Posted on 06/26/2016 7:54:24 AM PDT by CHRISTIAN DIARIST
In “Our Town” the Pulitzer Prize-winning play authored by Thornton Wilder, one of the characters, Rebecca Gibbs, tells her older brother George about the sick friend of hers, Jane Crofut, who received a strangely-addressed letter from her minister:
Jane Crofut The Crofut Farm; Grover’s Corners; Sutton County; New Hampshire; United States of America; Continent of North America; Western Hemisphere; The Earth; The Solar System; The Universe; The Mind of God.
Nearly 80 years after “Our Town” was first performed at McCarter Theater in Princeton, New Jersey, Elon Musk appeared this month at Code Conference in Rancho Palos Verdes, California.
The CEO of both SpaceX and Tesla suggested to his fellow tech industry “influencers” that we are living in a universe that came forth not from the mind of God, but, more likely, by a computer simulation. And he bases his fantastical belief on video games.
“The strongest argument,” said Musk, “for us being in a simulation probably is the following:
Forty years ago, we had pong. Like, two rectangles and a dot. That was what games were. Now, 40 years later, we have photorealistic, 3D simulations with millions of people playing simultaneously, and it’s getting better every year. Soon we’ll have virtual reality, augmented reality.
If you assume any rate of improvement at all, then the games will become indistinguishable from reality, even if that rate of advancement drops by a thousand from what it is now. Then, you just say, okay, let’s imagine it’s 10,000 years in the future – which is nothing on the evolutionary scale.
So given that we’re clearly on a trajectory to have games that are indistinguishable from reality, and those games could be played on any set-top box or on a PC or whatever, and there would be billions of such computers or set-top boxes, it would seem to follow that the odds were in base reality is one in billions.”
When asked point blank if he personally believed that all of us are but blissfully unaware simulants (“Sims” ) living in a world that really does not exist in a universe that is nothing more than a string of 0’s and 1’s, Musk responded, matter-of-factly: “Probably.”
That’s an extraordinary leap of faith by Musk. Indeed, in 2013, the tech genius sat down for an interview with Rainn Wilson, on the actor’s YouTube channel, “SoulPancake.” Wilson asked Musk, “Can science and religion coexist?” And Musk replied, “Probably not.” Yet, Musk is promulgating a belief that is a bizzaro version of creationism.
Daniel Jackson, who blogs for the U.K. weekly The Spectator, suggests that a neologism is required for Musk, and others who share his doctrine, who can’t be considered atheists, per se, because “atheism” means “without God.”
No, Musk and others who worship at the altar of technology, who believe the world as we know it was created by computer simulation (or perhaps some other manifestation of science fiction), might be best described as “Creathiests,” as Jackson suggests.
The irony is that the compulsion of Musk and other of his fellow tech industry influencers to explain how we got here – computer simulation, alien seeding of the earth, evolution, panspermia – actually confirms the veracity of the Bible.
Indeed, First Corinthians advises us that “God has chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise.” Like science fiction movies – including “Source Code (2011) ,” “Inception (2010),” “The Matrix (2009),” “Surrogates (2009 ),” “Vanilla Sky (2001),” “The Thirteenth Floor (1999 )” and “Total Recall, (1990)” – that have influenced beliefs by wise men like Elon Musk that the 7.4 billion people on this planet really don’t exist.
The CEO of SpaceX and Tesla is so confounded he told the technology faithful that “maybe we should be hopeful this is a simulation,” and that we are living in some sort of cosmic time loop. Otherwise, Musk fears, the time will come when “when civilization will cease to exist.”
Well, those of us who are Christ followers, are unafraid of the end of civilization as we know it. For we look forward to the day, prophesied in First Thessalonians, when “the Lord Himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God.
And the dead in Christ shall rise first. Then we which are alive shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air. And so shall we ever be with the Lord.”
As a Christian, I find this offensive and demand that the US government stop giving this guy my tax dollars.
meh.
As if my faith depends on Musk
“I know my redeemer lives, and in the end I shall see him, with these eyes, and not another’s. Though He slay me, I will hope in Him.” - Job.
God as programmer? A new level of understanding?
Maybe.
The ‘proof’ is the sloppiness of the program... minor mistakes... look for them
Musk is still arguing for a universe created by an intelligent being.
Like Steve Bartman. A bug or a SIM design by a mischievous God?
So then, Mr. Musk, how did the programmer and his/her/it’s civilization come to be? Are they also a simulation? Is it “turtles all the way down?”
For such a smart guy (and he is), he really didn’t think this through. Maybe he should read “Genesis and the Big Bang” by Gerald Schroeder, an astrophysicist who is also an Orthodox Jew. HE understands that we are not a simulation, and that G-d created the Universe that we are a part of...among many other things that we simply cannot discern.
Deja vu?
So, he believes in God, just quibbling about the nature of creation.
Assuming simulations don’t just happen.
As a Christian, I find this offensive and demand that the US government stop giving this guy my tax dollars.
...
How do you know Christ isn’t part of the program.
Musk isn’t rejecting God. He’s thinking about the details as many smart people before him have done.
Asimov’s “Last Question” is along similar lines to what Musk is thinking.
where are the glitches and bugs?
‘“maybe we should be hopeful this is a simulation,” and that we are living in some sort of cosmic time loop. Otherwise, Musk fears, the time will come when “when civilization will cease to exist.”’
What a bizarre, irrational statement from a such a ‘brilliant’ man. If this is just a sim, we already don’t exist. On the other hand, all those aborted babies, the masses robbed and backstabbed by our corrupt governments, the victims of savage Muslims, the scores killed by careless and ruthless fools, are just digital objects, not worth a second thought.
The tech generations have been nicely primed not to give a damn about the value of a human life, or any life. We are all disposable. This is why it doesn’t matter if we have a Constitution, or a pesky Bill of Rights, or an Independence Day, or a Bible. Untold suffering will come of it, but it won’t matter. It’s as fleeting as a level in a video game.
It also serves socialist/communist purposes. No matter how ugly thier attempt to succeed at this ‘level’, it’s okay, they can just try again and again. No matter that every previous attempt has cost millions of lives. At some point, they’ll complete the ‘game’. That’s all that matters.
Sometimes it seems God has let this go on for too long.
Talk is fine, but where’s the pneumatic tube to shoot people from SF to LA?
Yes, that’s one of them...
Isaac Asimov's insights are missed...
You’d have to restate your complaint to “As a Muslim I find this offensive...”
‘where are the glitches and bugs?’
So called Liberals and Progressives, (which I call regressives). You shall know by their fruit. We are seeing the secrets being revealed at a rapid pace.
Liberal secularists are saying there is no god, but:
* they will invent an all knowing omniscient benevolent AI we should all obey, AKA, God
* there is no heaven, but they’ll create memory uploads to let people live forever in digital simulations - AKA, heaven
* there is no hell, but if you don’t live by their enforced poverty and freedom restrictions, the Earth will fall into a hot, desperate, starving post-apocalyptic vision - AKA, hell on Earth
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