I have just started this to journal my research and hopefully spiritual awakening and share it with others. I am not professing to be anything other than an ordinary human with a very active and “searching” mind.
This has been a journey for many years that started when I was a young man with absolutely no concern or thought of spiritual implications. The first time a single thought about a god, religion, anything like that came when I was in the Army and I went to church just so I could get out of cleaning the barracks on a Sunday. I got nothing out of it, and quite frankly didn’t even pay attention.
Life went on and I once again gave no thought to anything spiritual. I lived my life as I saw fit and based it all on my internal compass. I knew right from wrong in the traditional sense, but never really thought about my actions other than in the sense of if it was illegal or evil.
This changed in 2002. I met some people and hung out with them and they introduced me to the Christian God. I got hooked. I was Baptized and I truly believed I was “saved” and could spout out all the stock Christian answers to questions. Worse yet, my mind believed it all to be undeniably true.
From then on until about 8 years ago, I lived believing in the Christian “lifestyle”. But over time I started really questioning the belief, in particular, the Bible. Contradictions, interpretations, bias, and human fallacy all started to make me realize that the Christian religion was purely man-made and based on dogma and centuries of religious men looking for power and wealth.
I stopped going to church, stopped praying to this invisible, absent “God” and started to really think about “what does my existence really mean” and “what is going to happen, if anything, when I die” and, being the thinking person that I am, I started to research various viewpoints.
Which leads me to the present.
So now, I have looked at a LOT of different perspectives. One of the things I rely on now is science, or more succinctly, the scientific method in looking at all things. So, the scientific method is the process “consisting in systematic observation, measurement, and experiment, and the formulation, testing, and modification of hypotheses.”
No religion out there can stand up to the scrutiny of the scientific method. Not one. Now, I say religion, and we have to differentiate between religion and belief. They are NOT the same things. For example, Christianity is a religion that has beliefs. Buddhism is not a religion, it is just a belief system. Islam is a religion, Atheism is not.
Which brings me to what I currently believe. I do not adhere to any religion. Religion is all man-made nonsense. My current belief lies somewhere along the lines of Buddhism and the Simulation Hypothesis.
Yes, I believe we exist and are in a simulation.
However, the scientific method would refute the simulation theory because, it is not falsifiable and cannot be tested or disproved. However, these leads to the concept that it cannot be proven OR disproved. A 50–50 percent chance this reality is a simulation.
There are more signposts every day that lead me to believe in the 50% that we are in a simulation. The speed of light, gravity, the Fermi Paradox, the Plank scale, and of course, quantum mechanics. There also things like deja vu, the Mandella Effect, Near Death Experiences, past live recalls, and The Law of One (that is an interesting one).
But recently I have discovered that all these things in the simulation hypothesis seem to align with the Buddhist belief system.
So, that is where I am today. Learning about Buddhism and how it aligns with the simulation theory. There are more questions than answers, but honestly, I will tell you this is no more far fetched than any of the man-made religions that have propagated over the centuries. And in fact, there is more comfort, more rationalization, and more benefit for mankind if the simulation hypothesis is true.
So, this blog is my journey that may never end (well until I do in this life). I hope you’ll stick around, participate and join me.