Is The Physical Realm Analogous To A Simulated Reality?

[VladtheDestroyer]

Hello Derf. I look at how people, things and events which happen here on earth are often used of God as allegories rather than being simulations. They weave truths about God for us to discover. They mirror and may even predict future events or give clues as to the promised Messiah.

I think that is a very good way to see it.

If I remember correctly, God had one of the prophets to live out a scenario in his own life which depicted the behavior of a rebellious nation which had turned from the LORD.

I believe you are probably thinking about Jerehmiah.

 

[VladtheDestroyer]

Love your puppet. So cute. That's me, without the cigarette, when my little grandson has hit his sister again.

 

[Derf]

Hello Derf. I look at how people, things and events which happen here on earth are often used of God as allegories rather than being simulations. They weave truths about God for us to discover. They mirror and may even predict future events or give clues as to the promised Messiah. The actual life of Samson paints such an allegory of the work of the future Christ. He was chosen but not obedient to God at all. Yet, in his death he did do the will of God in that he destroyed or at least curbed the overbearing Philistines. If I remember correctly, God had one of the prophets to live out a scenario in his own life which depicted the behavior of a rebellious nation which had turned from the LORD. AI can do a simulation of real things ... but I feel God uses allegories/parables to reveal truths. Here is another example. Eve and Adam partook of the Tree and ate the fruit. In scripture a tree represents a kingdom and its king. Fruit represents the works one produces. I believe there was a literal tree in the Garden with fruits. When Eve and Adam partook of the fruit it symbolized their choice to partake of the works of another kingdom. To me that kingdom was Satan's. Therefore the story is played out in reality but revealed what they had done spiritually. Partook of the knowledge of good and evil - causing bad fruits.

Ok. How do you contrast symbology with sumulation?

 

[Derf]

I think that is a very good way to see it.



I believe you are probably thinking about Jerehmiah.

Ezekiel had go around naked for awhile, didn't he?

 

[Ps82]

Written words don't match audible words ... but funny. Yet, I prefer a song more like this: No body likes me. Everybody hates me. Think I'll go eat worms. Big fat juicy ones. Little tiny tiny ones. Oh, how they wiggly and squirm. Bite their heads off. Suck their juice out. Throw their skins away. Nobody knows how a girl can live on worms three times a day. Wonder if they will sing that in the place where worms never die????

 

[ttruscott]

I would say our physical bodies and our brains are more or less the interface that our spirits are sorta forced to experience the physical realm through.

I'm assuming God didn't necessarily have to do it that way. That he could have created Adam just as a spirit, without tying his spirit to a physical body and a physical universe.

Careful here - you have just wandered into that pre-earth existence theology garbage... the theology that takes so many verses at face value because it solves the doublethink conundrums of ordinary orthodoxy,

 

[ttruscott]

Ahh now I understand. I meant...in heaven we won't need physical eyes to see things. Will we?

Nor mouths to sing nor ears to listen.

Reminds me of C. S. Lewis: We are not bodies who have a spirit, we are spirits who have a body.

 

[ttruscott]

So what do you mean?

I mean:
Reality is what is in our lives. A play on a stage uses real things yet is only a simulacrum of our lives. In the same way our lives here can be using real things and people but is only a stage for the morality play that is designed to bring HIS lost sheep back to HIMself as His heavenly Bride. We as players live the play to learn what HE wants us to learn, then we leave the play.

When you walk off the stage at death, you wait the wings until your resurrection when you return to real life in the spirit realm.

 

[ttruscott]

Do only-spiritual parties like angels and demons, with no physicality, have the ability to observe the physical realm? Or do you need a physical brain, in order to experience this World?

I don't think the angels singing at Christ's birth had physical brains, not the angels by the thousands on the hills above Elisha although the angels with God talking to Abraham at Sodom may have had brains. <biiiiig shrug>

 

[Ps82]

Ok. How do you contrast symbology with sumulation?

You have asked for my thinking/opinion so here goes.

Siri says the definition of symbology is the use of symbols. a method used often for the unschooled. Well, I would consider that to be a close synonym for what I call symbolic figurative language such as personification, metaphors, similes and hyperbole as you might find in poetry. I would pair the use of these with the use of a parable - a story which can be told to extend one's depth of understanding and/or, as scripture insinuates, to delay the revelation of something until God wants it revealed. Scripture is full of this figurative language and the parables. They are told verbally as by Christ or in the OT told through the lives of real people. Personification is used to say a tree is a kingdom and it's king. The Rock is our Savior. fruits are our works. Example, I'm standing on the ROCK of salvation. Which means I'm putting my trust in the Savior. To me these parables and analogies are what you say is symbology.

Simulation? Well, I believe God can bring about/orchestrate a simulation when he wishes. It can even be lived out in one's life. Take the prophet Hosea for example. God directed him to take a wife and instructed him in the ways to treat her even when she had done wrong. Then God named each of their children. Each name told a truth [for example: Loammi means - not my people I will not be your God] ...... I think this act of orchestrating a real life example in one's life might fit my idea of a simulation.

 

[VladtheDestroyer]

Ezekiel had go around naked for awhile, didn't he?

I'm thinking that Jeremiah was the prophet whom God told to marry a prostitute, because that is how God said He felt in his relationship with rebellious Israel. But I have a fever of 104 right now, so I might be thinking clearly. It could be that both prophets fit the bill.

Jerehmiah was the prophet who was thrown into a well and Ezekiel was the one who laid on his side for 72 days. That much I can remember for certain!