Does the Simulation Hypothesis Offer the Best Argument for God?

Images: Wikipedia, unsplash. Saint Anselm of Canterbury offered one of the most discussed arguments for the existence of God based on his perfection. Philosopher David Chalmers reviews this argument and other major arguments for God but finds the simulation hypothesis to provide probably the strongest. But, is it enough to overcome his resistance to the idea?

This is the second in a series exploring philosopher of consciousness David Chalmers’ 2022 book titled Reality+: Virtual Worlds and the Problems of Philosophy. Chalmers, an atheist, who believes it possible that we are living in simulation, shows how such a belief challenges his atheism. Afer reviewing historic arguments for God, he concludes the simulation hypthesis may be the strongest, but it’s not enough to overcome his resistance to faith.

At the beginning of Chapter 9, “Did simulation create it from bits,” David Chalmers reflects on, or maybe parodies, the Genesis account of creation: (p. 167)

God said “Let there be bits!” And there were bits. God saw that the bits were good, and he separated them from each other. He called one bit “zero,” and the other bit “one.”

In the previous chapter Chalmers explained how the universe could be, or likely is, made of information. He refers to physicist John Wheeler’s term for how at the most fundamental level reality is reduced to bits — answers to questions that nature poses with yes or no responses. Wheeler said it was “observer-participators” who answered the binary questions that made the universe what it is. Wheeler’s idea was a bit different than how Chalmers’ uses it, as Chalmers admits, but he bases his argument that a simulation is a…