Q&A: Is an Imagined World Simpler Than a Real Existing World?
Is an Imagined World Simpler Than a Real Existing World?
Question
One can imagine a reality in which the souls that God created merely experience the experience of the world, without there actually being a world.
If for His own reasons God wants souls to have the capacity for choice, why is there a need to create a universe in which all souls act together? It would be enough to make each soul separately imagine some reality in which it acts—a kind of Matrix where each soul is in its own imaginary world.
Isn’t that simpler than a world that really exists?
Answer
A world in which I do not exist is simpler too. But what can you do? The fact is that I do exist. Occam’s razor is a principle that lets us choose among equivalent possibilities, all of which fit the facts. In that situation, you choose the simplest one. But the razor principle does not tell us to choose a simple possibility that does not fit the facts.
Discussion on Answer
The question is whether a world in which physical reality is part of the world’s mental character
(really reminiscent of a computer game)
is simpler than a world with souls and matter.
Ask yourself. It seems to me this discussion isn’t going anywhere.
I didn’t start this discussion.
But there really is a difficulty here with the principle of simplicity.
Because clearly one can say that a world that is entirely mental, including the souls and matter, is simpler than a world with real matter and spirit.
Just as in a dream one can sense matter even though it is a mental state.
On the other hand,
a world that is entirely matter does not explain all the findings, such as free choice, so it has to be ruled out.
A world that contains matter and spirit is more complicated than a world that is entirely spirit and can explain everything.
Very nice of you not to have started this strange discussion. And even better if you end it.
According to “I think, therefore I am,” I can know only that I exist, and that could still fit a world in which each soul imagines a world of its own, and all the other people I experience in my world are only part of the experience that the planner chose to put me through.