An absurd AI generated question

The following is from QUORA.

Why do some people believe that the concept of God preceded philosophy, even though influential philosophers like Kant, Hegel, and Kierkegaard were atheists who believed in God before them?

Huh?

This was an AI-generated question, and it illustrates how absurd AI can get. I'm not sure what it means to say that the "concept of God" preceded philosophy. Let us make things easier by speaking of "worship". The worship of gods certainly preceded philosophy. Heck, the worship of a single supreme capital-G God may be said to go back to around 1350 BCE, a long time before Thales. So it happens to be the case that our earliest record of worship of God precedes what we generally call philosophy. What sense does it make to ask why people believe such a plain truth?

But then the AI generated question takes a really weird turn. The evidence that shows that the "concept of God" is not so old is attributed to a trio of philosophers, the first of which was Kant, who were "atheists who believed in God". What?

And what is the significance of the last two words. Is it still chronological? The three 19th century "atheists" believed that God preceded the "people who believe"? Or is "before them" taking its non-chronological meaning here, as in "is this a dagger I see before me?" In neither case does it make sense out of the identification of the three of them as atheists!

If some human had put forward this question I would be ashamed for our species.

Comments

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