1. needed a breather after 6 days.
Straw Man. He rested only from creating.
Not sure there is a straw man here. I think that screwtape is arguing that it is kind of ridiculous to think of an omnipotent god needing 'rest'.
Perhaps the definition of 'rest' needs clarification here, because I know I'm also unsure as to how an omnipotent entity can get 'tired' and need 'rest'.
2. is concerned about some podunk's living situation
You provide no alternative.
Alternative -
not being concerned with podunk's living situation.
3. cares enough about said podunk to rearrange reality to make everything turn out good for her...
Staw Man. Noone ever said she wanted reality rearranged.
Well, how else would you define someone pleading with the master of the universe for some specified outcome in reality? Unless specified outcome in reality is already known, then the idea of podunk requesting for some outcome implies a rearrangement of reality. Now, that rearrangement need not be substantial - maybe like changing the eigenstates of a bunch of particles of a rock to make it move another inch or so to prevent some chain of unfortunate events from unfolding.
4. ...despite not lifting a finger for people who are enduring actual suffering.
Straw Man. You have no idea what he's done. He's only not done what you want him to do. But he is going to do what you want eventually. He's going to destroy all those that cause their suffering and then they won't suffer anymore.
Jst, from screwtape's perspective (and mine as well), god
hasn't done anything. God appears to have done as much as magic beans have done.
You disagree, but I fail to see how it's a straw man argument.
No not speculation. IF creator creates thing X AND has PERFECT knowledge how thing X operates; AND ALL variables are created by creator, OUTCOME is known. This is simple deductive reasoning. You either have a God with imperfect knowledge or one who didn't create... or one that Created with foreknowledge of imperfection, there is no other possiblity.
So if a human creates a true AI does he also create every individual thought the AI will ever have? Your premise is without foundation. Jehovah knew exactly what would happen if Adam succeeded and he also knew exactly what would happen if he failed. There is no indication, beyond your own speculation, that he determined what he would do.
If a human creates a true AI, and understands how s/he designed said AI, then yes, that human will have been responsible for every individual thought that the AI will ever have, unless the designer was counting on emergence to occur from unknown variables (such as external stimuli). Even injection of some type of agitating entropy should give predictable results, unless, of course, there are unknown variables. Of course, humans are fairly limited what can be known and measured, and therefore pretty limited in the precision and accuracy of any given prediction of a system. However, because of human limitations, it seems pretty reasonable to assume that a human AI designer would utilize some sort of external entropy to help foster some emergent behavior that would be considered an artificial intelligence. That expectation of emergence could be viewed as some manner of absolving responsibility of the human designers to know every individual future thought - assuming said external entropy is beyond either the control or full understanding of the designer.
Are there any external sources of entropy that god has limited control and understanding?
Do you think that god knows how sentient consciousness works?
Do you think that god can observe every aspect of any system (that is, nothing is hidden from his/her purview)?
Do you think that god knows how the general operating mechanics of the universe works?
The only way an omnipotent, omniscient entity can be
surprised by the result of some input upon a system (say, some stimuli interacting with some consciousness) is to have one or more variables a) hidden from him/her or b) willfully ignore analyzing some variables in making a prediction. If you choose column
a, throw omniscience, omnipotence, or both out the window. If you choose column
b, then god is a crappy designer, an inattentive father-figure/leader/deity, or some kind of strange masochist.
Because if god really, really wanted Adam to not, say,
condemn all of creation to sin, then maybe he should have examined all of the variables and made some prediction as to where Adam was going to fail to meet his expectations and do something to correct that. You know, sometime prior to cursing the entirety of the universe.
