Talk:Calculating God

I've made a couple of edits to remove the idea that the aliens arrive specifically to convert humans or to present any sort of proof of the existence of God. They're here to study our distant history, their religious ideas (of which they have no proof) only enters on coincidence. Niels E (talk) 08:57, 29 April 2009 (UTC)

I am reluctant to make changes to a page about a book that I have not actually read, but the following two errors are so glaring that they really need to be corrected: (1) Based on what I am told by others who have read the book, the word "sentient," is an accurate description of the alien in question. But the word is being mis-used here, since the relevant quality of the alien is its capacity to reason, not its capacity to feel. (2) It is meaningless to say that the alien is "based on the anthropic principle." The author of this sentence either does not understand what the anthropic principle is, or has failed to communicate his or her intended message. NikolaiSmith (talk) 21:02, 17 September 2009 (UTC)


 * I agree about the anthropic principle and I've removed it. I've also changed "God" to "god" in several places, as the aliens obviously aren't concerned with Christianity. Your point about sentience isn't as clear to me. The article about sentience says that "In science fiction, an alien, android, robot, hologram, or computer who is described as sentient is usually treated as a fully human character, with similar rights, qualities, and capabilities as any other character.", which nicely sums up the aliens in the book. Niels E (talk) 13:47, 16 October 2009 (UTC)


 * Niels, after reviewing the article, I concede that you are right about sentience. I agree that this does not need changing.  NikolaiSmith (talk) 02:52, 21 December 2009 (UTC)

Small edit, changed "...Hollus and his crewmembers..." to "...Hollus and her crewmembers..."; Hollus is female in the book. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 74.13.80.200 (talk) 17:41, 18 March 2010 (UTC)