Are we living in a computer simulation?

[libby]

What if belief in such was just part of the simulation's programming for some individuals?

That is a very good question. 

[Palehorse]

The scientific research pointing toward everything in the universe being energy based at its core, really supports this being the case. . .

[followsthewolf]

So....

do you want to be Morpheus?

[Palehorse]

So....

do you want to be Morpheus?

Perhaps we are all nothing but the creations of Morpheus! 

[Henry Hawk]

or perhaps we are creations of God.

[Locutus]

This is for Locutus. I tried to answer your question last night, but had a horrible day yesterday and couldn't focus on what I wanted to say long enough to write it.

I don't doubt that in the future just about all, or maybe all human body parts may be duplicated and replaced, including the brain, except for one thing -- the soul. I grew up in a Christian home believing that, and becoming disillusioned with religion did not change it. But how do I reconcile that with the science that I believe in? I found a way, a decade or so ago. I read something that made sense to me:

No worries on the delay.   On the subject of a soul, if this were just one big programming simulation, then the soul (for those that choose to believe in such) is no more than additional programming just like the rest of what we perceive to be reality around us.  If this is all a simulation, then there is no true reality in any of it including intangibles like the soul.

"Deep inside us, unknown to the five senses, is an innermost core of being, a field of nonchange that creates personality, ego, and body. This is our essential state -- it is who we really are....These are vast assumptions, the makings of a new reality, yet all are grounded in the discoveries of quantum physics made almost a hundred years ago.  The seeds of this new paradigm were planted by Einstein, Bohr, Heisenberg, and the other pioneers of quantum physics, who realized that the accepted way of viewing the physical world was false. Although things "out there" appear to be real, there is no proof or reality apart from the observer. No two people share exactly the same universe. Every worldview creates its own world."  -- Deepak Chopra, Ageless Body, Timeless Mind

That part in bold is actually pretty close to the exact the topic of this thread, is it not?    One could say, "Although things 'out there' appear to be real, there is no proof or reality apart from the programming. 

[Locutus]

and I say in return, what if God is real?

same conclusions...

Belief in a deity, whomever that may be for you, is just part of the programming.  A grand study of the potential catastrophes or benefits of widespread belief in things that really have no proof, with the writers of the programming conducting the study. 

[Locutus]

or perhaps we are creations of God.

Well you have to admit that so far, the programming doesn't support that conclusion whatsoever, especially not as it's depicted in Genesis.  The programming has given us other evidence to consider that would seem to belie that being the case.

[Locutus]

On a more humorous note, if you're ever out walking in the forest and a door appears like this one, run like hell and get back to the Zone and let us know about it.   

[libby]

  I was already going there, but my comment about the programming was to be -- simply: BORG?

[Locutus]

I was already going there, but my comment about the programming was to be -- simply: BORG?

BTW, that's assimilation; not simulation. 

[libby]

Drat! Would it make a difference if I said I was thinking about the effect, not the process?