Do we live in a simulation?

Those are factors influenced by the natural world and society around us, and not given by God Himself. It’s very possible to drift from social/cultural norms.

Free will just means we are free to choose our actions, etc, as in you weren’t pre-programmed or in other words forced to do anything for or against God’s will.

 

We all are given our own challenges for reasons we may never know in this lifetime. But, just thinking of it now, perhaps free will means more than just choosing, but rather it means to choose by what we think is morally right vs morally wrong, then being held accountable for our choice rather than just God forcing us to do either (I don’t believe in force being a quality of God). For some with certain mental illnesses, right vs wrong is not easily distinguishable to them in cases. I personally believe they won’t be held accountable in the same manner as someone who has “seen the light” (I.E. know about the good and the evil of their choice) as Christ is a fair judge who judges by our knowledge beforehand and the intent of the heart.

So, if you look at it in that way, they have a sense of free will, although it’s not as subtle as you or I would have in mortality. The great thing is everything works out fairly in the end.

 

Well said. I've been thinking a lot about the aspect of the value of existence. In the end it really comes down to the individual whether existence matters to them or not. In a sense reality is what you make of it. Which is a sense really does prove that happiness is a choice.

 

On the one hand, this makes a lot of sense. On the other you're all just figments of my imagination and I'm in a coma somewhere and this is just a dream...

 

how do I know that YOU'RE not a figment of MY imagination!

 

When I first came across this thread I thought it was nuts but I've since learnt serious academics consider the idea of a simulation. Apparently if a tree were to crash to the ground in a forest it doesn't make a sound and it's just our brains that create the sound.

It would definitely be interesting if someone had a different brain to us to learn about what sounds they hear.

Maybe facts aren't reality because facts are limited to our brain.

 

Totally worth the hour to listen to that.

 

Not all scientists are in agreement about this. Some think the idea is insane.

Maybe it wasn't created. Maybe everything is just a product of the big bang.

 

If we are, my player sucks at this game.

 

I think not... we live in an environment. You could say that a simulation is a virtual environment, but it's not.

A simulation is just a recreation of a real environment. Therefore as it is created INSIDE the environment, it can't have all it's characteristics. The difference between the two of them is this:

1. An environment or reality does not have "laws" it has "tendencies" that may change over time. We call them laws because we think that some phenomenons are always the same in the same circumstances. But hey, what do we know?

A simulation does have laws, that imitate the reality tendencies. So, when a set of laws does not meet some requirements... crash! the simulation shuts down or pauses.

2. An environment could be created but in the same reality as it's creator. A "sentient being" inside a simulation would never meet his creator, and actually, it will never be sentient. why? because its conscience is processed inside the simulator, using the resources of the core that process the simulation (in the case of a simulation inside a computer, the core is a CPU).

3. In an environment processes are conceived naturally using the existent essences that makes everything go in motion (in our case, Energy and Matter... and the others we don't know yet). But in a simulation all the essences that makes everything go in motion are essences taken from outside the simulation, if the income of those essences is shut down, all the simulation goes down. Not the case of an environment because... in our case, energy and matter are not destroyed, only transformed.

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I personally think that our souls are not individual beings... and our experiences are not what really defines us. Life... our reality is just a process, for something bigger, that we cannot understand and we will never understand in our actual state.