A detailed yet ephemeral world where we have free will: God's Earth is like Minecraft - a universe nestled within a Universe
I have written a previous post about how our Earth and universe is actually a relatively small, ephemeral setup that is part of a much larger Universe that God made.
In the previous post, I mention the film "The Matrix" (1999) as the analogy. But now in 2016, there is a whole generation growing up that have never seen that movie and won't understand the analogy.
Minecraft is a similar analogy. I'd like to use it to illustrate that our Earth which seems so real and permanent, is not as real or as permanent as Heaven. Note: Minecraft not quite as good of an analogy as "The Matrix", because in The Matrix certain characters come to realize that there is a bigger world out there - which doesn't occur in Minecraft. No-one has yet broken the 4th wall in Minecraft, right?!
Still, Minecraft will work fine for our purposes. In Minecraft, you have a character who can dig, build, take care of animals, and so on. Your character may interact with other characters. The world is incredibly detailed and complex (although looks "blocky" to the eye). Cows moo, water behaves as expected (it will leak into areas where it can leak), wolves eat rabbits, and so on. Minecraft isn't exactly like our world of course: certain items are not affected by gravity, and there are zombies and things like that around, but basically it is a world that has its own system.
Still though, there is a larger universe around Minecraft (i.e. our world: the planet Earth). There is a lot more going on overall in the larger universe than there is in Minecraft, but your Minecraft character doesn't "know" that.
Just because your Minecraft character can't detect anything outside of the tablet, that doesn't mean it doesn't exist. And this is what we have to keep in mind if we can't detect God's Universe with our physical instruments.
In fact, even within this planet Earth are things that exist but that we were unable to detect directly ourselves. Atoms would be a perfect example of this. Atoms existed long before we were able to detect them. Just because we can't detect something doesn't mean it doesn't exist. Even more importantly, just because we don't believe in something doesn't mean it doesn't exist (try gravity).
The point is, being in this world of Earth is a little bit like being in Minecraft. Of course, unlike the Minecraft characters, we have our own free will. But in both cases, we cannot tell just by purely observing our environment, if God exists. Instead, if we are wondering whether there is a God, we should try to interact with Him - through prayer and reading the Bible, with no pre-conceived notions. Only then will we find out more. The only way to break past (through? beyond?) our current universe to God's is via prayer and reading the Bible. These are the only threads that connect us to that external Universe of heaven.
If you are not sure if you believe, it's OK to doubt and to ask questions - be aware that merely observing our Earth and outer space, even with the most rigorous of methods, won't give you any answers. That won't help you any more than a Minecraft character observing his surroundings to see if there is anything outside his Minecraft world. Fortunately, unlike Minecraft, we do have conduits to our external Universe: they are prayer and reading the Bible. Pray and ask God to reveal Himself - and watch carefully; the sign may not be what you expect. Read with no pre-conceived notions. These are the only methods we can use to find out anything beyond our current world, so use these methods.
If you found this post interesting, you might also like these related posts on this blog:
In the previous post, I mention the film "The Matrix" (1999) as the analogy. But now in 2016, there is a whole generation growing up that have never seen that movie and won't understand the analogy.
Minecraft is a similar analogy. I'd like to use it to illustrate that our Earth which seems so real and permanent, is not as real or as permanent as Heaven. Note: Minecraft not quite as good of an analogy as "The Matrix", because in The Matrix certain characters come to realize that there is a bigger world out there - which doesn't occur in Minecraft. No-one has yet broken the 4th wall in Minecraft, right?!
Still, Minecraft will work fine for our purposes. In Minecraft, you have a character who can dig, build, take care of animals, and so on. Your character may interact with other characters. The world is incredibly detailed and complex (although looks "blocky" to the eye). Cows moo, water behaves as expected (it will leak into areas where it can leak), wolves eat rabbits, and so on. Minecraft isn't exactly like our world of course: certain items are not affected by gravity, and there are zombies and things like that around, but basically it is a world that has its own system.
Still though, there is a larger universe around Minecraft (i.e. our world: the planet Earth). There is a lot more going on overall in the larger universe than there is in Minecraft, but your Minecraft character doesn't "know" that.
Just because your Minecraft character can't detect anything outside of the tablet, that doesn't mean it doesn't exist. And this is what we have to keep in mind if we can't detect God's Universe with our physical instruments.
In fact, even within this planet Earth are things that exist but that we were unable to detect directly ourselves. Atoms would be a perfect example of this. Atoms existed long before we were able to detect them. Just because we can't detect something doesn't mean it doesn't exist. Even more importantly, just because we don't believe in something doesn't mean it doesn't exist (try gravity).
The point is, being in this world of Earth is a little bit like being in Minecraft. Of course, unlike the Minecraft characters, we have our own free will. But in both cases, we cannot tell just by purely observing our environment, if God exists. Instead, if we are wondering whether there is a God, we should try to interact with Him - through prayer and reading the Bible, with no pre-conceived notions. Only then will we find out more. The only way to break past (through? beyond?) our current universe to God's is via prayer and reading the Bible. These are the only threads that connect us to that external Universe of heaven.
If you are not sure if you believe, it's OK to doubt and to ask questions - be aware that merely observing our Earth and outer space, even with the most rigorous of methods, won't give you any answers. That won't help you any more than a Minecraft character observing his surroundings to see if there is anything outside his Minecraft world. Fortunately, unlike Minecraft, we do have conduits to our external Universe: they are prayer and reading the Bible. Pray and ask God to reveal Himself - and watch carefully; the sign may not be what you expect. Read with no pre-conceived notions. These are the only methods we can use to find out anything beyond our current world, so use these methods.
If you found this post interesting, you might also like these related posts on this blog:
- Why some atheists struggle to accept God, yet would supposedly accept a Matrix-like world
- The first thing I found out... We have Free Will
- No-one can strip you of your religion
- No-one is beyond salvation
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