To explain life, the universe and everything with “God did it”, or simply to explain it, is simply to substitute a mystery by appealing to an even greater mystery. Simply saying “God did it” has no real explanatory power. On the other hand, explaining Life, the Universe and Everything as a computer program, a ‘God’ Program so to speak, can account for any and all anomalies. With the software everything is possible, even explaining God.
According to a theist of my acquaintance online, if God knows all the possible outcomes and what he will do in each case, then there are no surprises…since a being who knows the entire flowchart does not need to think or contemplate.
That set up an interesting scenario for me.
“If God knows all possible outcomes and what he will do in each case…”
The phrase “what He will do” requires His real thought, contemplation and decision-making. Otherwise, one is only suggesting that God is a pre-programmed robot that will automatically respond and do A if B and C if not B and so on. Every possibility is in the ‘brain’ of God, not because God has deduced all possibilities through thought, contemplation, reason, and deduction, but because of this pre-programmed chip that is pre-programmed with all possible scenarios and all possible scenarios. reactions to each and every possibility, thus eliminating any possibility. requirement for thought and deliberation and contemplation and decision making. In other words, God is similar to that computer that finally defeated the human chess champion because the computer knew, in the same way that my theist friend says that God knows, every possible move that the human could make and what to do to counter those moves. movements. The computer had the chess flow chart drawn up. God is a computer! That is exactly what this theist was saying, or rather suggesting. The evidence…
“…since a being who knows the whole flowchart does not need to think or contemplate” seems to verify my premise. The words of a theist verify my premise!
If God knows all possible scenarios, the master flowchart scheme that incorporates all possible flowcharts, then there is no free will involved, only determinism. A computer software program is deterministic; there is no free will involved.
Let’s take a closer look!
God, assuming there really is a God, of course, may or may not know the absolute future, but one could argue that God must know the future because He established the absolutely deterministic laws, principles, and relationships inherent in the physical sciences. Causality is absolute. If X today, then Y tomorrow. However, there is a nasty can of worms, a loose cannon, in that deterministic scenario: free will.
It has been claimed that God knows the absolute future apart from what those nasty free will humans (and many animals) can and will do. However, God knows all the possible scenarios that all those free will humans (and animals) can or will do. God is aware of all free will human (and animal) flow charts and therefore can attend to any scenario that arises before the fact. That seemed to me equivalent to the computer program that defeated the human chess champion. That computer software program knew the complete flowchart of every possible move the human chess champion could make, and thus how to counter each and every possible human move. So, God is similar to a computer, or better yet, a computer program.
At first I thought that equating God with a computer was cool, but I was wrong to equate God with a computer. God is not the computer. God is just the actual computer software program that runs the virtual reality ‘game’ we call Life, the Universe and Everything. Let’s call this the ‘God’ Program, the computer software program that can deal with all those free will possibilities or scenarios. In a computer/video game, the computer software program ‘knows’ all the possible flow chart of the game and has to attend to all the possible scenarios generated by the free will human players. But keep in mind that there is nothing supernatural about a computer program, and therefore if God is similar to a computer program, then there is nothing supernatural about God.
So the question is not how God is the creator, but how God was created. Here is a stage. It is the year 2525 and technologically advanced beings (probably humans) have created the most advanced and sophisticated computer program ever achieved, which they call ‘God’ (or perhaps the ‘God’ Program) and this ‘God’ Program creates and controls a virtual reality landscape called Life, the Universe and Everything. We, including you and me, are simply ‘existing’ as part of what we perceive as our really real reality of 2017, but we really ‘exist’ in that virtual 2017 generated by ‘God’ reality landscape: 2017 is part of the simulation generated by ‘God’. That virtual reality landscape called Life, the Universe and Everything works. Once again, there is nothing supernatural about him.
But a computer software program, the ‘God’ Program, requires a creator. Human beings are that creator, therefore ‘God’ was created in our image, so to speak.
So the question is, a variation on a previous theme, who or what actually wrote the computer software program, the ‘God’ Program? But whoever or what programmed the ‘God’ program, that programmer(s) once again need not be supernatural, even if the programmers are so technologically advanced that they may appear magical or supernatural – Arthur C. Clarke’s Third Law .
Going down a level, we’re not supernatural, but we program our video/computer games through our creative skills and maybe those video/computer game characters we’ve created might see us as supernatural and of course they’d be wrong. One could see a parallel here with some of our current religions.
It is often claimed that God ‘exists’ in a timeless and unchanging state, which is utter rubbish IMHO since the very act of original thought requires temporary existence and temporary existence requires change.
But, a computer software program – the ‘God’ Program – is, of course, not timeless and it is not immutable and does not exist in a timeless or immutable state of existence. However, it doesn’t think, decide, ponder, deliberate, or any other synonyms you want to use.
Going back one level again, here is a practical application of the ‘God’ Program. Now, if you are willing to accept based on the texts of a book, that hundreds of people claimed to have seen a supernatural Jesus (before, during, and after) even though there is no independent verification of any of this that you yourself can do for yourself and to yourself regarding those supernatural claims, and yet you are (probably) unwilling to accept the (usually much more recent) testimony of millions of people over thousands of years who have witnessed others (you cannot being therefore not vs. I know what I saw) anomalies: ghosts, dragons, fairies, aliens, Bigfoot, etc. – So that’s a double standard. One is not more credible than the other. But both can be assimilated to the ‘God’ Program (or in more common language, the Simulation Hypothesis) without any problem.
Here is another variation on that scenario or theme. If we are virtual beings ‘existing’ in a computer program – the ‘God’ Program – that has generated our simulated landscape called Life, the Universe and Everything, then there is no reason why all mythological beings, from dragons to Horus; from the goblins to Odin; from the fairies to Apollo, it couldn’t have “existed” either, albeit virtually. What software can bring into existence, software can finish. That applies equally to all alleged events and characters in the Bible, including supernatural beings: angels, demons, as well as the Trinity itself. In addition, it easily accounts for each and every one of the supernatural events or miracles related in the biblical texts, such as the Sun and the Moon standing in the sky; the creation of a woman from a male rib; Jonas in the ‘whale’ living to tell the story; or the various accounts of what amounts to pure alchemy. With computer software programs, virtually anything is possible.
Going down a level once again, there are mythologically themed computer/video games you can buy today that feature ghosts, goblins, dragons, unicorns, flying horses, as well as Thor, Zeus, etc. Actually, I wouldn’t be surprised if someone, somewhere, hadn’t created a video/computer game with Jesus and company.