A Christian View of the Simulation
It seems like it is all the rage for many famous people like Elon Musk and other intelligent people to talk about, not just the possibility but the probability, that we are living in a simulation. And as a Christian I actually agree with them that we are, kinda.
The thing I find strangest about such intellectuals talking about the possibility of what we perceive as reality is a simulation is that they almost always speak about it in a way that suggests the simulation was created by either aliens or a super intelligent group of humans from our future. I have always found it odd that they almost always jump to those conclusions instead of the way more obvious scenario that such a proposed simulation would more likely to be made by a Creator aka God.
I don't want to get into why such people would be biased in such a way to ignore the more traditional and obvious explanation of us existing in a simulation but I would like to point out that Christians and Christian theology have in a sense, if you think about it, always held and talked about our reality being a type of simulation.
Christians have always been ahead of the curve about such things as the simulation, multiple dimensions, the Trinity and many other things science and quantum physics have only in recent years started to find the language and theories to try and explain. I am going to talk about just a few of those beliefs right now.
The Christian concepts of free will, creation, purpose and the meaning of life all easily fall into the idea that we are living now in a simulation.
God created everything in our dimension, time, space, the earth and all that we know as reality in order to make things other than Himself out of pure love so that He might have creatures after His own image. I believe, in order to do such a thing, and the only way it would be possible to make beings capable even of limited free will and to make real malleable choices, He would have had to make a reality like ours and have it trapped in time.
As Christians we believe that there were angels who God created, probably before time and outside of our dimension, and that some of them in some way rejected their Creator by wanting to put their will and their selves before His will. As best as we can tell such a thing is untenable with the nature of their creation and contrary to the perfect goodness of an all powerful and omniscient God. This rebellious act, happening in a way our species locked in time cannot fully comprehend, seemed to be a permanent and unredeemable act, that caused these rebellious creatures to be "fallen" and thrown out of the presence of God and the Heavenly dimension that is His. One can assume from scripture this fall eternally banished them to a lower and much less worthy and capable dimension than what they were created for.
Man seems to be much more fortunate and lucky after he made the same mistake that Lucifer and his lackey's made because when God created Man's dimension He created one locked in time. Doing so seems to have given these creations the chance to have a limited amount of free will which is just enough to choose the Creators will over their own. Also, since they are locked in time, at least until they die and pass on into another dimension, that choice if they do not choose properly or understand the will of God perfectly at one point in time is not final and locked in stone eternally and can grow and improve over their whole lifetime at least until the moment of their death and transition outside of time and space.
It is not a stretch of the imagination or out of the bounds of traditional Christian theology to see our reality as we know it as a simulation made by Almighty God Himself as an incubator for His creations to utilize free will and choose His will over their own. And by doing so becoming the creations He intended for them to be and coming into the full of that choice after they die and transition from this dimension to God's higher dimension aka Heaven.
This Christian viewpoint of the simulation concept is much more sound and plausible than any of the other main stream and secular notions presented in this day and age. It takes into account and helps explain many of man's age old questions and ideas from philosophy. Examples including: the meaning of life, the problem of pain, if time is real and what is its purpose and countless others if you think long and hard about it. The other two main points you hear more often about the simulation concept never answer any further questions we have. Future generations creating the simulation do not explain where those people came from and neither would aliens creating it in any way explain the origin of the universe or any other philosophical question. Either of those views would just bring you back to where you started from and that would be a journey that is no where near as profitable as seeking real reason and truth.
No religion, other than Christianity has done so much to explain such truths through metaphor and allegory entwined with our growing understating of concepts like time, multiple dimensions, big bang like creation and quantum theories and even the meaning of life.
There are countless examples from scripture of Jesus Christ who came down from heaven explaining such complicated concepts to people from His time on Earth in such perfect and simple language. It is even more impressive when you realize Jesus was using metaphor and parables to explain the unexplainable in a time and place where He preached to a majority of uneducated people.
As you probably know Christians believe that when you die you either go to Heaven if you accept Christ or to Hell if you do not. And contrary to what some simple minded atheists will tell you the majority of those Christians do not believe and have never believed that those places were located in any area naturally and that you could get there on a boat or an air ship. They believed you got there after you died as if the dying was the gateway to the other place. They always knew, at least on some instinctive level that death lead you to another dimension even if the word dimension hadn't been "invented" yet.
Also look at the concept of Christian prayer to their God and Creator who by their teaching can seemingly hear all their prayers at once and somehow be able to answer them even though they are said by a person who is locked in time, about events unknown to the one praying, which may or have not have already happened yet. Christians either understand by knowledge or by faith that such prayers can all be heard and answered by God because He exists beyond our dimension of time and space. A God who created the simulation in order that His creations might be able to put their faith and trust in Him, in a way that doesn't rip even the illusion of choice away from them by standing in His immediate and unquestionable presence, could hear their prayers outside of their timeline and not be hampered by its linear limitations on the one praying.
The uniquely complected and amazing Christian concept of the Trinity is also very telling in regards to the idea of a simulation and also to how Christianity has always been a testament to such mind bending scientific ideas way ahead of any other religion or physicist today. Just look how it explains the unexplainable of how God the Creator can paradoxically be three separate but individual things at once.
On one hand you have God the Father as the creator of our entire universe aka our simulation and existing outside of it as a never ending constant holding it together and interacting with it through supernatural miracles through the Holy Ghost. Then shockingly at one point he miraculously interjects Himself into His own created simulation as an improved and perfect avatar of one of His own Creations as the Messiah Jesus Christ. Then this enables Him to exist outside and inside of the simulation and time and space simultaneously. Then while living His time on Earth as the Word Its Self He is able to describe to his disciples and other followers in the most perfect words possible the true nature of God, forgiveness and the literal meaning of life. And then after this time of teaching is over He dies for our sins and our fallen nature and in some way unknowable in our current state He rises from the dead and our acceptance of this act somehow interjects new code (for lack of a better word) into the simulation and helps in our redemption from our fall and gives us the opportunity to use our time on Earth to repent and choose the Creator's will over our own by putting our faith in Jesus Christ.
Then after His time on Earth is finished his disciples see His avatar ascend from the simulation in the only way their minds can possible perceive it while locked in their time and dimension as His body is raised up into the clouds. "And it came to pass, while He blessed them, He was parted from them, and carried up to Heaven." In fact there are so many examples of advance concepts like the simulation and other quantum physics-like theories in the Bible I could probably write an entire book about this.
Now I know the previous few paragraphs might have been hard and confusing for you to read as they were for me to write but that just goes to show how the simple and perfect words of the Gospel were originally the best and most perfect way to describe the indescribable. And make no mistake, since we are in a simulation and trapped in our dimension there is a limit to what we can perceive while we are still trapped in it.
The popular notions from many famous secular scientists like "The Universe in a Nutshell", if that means we can know everything and put it all in one simple equation or philosophy, is obviously by reason and by our very natures incorrect. There are limits to even the knowledge of the greatest of us, especially when compared to the omniscient and all knowing Creator of everything in existence we know as the I AM.
If you find that notion hard to understand think about it using this example: Let's say you have a dog. Not just some ordinary mutt but the dog of dogs. This dog may be so smart that he can count to five with his paw and run and save little Timmy who fell down a well, but not matter how smart the dog is, he will never understand Calculus or Plato's The Cave allegory.
So if you are a Christian, over the next few years when you start to hear more and more about the prospect that our reality as we know it is in fact a simulation, take comfort in the fact that Christianity has already been teaching that same conclusion using different language since it's beginning. And make no mistake I think we will start to hear even more talk about that subject over the next couple of decades and those same people will use their bias to warp the concept in a way that they feel will discredit Christianity and all those who believe in it, and when Christians will try and point out that such a view as actually been in line with Christian Theology all along they will start to accuse us of the exact same bias and warping the issue in our preferred direction, but be sure to remind them that we have 2000 years of belief and scripture in the Holy Bible to back up our claim.
This Christian viewpoint of the simulation concept is much more sound and plausible than any of the other main stream and secular notions presented in this day and age. It takes into account and helps explain many of man's age old questions and ideas from philosophy. Examples including: the meaning of life, the problem of pain, if time is real and what is its purpose and countless others if you think long and hard about it. The other two main points you hear more often about the simulation concept never answer any further questions we have. Future generations creating the simulation do not explain where those people came from and neither would aliens creating it in any way explain the origin of the universe or any other philosophical question. Either of those views would just bring you back to where you started from and that would be a journey that is no where near as profitable as seeking real reason and truth.
No religion, other than Christianity has done so much to explain such truths through metaphor and allegory entwined with our growing understating of concepts like time, multiple dimensions, big bang like creation and quantum theories and even the meaning of life.
There are countless examples from scripture of Jesus Christ who came down from heaven explaining such complicated concepts to people from His time on Earth in such perfect and simple language. It is even more impressive when you realize Jesus was using metaphor and parables to explain the unexplainable in a time and place where He preached to a majority of uneducated people.
As you probably know Christians believe that when you die you either go to Heaven if you accept Christ or to Hell if you do not. And contrary to what some simple minded atheists will tell you the majority of those Christians do not believe and have never believed that those places were located in any area naturally and that you could get there on a boat or an air ship. They believed you got there after you died as if the dying was the gateway to the other place. They always knew, at least on some instinctive level that death lead you to another dimension even if the word dimension hadn't been "invented" yet.
Also look at the concept of Christian prayer to their God and Creator who by their teaching can seemingly hear all their prayers at once and somehow be able to answer them even though they are said by a person who is locked in time, about events unknown to the one praying, which may or have not have already happened yet. Christians either understand by knowledge or by faith that such prayers can all be heard and answered by God because He exists beyond our dimension of time and space. A God who created the simulation in order that His creations might be able to put their faith and trust in Him, in a way that doesn't rip even the illusion of choice away from them by standing in His immediate and unquestionable presence, could hear their prayers outside of their timeline and not be hampered by its linear limitations on the one praying.
The uniquely complected and amazing Christian concept of the Trinity is also very telling in regards to the idea of a simulation and also to how Christianity has always been a testament to such mind bending scientific ideas way ahead of any other religion or physicist today. Just look how it explains the unexplainable of how God the Creator can paradoxically be three separate but individual things at once.
On one hand you have God the Father as the creator of our entire universe aka our simulation and existing outside of it as a never ending constant holding it together and interacting with it through supernatural miracles through the Holy Ghost. Then shockingly at one point he miraculously interjects Himself into His own created simulation as an improved and perfect avatar of one of His own Creations as the Messiah Jesus Christ. Then this enables Him to exist outside and inside of the simulation and time and space simultaneously. Then while living His time on Earth as the Word Its Self He is able to describe to his disciples and other followers in the most perfect words possible the true nature of God, forgiveness and the literal meaning of life. And then after this time of teaching is over He dies for our sins and our fallen nature and in some way unknowable in our current state He rises from the dead and our acceptance of this act somehow interjects new code (for lack of a better word) into the simulation and helps in our redemption from our fall and gives us the opportunity to use our time on Earth to repent and choose the Creator's will over our own by putting our faith in Jesus Christ.
Then after His time on Earth is finished his disciples see His avatar ascend from the simulation in the only way their minds can possible perceive it while locked in their time and dimension as His body is raised up into the clouds. "And it came to pass, while He blessed them, He was parted from them, and carried up to Heaven." In fact there are so many examples of advance concepts like the simulation and other quantum physics-like theories in the Bible I could probably write an entire book about this.
Now I know the previous few paragraphs might have been hard and confusing for you to read as they were for me to write but that just goes to show how the simple and perfect words of the Gospel were originally the best and most perfect way to describe the indescribable. And make no mistake, since we are in a simulation and trapped in our dimension there is a limit to what we can perceive while we are still trapped in it.
The popular notions from many famous secular scientists like "The Universe in a Nutshell", if that means we can know everything and put it all in one simple equation or philosophy, is obviously by reason and by our very natures incorrect. There are limits to even the knowledge of the greatest of us, especially when compared to the omniscient and all knowing Creator of everything in existence we know as the I AM.
If you find that notion hard to understand think about it using this example: Let's say you have a dog. Not just some ordinary mutt but the dog of dogs. This dog may be so smart that he can count to five with his paw and run and save little Timmy who fell down a well, but not matter how smart the dog is, he will never understand Calculus or Plato's The Cave allegory.
So if you are a Christian, over the next few years when you start to hear more and more about the prospect that our reality as we know it is in fact a simulation, take comfort in the fact that Christianity has already been teaching that same conclusion using different language since it's beginning. And make no mistake I think we will start to hear even more talk about that subject over the next couple of decades and those same people will use their bias to warp the concept in a way that they feel will discredit Christianity and all those who believe in it, and when Christians will try and point out that such a view as actually been in line with Christian Theology all along they will start to accuse us of the exact same bias and warping the issue in our preferred direction, but be sure to remind them that we have 2000 years of belief and scripture in the Holy Bible to back up our claim.
Comments
Post a Comment