this post was submitted on 22 Dec 2023
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[–] [email protected] 98 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (13 children)

The "belief" we're in a simulation is more like a interesting idea than something people organize their lives around. Is it possible? Yes. Am I going to praise the great programmer every Sunday? No.

The belief in God in most cases is not just belief in some general higher power but a very specific deity with weird morality, silly mythology and bunch of scam artists behind it.

  • I think there's a higher power...
  • Ok...
  • that got mad at us for eating fruits but then impregnated a lady with itself and pissed us off so that we murdered him and he could say he's not mad anymore.
  • ... WTF?
[–] [email protected] 13 points 11 months ago (7 children)

I more or less agree, but you keep using "believe" when you ought to use "belief." Just FYI.

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[–] [email protected] 11 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

Could an all powerful, loving God be real? Sure. Why not?

Could a powerful, all loving God be real? Yeah, seems realistic. In many ways, I am a God to an ant.

Could an all powerful all loving God be real?

Hahahahahahahahahahahahahaha no.

God is either inept, indifferent, or a straight up ass. None of those items are something I care to worship, even at the threat of the eternal damnation.

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[–] [email protected] 57 points 11 months ago (73 children)

There’s no hypocrisy here.

On one hand, the belief in a god doesn’t just end there. There are beliefs in what that god does and what he has control over. So it’s completely logical to believe that there’s no god (although, as someone else pointed out, it’s also not random arrangements of atoms).

On the other hand, simulation theory is a logical theory to rationalize the “purpose” of why we exist. It’s not a belief. The simulation doesn’t respond to prayers or requests. It’s simply conjecture or hypothesis to explain the “why” of the universe. No one who talks about simulation theory (much less who “believes” in it) pretends that the creator of the simulation is uniquely interested in them and responds to their requests and tells them how to live their life. In fact, that would go against the entire concept of simulation theory.

Religion and religious belief have specific definitions. This feels just as dishonest as people claiming that LGBTQ ideology is a religion or that evolution is a “belief”.

[–] [email protected] 18 points 11 months ago (7 children)

You're assuming belief in the Abrahamic God to make your argument easier. But not all theists subscribe to such a position. And belief in a disinterested god who created the universe seems just as plausible as believing in a disinterested programmer who wrote a simulation.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 11 months ago

Those conjectures aren't just equally plausible, they're the same thing.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

I think their point is belief versus theory. One requires faith, the other thought.

It's why it's simulation theory and not Simulationism. People acknowledge it, but don't follow it, nor believe it, since belief requires clearing unknown gaps with leaps of faith to reach an unknown destination. Theory seeks answers of the unknown with "could be this, could not be this" whereas belief is "it be this".

This always points back to the paradox which all divinity falls into. The moment we know of a god to be real, it is old news and no longer divine. The next scientific step is "What made it so?" and moves right along to bigger things whether theists are on board or not.

Of the few words ending with -ism and -ist in science or theory, none have belief or faith.

Even the most apparent, such as the Big Bang Theory, are still marked a theory, after all. Believing in them—convinction without 100% knowledge—is foolish and closes doors of what may actually be truth.

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[–] [email protected] 37 points 11 months ago (10 children)

I've literally never met someone who claimed we actually live in a simulation though

[–] [email protected] 16 points 11 months ago (1 children)

yeah its a strawman (checkmate athiest)

[–] [email protected] 10 points 11 months ago (5 children)
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[–] [email protected] 7 points 11 months ago (4 children)

I saw a theory by some physicists that there is some evidence we may be a hologram but I'm not smart enough to understand exactly what that means. Sounds neat

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[–] [email protected] 33 points 11 months ago

They are similar in that neither are scientific theories, as they are equally non-falsifiable. We may live in a universe where it is impossible to see the face of god or a glitch in the matrix by construction.

Given that impossibility, how then could you perform an experiment or make an observation that contradicts the theory? To be reductive, science isn't about proving. It's failing to disprove. If there isn't a set of circumstances in which a theory can be disproven, it isn't scientific.

Unless you are a string theorist. Then you just say whatever the hell you want.

[–] [email protected] 28 points 11 months ago

I don't think anyone actually believes the latter except room temperature IQ tech bros. It's mostly just a hypothetical.

[–] [email protected] 28 points 11 months ago (3 children)

Idk what's the exact purpose of this meme but I really do see a lot of similarities between God creating the world and simulation theory. Obviously ST and religion are wildly different in their impact on society and how many people genuinely believe in them, but ST is pretty silly too.

It's just a "what if" scenario, one that's potentially possible but wouldn't change or explain anything if it was true. All you're doing is moving the existential problems up a layer and forgetting about it, it's the same as saying God made us: at the end of the day both the beings in charge of the simulation AND God have to come from somewhere, they live in a "real" universe, and you're not explaining that.

Why can't it be that we simply live in a real universe? That's the simplest answer, the one that requires the fewest assumptions. It doesn't have a convenient, satisfying reason as to why we're here, or how reality came to be, but it's easily the most plausible.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 11 months ago (8 children)

Why can't it be that we simply live in a real universe? That's the simplest answer, the one that requires the fewest assumptions.

The argument goes that: a sufficiently technologically advanced society would run ancestor simulations. Those simulations may also run simulations. There's no ceiling on the number of nesting simulations. It's the height of conceit to think we're the top level when there are squillions of simulated universe.

https://www.smbc-comics.com/?id=2535

[–] [email protected] 5 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (4 children)

"there are squillions of simulated universe."

Huge assumption there lol, but I guess I see your point. If you assume simulations of this scope and quality are possible (again HUGE assumption), then your odds of being in one go up a lot, obviously.

Again though, at some point you have to hit actual, non simulated reality, and when everything seems to point towards that being the case for us, and absolutely nothing hints at a simulation, I don't see why we couldn't just be in that actual reality. I can't help but see that thought experiment as just an attempt to answer "the big question" in some way, even though in actuality it just moves it out of view.

It's Russell's teapot, impossible to disprove and theorically possible, but there's nothing backing it up besides fantastical assumptions. In that regard yeah, I think the comparison with God is warranted. The creators of our simulation, and especially the ones up above that are actually real would need such absurd levels of technology so far beyond our comprehension that it would be magic to us, and they would absolutely be our Gods.

I don't see much of a difference, it's kind of just a tech themed spin on it, with the same fallacies plaguing the whole concept, IMO. It's cool to think and write scifi about, but that's about it.

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[–] [email protected] 24 points 11 months ago (10 children)

Could (a) god(s) exist? Possibly, it's hard to rule out the supernatural in natural terms since it's SUPERnatural

Could the universe be a simulation? Possible too, but also on of those things that's almost impossible to prove.

At the same time, it could be that your e a Boltzmann brain, and that literally nothing existed before and that your brain just kinda formed together spontaneously with all your memories.

All those are possible options that are over 99% likely to be false, but their cooouuullldd be true.

Point is not to rearrange your life on the off changlce that one of those are true. Especially religion, since religions tend to be "believe our particular god(s) or you go to hell for eternity" followed closely by "if you don't believe our particular god(s) we will help you go to hell right now". Nearly all human conflicts in Earth's history were either based on religion or used religion as a tool to whip up the masses to go kill the others.

There are also hundreds of Gods and over 3000 different religious figures out there and they're all pretty much exclusive or, they all claim to be the right one and the rest is wrong. Bold claim to make when it's all based off goat herders texts that were first abused for a completely different god (hello, Christianity!) and constantly conflicts with each other.

Simulation theory and Boltzman brain ideas are fun to entertain and talk and think about, but they've never been used to control who can love and have sex with who, they've never been a used whereas religion just IS abuse and control in every way possible.

I do not like religion

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[–] [email protected] 22 points 11 months ago (9 children)

One of those is a belief and the other is a theory.

One requires the absence of evidence and the other requires evidence.

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[–] [email protected] 22 points 11 months ago

Are you a farmer? Because you have an awful lot of straw!

[–] [email protected] 16 points 11 months ago (7 children)

Does anyone base their lives and their worldviews around the simulation theory?

[–] [email protected] 10 points 11 months ago

Its such a philosophical dead end. I know a few people who really want the world to be a simulation but I cant understand why. I think they want an excuse to have nothing matter and be shitty.

But i would not live my life any differently if we found out that this is a simulation. Because its still real to me and there's no reason to believe I can exist outside the simulation any more than my sims can exist outside the game.

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[–] [email protected] 14 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (2 children)

We do live in a simulation and I can prove it.
Stick your whole hand up your ass and push the secret eject key.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 11 months ago

just did this. didnt work but i learnt something about myself.

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[–] [email protected] 12 points 11 months ago

bad religion bait post is bad

[–] [email protected] 11 points 11 months ago (11 children)

Both are just as unlikely as the other and have as much evidence, I'd find anyone who possesed both beliefs to be weird.

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[–] [email protected] 8 points 11 months ago (3 children)

honestly, who is this targeting? conspiracy theorists?

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[–] [email protected] 8 points 11 months ago

Makes me miss my old roommate, who didn't believe in God but believed this all could be a simulation. Hope you're doing well buddy, wherever the fuck you've wandered!

[–] [email protected] 7 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (4 children)

It's always the worst people who believe this too. The only interpretation of Simulation Theory that I will even remotely entertain is the one that we're all information stuck on the surface of a black hole, because it's the only one that isn't just there to feed tech bros' god complex.

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[–] [email protected] 7 points 11 months ago (3 children)

Damn theists really are fucking morons, huh?

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[–] [email protected] 7 points 11 months ago

Dr. Blitz called Simulation Theory religion for tech bros and I can't get it out of my head 😅

[–] [email protected] 6 points 11 months ago (4 children)

both have people believe humans are part of a greater design

both include some otherworldly figure either observing or mandating how we live our lives

both reject the idea that maybe we’re just fuckin’ here because we are just fuckin’ here

Love how some people are legitimately proving this meme in the comments.

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[–] [email protected] 5 points 11 months ago (2 children)

Uh, not random. Evolution has a system.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Evolution is just random. The "system" is just the good random changes live and the bad don't.

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