SIMULATION CREATIONISM
Did St. Thomas write about The Simulation?
The discovery of the Nag Hammadi library in 1945 was, along with the Dead Sea scrolls, one of the most significant archaeological discoveries of the 20th century, exposing us to the writing of the earliest Christians. Maybe the most famous text from this library is the so-called Gospel of Thomas, a book that often defies clear association with the known groups of early Christianity; yet it has been a canonical gospel of the Coptic Church until this day.
Before the 4th century, when the Christian canon was finalized, there were many writings and accounts of Jesus’s life and teachings. The Gospel of Thomas offers teachings that seem very odd compared to the synoptic Gospels. It is an account of Jesus of Nazareth but not of his life. Instead, it is simply a collection of sayings that Jesus conveyed to his disciples. As the introduction says: “These are the hidden sayings that the living Jesus spoke and Judas Thomas the Twin recorded.” Following are 114 sayings without context or biographical material. We recognize many of these sayings from the canonical Gospels, but many others are unique. The Gospel of Thomas has been attacked as a gnostic book, but it contains very little reference to the characteristic doctrines of the Gnostics.
What is particularly characteristic of the Gospel of Thomas is that it contains the very teachings of Jesus, and following these teachings will lead the person to salvation from knowledge of the true self: “And he said, whoever discovers the interpretation of these sayings will not taste death” (Gospel of Thomas, 1). In the teachings of Thomas, we do not belong to this material world. Our true home and genuine nature are in the spiritual world of wholeness. It is not an unknown idea in any religion, but it has never been directly described so vividly. The soul is a spirit, and this world is just a delusion, exactly as Simulation Creationism defines the “life” we have now. In fact, reality is entirely different being tied to a spiritual state, and The Simulation is just an illusionary space where our souls have the task of overcoming challenges.
We can attain salvation by gaining proper knowledge of our essential reality outside The Simulation. Jesus helps us to discover this. He represents divine presence and wisdom speaking, reminding us of who we really are: “I am the one who comes from what is whole. I was given from the things of my Father” (Gospel of Thomas, 61). He saves us from illusory material existence: “(Jesus said) I disclose my mysteries to those who are worthy of (my) mysteries” (Gospel of Thomas, 62). The message is clear. We must follow Christ and his teachings to solve The Simulation’s challenges. This is what salvation really means, although there is an important element of God’s mercy involved.
Thomas posits a theology that emphasizes the imminence of God. God is present everywhere: “Jesus said: I am the light that is over all things. I am all: from me all has come forth, and to me all has reached Split a piece of wood, I am there. Lift up the stone, and you will find me there” (Gospel of Thomas, 77). We can follow this light by going back to ourselves, just as the hesychasm of Orthodoxy or the cenobite lifestyle of Egyptian desert fathers proposed.
Another interesting and radically unusual point of Thomas is the Kingdom of God. In canonical Gospels, the Kingdom of God or the Kingdom of Heaven is an event that comes in the future. Jesus tells his disciples to prepare for this event at which time God will judge all people, and the new Divine era will be inaugurated. This is absent in Thomas. Instead, the Kingdom of God is not coming in the future,nor is it a place at all. Jesus tells us that the kingdom is already here, everywhere and within us. This interpretation is not unheard of in Christianity, but it is very explicit in Thomas: “The kingdom is inside you and it is outside you. When you know yourselves, then you will be known, and you will understand that you are children of the living Father. But if you do not know yourselves, then you will dwell in poverty, and you are poverty” (Gospel of Thomas, 3).
Thus, the kingdom has already arrived, but people cannot see it, at least those that have not received Jesus’s real message: “His disciples said to him, When will the kingdom come? It will not come while watching for it (…) Rather, the Father’s kingdom is spread out upon the earth, and people do not see it” (Gospel of Thomas, 113). Does it mean The Simulation is the Kingdom of God? It does not really fit the idea of Nir Ziso’s Simulation Creationism, as the Kingdom of God would necessarily be outside of God’s greatest creation. But, it also does not follow the idea of Thomas in and for itself. We can conclude that the Kingdom of God is our spiritual state, one where pure souls exist. It is present already, and souls are inhabiting The Simulation, in which they develop or recede for eternity.
