I can understand saying that “the universe is a simulation” implies “there is a god” for a deistic definition of god. But why would it imply that one of the religions is correct? Do you count deism as a religion?
Well, we enter the problem of “definition of god” right now. Does the tree that falls in a forest with no one to listen makes a sound ? Depends if “sound” is “vibration of the air” or “acoustic signal in a brain”. The same goes here. If the universe is a simulation, there is a “god” if a “god” is “a conscious entity that created the universe”, but not if a god is “an omni-powerful omniscient entity that existed for always” or anything else that most religions stick in the “god” word. And if “god” is an ontologically sentient entity that can’t be reduce to non-sentient components, then it’s unlikely that the creators of the simulation are like that, but not totally impossible (since the hypothesis space of how the “real universe” would be is very large).
If you understand for always as ‘ever since this universe has existed’, omniscient as ‘who knows everything about this universe’, etc., then a simulator would pretty much qualify as a god under that definition.
I wouldn’t say that a simulator is omniscient about its content. It’ll know all the positions of quarks and everything, but that’s not being omniscient in the sense that is given by major religions for God. An “omniscient God” as stated by theists doesn’t only know the exact quantum state of my brain, but also what it means in term of actual thoughts, knowing how to interpret that exact configuration as me being dishonest or whatever. I doubt much simulators have that level of awareness on their content. It is theoretically possible to build one which does have it, but it’s not a certainty at all that a simulator will have it.
If this universe is completely reductionistic, which a simulation probably would be, then your “actual thoughts” (and the existence of trees, etc.) are logical implications of the configuration. Does an entity with logical uncertainty still count as omniscient? But then we’ve gotten into definitions again.
I still don’t know whether you, personally, think a deistic god implies that one or more religions is true. It doesn’t particularly matter, though. Your original point that the answer to the god question depends on the answer to the simulation question is a good one.
Depends, of course, how you define religion. I’m not sure what the original question was but there is of course a religion stating the universe is a simulation, god or no god.
I can understand saying that “the universe is a simulation” implies “there is a god” for a deistic definition of god. But why would it imply that one of the religions is correct? Do you count deism as a religion?
Well, we enter the problem of “definition of god” right now. Does the tree that falls in a forest with no one to listen makes a sound ? Depends if “sound” is “vibration of the air” or “acoustic signal in a brain”. The same goes here. If the universe is a simulation, there is a “god” if a “god” is “a conscious entity that created the universe”, but not if a god is “an omni-powerful omniscient entity that existed for always” or anything else that most religions stick in the “god” word. And if “god” is an ontologically sentient entity that can’t be reduce to non-sentient components, then it’s unlikely that the creators of the simulation are like that, but not totally impossible (since the hypothesis space of how the “real universe” would be is very large).
If you understand for always as ‘ever since this universe has existed’, omniscient as ‘who knows everything about this universe’, etc., then a simulator would pretty much qualify as a god under that definition.
I wouldn’t say that a simulator is omniscient about its content. It’ll know all the positions of quarks and everything, but that’s not being omniscient in the sense that is given by major religions for God. An “omniscient God” as stated by theists doesn’t only know the exact quantum state of my brain, but also what it means in term of actual thoughts, knowing how to interpret that exact configuration as me being dishonest or whatever. I doubt much simulators have that level of awareness on their content. It is theoretically possible to build one which does have it, but it’s not a certainty at all that a simulator will have it.
If this universe is completely reductionistic, which a simulation probably would be, then your “actual thoughts” (and the existence of trees, etc.) are logical implications of the configuration. Does an entity with logical uncertainty still count as omniscient? But then we’ve gotten into definitions again.
I still don’t know whether you, personally, think a deistic god implies that one or more religions is true. It doesn’t particularly matter, though. Your original point that the answer to the god question depends on the answer to the simulation question is a good one.
Depends, of course, how you define religion. I’m not sure what the original question was but there is of course a religion stating the universe is a simulation, god or no god.