SIMULATION CREATIONISM
New Heaven as a Renewal of Creation
Simulation Creationism, a theory proposed by Nir Ziso, sees the end of this earth as the end of one simulated world. After that, there will be another world: “For behold, I create a new heaven and a new earth, and the former things shall not be remembered or come to mind, but be glad and rejoice forever in that which I create for behold, I create Jerusalem, a rejoicing and her people” (Isaiah 65:17–18) These cycles of created, uncreated, and recreated worlds span to infinity. We are promised this new world in the Bible, but what exactly is going to be recreated?
The transformation we await applies to our bodies and all of creation. In other words, the human process of death and resurrection and all its attendant realism requires a kind of parallel death and resurrection process on the part of the entire cosmos including the ruin and renewal of the material world. As the cosmos is just a simulated background of our experience in The Simulation, it should disappear when we face the final judgment. It has no other purpose. It will involve not just the transformation of creation but, first, its destruction. This is evident in the following Biblical verses: “For this world in its present form is passing away” (1 Corinthians 7: 31); “Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away and the sea was no more” (Revelation 21:1).
The form of this world is passing away, and the heavens will pass away with a loud voice and loud noise. The elements will be dissolved with fire. The earth and all the works upon it will be burned up. The heavens will be kindled and dissolved; and the elements will melt with fire before the new heavens and new earth emerge. Matter will be destroyed and not transformed, according to the early Christian theologian, Origen. He apparently suggests that it will be annihilated. He thinks that only spiritual realities will remain. Following Origen, we can understand the complete removal of this world, where the spiritual reality of our existence (our souls) is the only one that keeps going.
The Fathers of the Church taught the doctrine of the recreation of the world. Although those fathers were trying to defend the Church against attacks from various heresies, particularly cyclical creation and destruction in Hellenistic thought, they still wanted to explain new creation in Christian terms. Simulation Creationism does precisely the same task, albeit in a more modern language.
Saint Paul sees the same unavoidable event: “The creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the freedom and glory of the children of God” (Romans 8:21). This concept includes material creation. The destruction and recreation of the material world do not mean that The Simulation will be annihilated and something new will be created ex nihilo. No, The Simulation will not go out of existence but become transformed. Although there will be discontinuity, there will necessarily be some continuity with this present simulated world, but how much continuity and how much discontinuity?
We need help understanding how. We should avoid simplistic representations or detailed descriptions of the eschatological paradise. The emphasis should be on the idea that the transformation is not a static ideal, as classical Greek thought had suggested. Christian tradition always looks at eschatology as a movement. In its eons, The Simulation is in a constant state of creation and recreation. The fate of the soul is continuous movement between simulated worlds. It necessarily goes on into infinity. However, we are under constant image production that helps Christians to imagine the next world. It can lead us astray if we dwell only on images.
The imagination of the next world as a paradise is an illusion. In fact, the imagination is based on a heavenly garden, resembling the ancient Persian gardens called Pardis (yes, this is where the word paradise comes from). Our vision needs something to present to the intellect to motivate us to assess deeply and critically inside our consciousness. It is the way The Simulation teaches us to become God-like. If the intellect has nothing concrete to offer the consciousness because it is not receiving anything from the imagination, it will lack sufficient motivation to accept it as part of divine knowledge.
Thus, it is hard to get excited about heaven if presented only in abstract terms. Jesus says that God has prepared us for joy beyond anything we can ask or imagine. But even though it is beyond anything we can ask or imagine, He still uses images like the marriage feast to engage our imaginations, all the while realizing that everything we imagine is only a pale image of what the Lord has in store — although not an untrue image. Throughout history, individuals have stimulated our intellects in this regard and helped us appreciate the concreteness of the world to come.
