to discredit his or herself so the transmission doesn't come to bite us in the ass.

Yet, this just creates a new problem.

Those who tend to be skeptical will in turn doubt the information presented to them.

A tricky problem.

Now I ask a hypothetical question:

Do you believe my claim from what I said?

Looks over to sidebar

Chances are, you said no.

Is there anything I can say to you while concealing my identity that will make you believe me?

I doubt it.

I've argued with far, far too many people behind different faces to believe that someone who is content with their world view, accurate or not, will believe just words.

Which is why I've constructed a game.

Jai Guru Deva

Instead of me being the teacher, I could instead give you the chance to prove things to yourself.

I like to refer to this as constructing a rabbit hole for the curious to delve into.

looks up at the blue and/or purple links above

finally wipes ass

So now that I've done that, let me ask you a final question:

Do you believe in God?

No?

Then you don't believe anyone is going to save our species from destroying ourselves?

Funny, that's our opinion too.

lifts mask slightly

This is our means of getting an "In case of fascism or Armageddon, break glass" kit out to the population.

It's my good deed for the day.

I would do it regardless, because my ass looks amazing in this dazzle camouflage.