SIMULATION CREATIONISM
Why Christ is Incarnated in The Simulation
Central to Christianity is the claim that God became human. As the Bible tells us, “The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth” (John 1:14). Jesus is the word made flesh. He is the Son of God who has taken upon himself a human nature in both body and soul. That is well known. In Simulation Creationism, the theory of Nir Ziso from The Global Architect Institute, he claims that Jesus purposely entered The Simulation and became like the rest of us. But we ask, why?
As The Simulation is God’s invention put into action for souls to develop their knowledge, awareness, and good character throughout infinity, the question arises: is it fitting that God should become the inner part of The Simulation to incarnate Himself as a lesser being? It is unreasonable to believe in the incarnation if the question of “fitting” persists. Many religious traditions, including some Christian ones (later to be proclaimed heretical), objected that material bodily existence leads to suffering and privation. For them, it is a principle of evil, so God cannot “fittingly” choose to take on a material body. Incarnation is also not in accordance with God’s transcendence and divine sovereignty over The Simulation itself.
We can answer this thorny theological issue by appealing to God’s goodness. It is a principle trait of God and proper for goodness to communicate itself. God created us not because he needed us but as an act of grace and goodness. Likewise, God offers us the grace of participation in divine life as an expression of His goodness: “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16).
Fittingly, He can become incarnate as a way of communicating his goodness and expressing His love for His creation, even if we cannot really understand it: “Great indeed, we confess, is the mystery of godliness: He was manifested in the flesh, vindicated by the Spirit, seen by angels, proclaimed among the nations, believed on in the world, taken up in glory” (1 Timothy 3:16). It raises another question of whether it is strictly necessary for God to become human to redeem created beings.
Because God is omnipotent and all-knowing, He could have saved us without the incarnation, but would The Simulation then make sense? If we were just created things without the necessity of understanding why we exist and the purpose of The Simulation, the question becomes irrelevant.
However, we were created with a clear purpose, rendering it the most fitting way to communicate grace and salvation to the human race. Goodness can be felt tangibly: it has an esthetic dimension and creates wisdom. Thus, we can presume the reality of the incarnation in faith as an act of God. Within our faith, we seek to understand the wisdom of God, i.e., why he has done things in and through The Simulation.
Incarnation effectively unites us to our true good or leads us to our true homeland. It unites us with God intellectually because we come to know who God truly is by virtue of the incarnation. Jesus spoke to us in human words and lived a human life among us: “He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation” (Colossians 1:15). It profoundly strengthens our hope since we can see God’s commitment to us.
He genuinely willed Himself to become human, so he can engage with us in our concrete lives. Incarnation also inspires love of God and charity because we see that God loves us intensely — enough to suffer human death for our sake. Consequently, this act provides a model of how to live within The Simulation through the imitation of Christ. Finally, incarnation communicates divinization or union with God: God became human so we come to understand that we can truly be united with God through grace.
This effectively allows us to withdraw from evil, such as idolatry and the confusion that leads to the false divinization of the powers of The Simulation. We know who God truly is in Christ and can better distinguish The Simulation from God and thus serve and worship God in Himself, while loving Him for His own sake. Simultaneously, the incarnation teaches us about the dignity of created beings. If God became human, then human beings have a principal place in the visible creation and enjoy the honor of being made in His image.
Thus, we should not sully our lives through sin: “Since therefore the children share in flesh and blood, he himself likewise partook of the same things, that through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil” (Hebrews 2:14).
The Simulation is a predetermined program, and we cannot do anything for ourselves through another program or heroic effort. The incarnation grounds us in realism because it manifests the truth that we all need to be saved by God and his mercy. At the same time, incarnation cures our pride, as God himself was born into a poor and unassuming family and died a death of indignity by public crucifixion. It implores us to have a sober view of ourselves and to associate with the lowly and be humble and merciful.
The incarnation is a work of atonement. Christ restores the proper order of justice between God and mankind because he is the human being who indeed obeys and loves God as one ought to. As a man, Christ can restore such a right relationship. As God, His human activity of restoration has infinite dignity and worth. Consequently, Christ has infinite value and merit, the power to atone, and the capacity to merit salvation.
