Did God simulate us?

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Accused-Man

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I just finished a book which has blown my mind and left me questioning the nature of my faith. I don’t read a lot of science books, but the cover caught my eye, and I soon found it to be as much about philosophy as it is about science. faith, literature, movies, novels etc which made it engaging. It challenges us to redefine our notions of faith. By the end, I was stunned.

The author reveals he was brought up in the Catholic church, but chose science over faith, and I think you can still see the battle going on to be honest, but he says how science and faith are the same thing and he ties God and black holes together, and paints a picture I found to be amazing and beautiful. It has genuinely made me see my death as an event I should not fear. It seems creation equals simulation too, they are the same thing.

It has left me wondering if my faith, which is our faith, is not big enough!! I feel like I have been looking at the world through a spy-hole, and the crazy conclusion for me is that I not only need God in my life but that God is bigger than I could ever think, and this book has made me feel like i did not appreciate that.

has anyone else read it? it was called Right back at you by Steve o’grady, I’d love to know if it had the same effect on anyone else.
 
Accused-Man said:
The author reveals he was brought up in the Catholic church, but chose science over faith,
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Well, there goes his credibility out the window.
Especially since the Catholic Church does not require people to make this choice at all.

I appreciate that you like this man’s book and it had some effect of making you appreciate the grandeur of God and so forth. It is nice to look at creation and see God.

However, science and faith are NOT the same thing. Faith is a supernatural virtue received from the Holy Spirit (per Fr. John Hardon). Science is a fact-and-hypothesis based way of us understanding the physical world. Science is of little use when it comes to understanding God. You can appreciate how awesome science is and how nifty God’s creation is, but doing that doesn’t teach you one iota about the nature of God; he can’t be learned via scientific methods or hypothesis.

And in addition to that, why would I need a book by some guy who’s an admitted fallen-away Catholic to help me understand and appreciate God? I can read books by dozens of saints who accomplished much more in their lives than this O’Grady chap, or I can just take a drive in the country and look out of my car window and appreciate what God hath wrought.

Sorry if this is throwing cold water on your enthusiasm but this book sounds like a very big waste of any believer’s time.

It’s nice that it seems to have had a positive effect on you though. Maybe it will even eventually lead its author back to the Church where he belongs, having been raised in it.
 
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The whole context fo the book is creation via simulation, which ties in with current cutting edge physics, therefore faith and science are the same thing, they are different aspects of the same phenomena. Electricity and magnetism were once thought not to be the same thing, but they are, electromagnetism, its the same with time and space. Choosing science over faith does not destroy anyone’s credibility. God gave each person the freedom to choose their own paths and many people come to find God in many different ways.

This book is about space, time, God, poetry, physics, comic books, the Bible, artificial intelligence, consciousness, the nature of reflections, illusion, mental illness and lots more, perhaps you should not be so judgemental before you have ever read it.

You sound a very negative person to me, but that is your path to choose! If others seeks to find God through a book like this, then they shall and you can continue to look out of your car window. I only judge books I have read.
 
Interesting that the book has zero reviews at Amazon. Are you perhaps the author?
 
I’d love to be the author! not guilty I am afraid, i will look at amazon and post the first review!
 
are we looking at the same book? this book has reviews from chatlitcafe and from indiereader
 
Accused-Man said:
The whole context fo the book is creation via simulation, which ties in with current cutting edge physics, therefore faith and science are the same thing, they are different aspects of the same phenomena.
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No. Just no. This is very much contrary to Catholic teaching.

You’re allowing yourself to be misled by some guy who has rejected God’s church (edited, as it’s not clear whether he still has some warped idea of God), is apparently a fan of an avowed atheist, and wrote a pretty book about it.

You’re heading down a bad path here. I’d advise you to stop before you do yourself real spiritual damage.

This is the danger of reading books by such people.

Edited to add, did you join CAF specifically to promote this book? I sure hope you don’t have an agenda, that doesn’t fly here.
Seems a bit odd that you aren’t posting on any other topics but this one, although I know everybody needs to start somewhere…
 
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I don’t care if God made us out of jello, whether we are flesh and blood or simulated, God created it all, that is all that matters to me. If you had actually read this book, I get the feeling this guy is not an atheist, despite hsi Dawkins fascination, thats his lookout! what matters to me is what is real. God is real and that is a very bright path to go down. YWhat this about being odd? There a re a lot of suspicious minds on here!! Can you suggest where else I should have gone? I joined today after a discussion with a friend, and it is all sincere. I think perhaps you are odd for suggesting it.
 
p.s considering the nature of this book, this would be the last place to promote it! I just want to know about some of the ideas in there, I avaent sold out or bought in, I keep my mind open while always believing in God, You can’t say the same.
 
Immediate censorship for using the word ‘Fundamentalist’. well I fundamentally believe in God. Censor that.
 
Accused-Man said:
I keep my mind open while always believing in God, You can’t say the same.
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You’ve been here for 2 hours and you’ve already decided that I don’t have an open mind because I don’t like this book that claims faith and science are the same thing, which as I said is against church teaching and also a ridiculous concept logically to me and my engineering degrees? Um, okay.

As Howard Devoto said, “My mind ain’t so open that anything can crawl right in.”
 
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NO, I just find you negative, you are entitled to your opinion, except you haven’t read it, I am entitled to my opinion, that the church is not always right. The day you accept that is the day you can begin to renew your fsith. Dogam is so old fashioned don’t you think?

‘I like to keep my mind open, but not so open my brain falls out’ - Richard Dawkins
 
p.s i’ve been accused of some things in my life, but never of being an author! I can’t even finish the shed in my garden I’ve been building since 2012.
 
So you joined as Solarchap and then changed your name to Accused-Man within like a half hour of making your first post?

Or do you have two accounts? What’s going on here?
 
Accused-Man said:
You sound a very negative person to me, but that is your path to choose! If others seeks to find God through a book like this, then they shall and you can continue to look out of your car window. I only judge books I have read.
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Why do you find it offensive that posters don’t agree with you. This is a board to share ideas and thoughts. Disagreement is par for the course.
 
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