Are We Living in the Matrix?

It's a kind of running joke. Take the red pill. "Are We Living in the Matrix?"

But don't laugh. I'm not talking about being a merely digital person inside a computer simulation. But I am questioning whether the reality we perceive is actually a correct assessment of the way things truly are. Can science and human reason actually figure out what kind of Cosmos we live in? Maybe, but it isn't the kind that we usually take for granted. There's more to it than that. Perhaps the explanation for the presumption that human intelligence is capable to understand the Universe, our world and our place in it, stems from the perfectly hidden fact that our "cosmos of perception" has been crafted to appear amenable to our reasoning and curiosity. And it is designed to give us a certain set of answers to whatever questions we ask. 

Maybe we do really live in a created world, just big enough to contain us, with certain limits which we are not meant to pass. It could easily be that it closely resembles a particular scenario in the greater "eternal reality" so that we can quickly adapt to the immersive experience, and suspend our disbelief. Are we allowing ourselves to live through a simulation of a purposively chosen historical milieu. If so, the deeper purpose is both hidden, and revealed to us as we seek to discover the true nature of reality, if we keep an open mind. There are some clues left behind, so that we can find our way back to the "eternal reality" of the Creator. This may all be a test, to see if we can pass the required level of discernment, and yes, faith, in order to "graduate" into the next world. If this is true, then all of our daily experience is being manipulated in order to observe our responses. 

I could begin in any number of places, but let me start with a description of our usual assumptions about ordinary reality:

At the very surface of our perception, what we see is what we get. Our intelligence and reasoning, plus our ability to create tools and technology, are all we have, and so far, all we have needed to reach our current level of "progress" in civilization. We have developed a technique for exploring the natural world and building a more or less coherent world view: the "scientific method," which includes the application of mathematics as a means of describing how the phenomena work. Science has pretty well defined our modern world view. 

From the scientific perspective, we live in a material universe governed by natural laws. There are various atomic particles, made up of quarks, plus, the four physical forces that dictate how things work together ... and that is all there is. Everything started itself with a Big Bang, and self-assembled according to the way the particles and forces interacted with each other. It was all random, even the way that life happened upon the scene. It doesn't matter how complicated or improbable, it all came about by accident. 

According to Science, there is no way to investigate anything immaterial. If there is anything called "Spirit," beyond our plain, ordinary natural world, it must be "super-natural," and such ideas have been shoved aside as childish, "superstitious" and unscientific. As a result, all that we can know must be investigated and explained by purely empirical and logical means. Individual scientists may cringe to hear it said, but they don't have anything to add that others won't try to test and refute in the name of Science. Nor does it matter that many major mysteries remain, as they have the confidence that we will eventually figure it all out using the scientific method. 

In our daily lives, all of us pretty much assume that this perspective is an adequate way to perceive reality, and we rely upon it in making all of our ordinary decisions. And in most cases, it's a safe bet that we haven't neglected anything critical by doing so, in our small, ordinary choices and activities of daily living. It's like the Apollo moon program, when the astronauts said that Sir Isaac Newton was flying the space ship. The older laws of physics were adequate to the job, even though we knew that Einstein had a newer, more comprehensive version to better explain the universe. It's usually good enough. 

But what about our higher level issues?This is where we begin to run into major problems with purely scientific methods, because we are asking a different kind of question. When we consider metaphysical questions, purely rational empiricism is inadequate to explain all of the immaterial phenomena of creation that we experience in our lives. These things of Spirit are common knowledge, even if their content may still be debatable. 

What am I referring to as the "things of Spirit" that are common knowledge? They are the basic, foundational "Big Questions" that we need to know the answers to. And we need those answers because they would shape the orientation of our lives. Yet these answers continue to elude our best scientific thinkers, because they refuse to consider the possibility that a "supernatural" reality might actually exist. 

There are at least eight different questions that we need the answers to, so that we can securely establish for ourselves what is truly of primary importance. From there we can find our orientation, and determine what kind of purpose we want to pursue. 

And those Big Questions are:

1. How did the Universe begin, and how could anything come from nothing? 

2. Why is the Universe so finely tuned, apparently to allow for and support life? 

3. How did the complexity of life originate from non-living matter? 

4. Why does the evolution of life appear to follow a design and a plan? 

5. How does the phenomenon of mind emerge from the mechanics of a brain? 

6. Why did we evolve the intelligence to learn technology? 

7. How do we know that some events and actions are evil, and by what standard? 

8. Why do we have a sense of compassion and morality? 

The scientists try to answer these kinds of questions, but their answers don't agree, and they don't stick together in any kind of coherent whole. There is no scientifically "elegant" solution that explains everything. But there is a Spiritual answer. The reason why the scientists can't answer is because they want to insist that the whole Universe is impersonal. They want to exclude God from their reasoning. They ridicule the obvious answer, saying that it is the "god of the gaps theory." But this is just their own arrogance and hubris. God explains everything precisely because He created everything. 

God designed and "wrote the program" for our world, and made it so completely immersive that human beings would be directed to seek a spiritual solution to their intellectual inquiries. Yes, there are some things we can learn by reason, using the scientific method. Progress is a part of the program, because it includes time as a factor of continuous change. But in every age, we are encouraged to find the best answers to heartfelt questions, and to seek to encounter and know God. 

And when we finally realize that this world is more than the material scientists would have you believe, then you see that God can intervene at any level He chooses. He can influence even the minutia of our daily lives, and He can act to reveal Himself in unique events that seem to break the laws of nature. 

Our God is a personal God. He wants us to desire to know Him personally, to have a relationship with Him. He wants us to trust Him and have faith in Him, so He reveals his spiritual nature to us, and promises to care for us. And when we misunderstand and mess up our lives, He forgives us and helps us to work through the problems we have created. He has given us a Book in which we have recorded how He has revealed Himself. 

And as impossible as it may seem, for how can a God possibly be contained in the world, much less become a human being,  He came into this world to save us from getting lost in the nearly infinite complexity of this simulation that He created to train us for his eternal Heaven. And He paid the penalty we had earned for disobedience and our failure to trust and believe in Him. God chose to experience the horror of dying, in the worst way possible, so that He could give us a new perspective and reorient us toward Himself. And just to prove his point, He arose from the grave in his transformed human body, showing how its corruption can be overcome by the gift of  divinity. 

And all we have to do is believe in Him, as Jesus the Messiah of the Jews, the Son of the Living God and Saviour of the World. Pray to Him for a personal relationship, and follow Him through the teachings that He gave us. If you will do this, He will show you all of his Love and accept you into his Kingdom. Don't delay. Do it now. We have no guarantee to be here tomorrow.