Well, hence the confusion about Spinoza’s God. It’s not really ontologically distinct for him, since his God ‘is’ the universe. (His God is also just mental-stuff, but Spinoza was an idealist, so to him all stuff was mental-stuff.)
Now, Spinoza’s might not count as a ‘Matrix Lord’ since he denies that God ‘chooses’ anything in our sense (he holds to a very strong version of the Principle of Sufficient Reason) so it’s not like God is ‘running’ the simulation, as it were: God just is the simulation according to Spinoza.
Likewise, most theistic philosophers are comitted to God being omniscient, omnipotent, and (usually) omnibenevolent. But some put that in ‘absolute’ terms while some put it in terms of this world: omnipotent regarding this world, etc. For the latter group, there is no clear philosophical dilemma in saying that a Matrix Lord counts as God, especially if that Matrix Lord is also the “First Cause.”
In fact, assuming that such a Matrix Lord exists, most theistic philosophers would be required to say it counts as God.
Well, hence the confusion about Spinoza’s God. It’s not really ontologically distinct for him, since his God ‘is’ the universe. (His God is also just mental-stuff, but Spinoza was an idealist, so to him all stuff was mental-stuff.)
Now, Spinoza’s might not count as a ‘Matrix Lord’ since he denies that God ‘chooses’ anything in our sense (he holds to a very strong version of the Principle of Sufficient Reason) so it’s not like God is ‘running’ the simulation, as it were: God just is the simulation according to Spinoza.
Likewise, most theistic philosophers are comitted to God being omniscient, omnipotent, and (usually) omnibenevolent. But some put that in ‘absolute’ terms while some put it in terms of this world: omnipotent regarding this world, etc. For the latter group, there is no clear philosophical dilemma in saying that a Matrix Lord counts as God, especially if that Matrix Lord is also the “First Cause.”
In fact, assuming that such a Matrix Lord exists, most theistic philosophers would be required to say it counts as God.