A 2016 article from The New Yorker details the Simulation Hypothesis, or the idea that we are living in a highly elaborate computer program rather than a base reality. According to the article, quite a few people within the scientific community buy into the idea, citing the fast pace of technological change in our current world.
But there’s one problem with this from a secular standpoint: The Simulation Hypothesis is the same as God-belief. It is a religious cosmology, not something proved by experimentation.
The article tries to weasel its way out like so (emphasis mine):
Where did the original, non-simulated world come from? In that sense, the simulation argument is a thoughtful and expansive materialist fable that is almost, but not quite, religious. There is, of course, no sanctity or holiness in the simulation argument. The people outside the simulation aren’t gods—they’re us.
You cannot assume this. By saying the world is a simulation, divine revelation is now evidence, just like experimentation. Through the Bible, God has made His preferences clear, and He even went through the trouble of entering the simulation to make things even clearer.
By contrast, the writer of the article just states, without evidence, that the simulation not only was created by humans or an AI, but that it is simulating their current reality with no modifications. It takes two key atheist ideas — humanity isn’t special, and nothing is sacred — and inverts them, paradoxically, into articles of faith. In truth, no assumptions can be made about the exact nature of the universe outside the simulation, or about the creator of that simulation — except for what has been revealed. There’s a reason the Simulation Hypothesis isn’t pushed anymore — it leaves too much space for God.
We are but mere bytes on the hard drive of Heaven. Whatever the nature of our existence, understand that it was no cosmic accident.
Even if this was a simulation (it’s very clearly not), the assumption that we’re doing it to ourselves (which is stupid) doesn’t answer any questions or presume that we know the source of any of why it is happening. It’s all guesswork. These are the same people that assumed aliens would save us from our sins decades ago, so it’s no wonder that their answer essentially has to sum up as being anything but God. It’s just another boring form of scientism.
This is a theory invented by people who have spent too much time online and have forgotten the touch of grass and leaves.
These are the same people that assumed aliens would save us from our sins decades ago, so it’s no wonder that their answer essentially has to sum up as being anything but God.
Aliens are the secular equivalent of angels, fairies, and demons.
This is a theory invented by people who have spent too much time online and have forgotten the touch of grass and leaves.
Good point. We live in a world of bodies and objects, not computer code.
The link doesn’t work, so I’m only going based on my recollection of the hypothesis (which I admittedly haven’t paid much attention to, even though it intrigues me).
Interestingly (IMO), the simulation hypothesis actually goes pretty far in explaining why you can’t find God and Heaven through terrestrial science. It would be like traveling in one direction forever in Minecraft looking in vain for the real world, and then claiming it doesn’t exist.
The link doesn’t work
Not sure why.
It would be like traveling in one direction forever in Minecraft looking in vain for the real world, and then claiming it doesn’t exist.
Exactly. The only answers you’ll get about the universe outside the simulation are the answers someone from that world gives you — and they can make it look however they want.
Rawle,
As Brian tireless points out: humans are hardwired to be religious. Suppress that religious impulse, and you live the GK Chesterton aphorism, that if you don’t believe; you believe in everything BUT God.
All this tells me my initial skepticism about the Enlightenment was correct and should never have been conflicted about rejecting many of its major premises.
xavier
One way or another, the God-shaped hole will be filled.
Even if we were the simulation of finite, conditioned beings, it would not follow that they were like us in more than that, and creating simulations
It’s simulations all the way down.