Hubris and sense of self-entitlement and simulations

[JohnClay]

I am quite sure that there is an "intelligent force" that is part of the simulation I think I'm probably in. But I think it doesn't want to be obvious.
I have the feeling that I deserve success and sometimes I think "God" is helping me with ideas. So I get ideas that seem inspired but they don't turn out to be popular.

BTW I doubt that Jesus literally rose from the dead and hope that hell isn't real. Since I believe in a simulation I think it is impossible for hell to last forever. (same with Heaven)

So I'm trying to use "God" as a short-cut to success. When I don't succeed I don't really feel inadequate... I kind of blame God.

I'm pleased that I've been happily married for 9 years though. I guess I'd rather have a happy marriage than to be successful. I mean some successful people are depressed when their success is related to fame.

Hearing songs with seemingly supernatural significance
The second song that caused me to not kill myself said "You've got a reason to live" and also said "Can't forget you only get what you give"

I've tried to do the minimum possible.... though if I put in more effort I might have a stronger sense of entitlement.....

It is related to me sometimes having manic episodes.....

I guess I should feel a lot more beneath God....

edit: well now an old friend won't get back in contact with me so that has brought me back down to earth....

edit: I was starting to feel blue but then he got in contact with me again so now I'm pretty happy

 

[Mark Quayle]

I am quite sure that there is an "intelligent force" that is part of the simulation I think I'm probably in. But I think it doesn't want to be obvious.

If you are in a simulation you are not yourself...

 

[1watchman]

John, if you doubt what the Bible tells us, you can be sure you are listening to Satan whispering in your mind; for God tells us ALL that we need to know to be saved for Heaven and to live a godly and happy, and blessed life. Do not reason about life, but get your authority from God in His "word of truth", as He enjoins us. Seek God's mind always on everything, friend; and learn to walk and talk with the Lord Jesus daily!

If you "...doubt that that Jesus literally rose from the dead" as you say, then you are pleasing Satan and opposing God's "word of truth". Trust God and what HE tells us! Keep looking up!

 

[timf]

1Co 1:18 For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness; but unto us which are saved it is the power of God.

- Your choice.

 

[JohnClay]

If you are in a simulation you are not yourself...

Yeah I could have an identity external to the simulation.... unless I am a "non-player character"....

 

[JohnClay]

1Co 1:18 For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness; but unto us which are saved it is the power of God.

- Your choice.

Yeah it seems a bit like foolishness though I guess it's a case of Pascal's Wager....

 

[JohnClay]

John, if you doubt what the Bible tells us, you can be sure you are listening to Satan whispering in your mind;

There are a lot of liberal Christians that don't believe the Bible is completely historical.
About Martin Luther King:
http://discerninghistory.com/2018/04/was-martin-luther-king-jr-a-christian/

He said that the evidence for the Virgin Birth is “is too shallow to convince any objective thinker.” He stripped the doctrines of the divine sonship of Christ, the virgin birth and bodily resurrection of all literal meaning​

That reminds me of 2 Corinthians 11:14
".....Even Satan himself pretends to be an angel of light."

Also:
Most American Christians Do Not Believe that Satan or the Holy Spirit Exist - Barna Group

Four out of ten Christians (40%) strongly agreed that Satan “is not a living being but is a symbol of evil.” An additional two out of ten Christians (19%) said they “agree somewhat” with that perspective.​

for God tells us ALL that we need to know to be saved for Heaven and to live a godly and happy, and blessed life. Do not reason about life, but get your authority from God in His "word of truth", as He enjoins us. Seek God's mind always on everything, friend; and learn to walk and talk with the Lord Jesus daily!

If you "...doubt that that Jesus literally rose from the dead" as you say, then you are pleasing Satan and opposing God's "word of truth". Trust God and what HE tells us! Keep looking up!

The thing is though I'm trying to look into the evidence rather than using faith....

 

[1watchman]

That is well; and the Holy Bible IS OUR EVIDENCE; and we better believe it as given, or be forever sorry; note what God wants to say to you personally in John 3; John 14; John 17; Romans 8; etc. If you read ALL the four Gospels prayerfully (asking God to teach you); and read the Epistles to learn about the universal Church in the world, you might see the "evidence": the truth our Creator-God has for us.
God wants to have a personal relationship with you, which comes by receiving His beloved Son: the Lord Jesus into your heart; and walking and talking with Him daily.
If you make the Lord Jesus your 'best Friend', you will not need to reason anymore about eternal truth; for God will guide and keep you in life and all the way home to Heaven. It is not just a belief, but a RELATIONSHIP we must have. Look up, friend, while there is yet time. -1watchman

 

[JohnClay]

@1watchman
About the Bible:
When I was in a mental ward in 2019 I was trying to get God to curse me to prove that I was being poisoned by staff or patients. So I was reading the sixth chapters of various books of the Gideon's Bible upside-down. Then a day or two later I received a sealed NIV Bible that was printed upside-down:

I see that as a message from God saying "I saw you and I have a sense of humour"

It was a 2011 edition of the NIV - the same as the church I sometimes go to - but mine also had some red text. For John 8 it has this at the top (not in the footnotes)
Bible Gateway passage: John 7 - New International Version

[The earliest manuscripts and many other ancient witnesses do not have John 7:53—8:11. A few manuscripts include these verses, wholly or in part, after John 7:36, John 21:25, Luke 21:38 or Luke 24:53.]​

Rather than red text in John 8 there it is in bold black italics. I think in the church's Bibles it also has that note at the top and uses italics.

The lack of red suggests that Jesus might not have said those words.

A similar thing in that NIV Bible is about the trinity:

1 John 5:7-8
7 For there are three that testify: 8 the[a] Spirit, the water and the blood; and the three are in agreement.

That doesn't fit the trinity properly. In the footnotes it says:

1 John 5:8 Late manuscripts of the Vulgate testify in heaven: the Father, the Word and the Holy Spirit, and these three are one. 8 And there are three that testify on earth: the (not found in any Greek manuscript before the fourteenth century)
​

Some people prefer the KJV because in that passage it says

For there are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost: and these three are one
​

But according to the NIV text note the NIV version is more historical.....

It is not just a belief, but a RELATIONSHIP we must have.

Yeah I agree though I tend not to put God very high above myself....

 

[1watchman]

Sorry to hear that! Without God in our daily life we will perish when we die and not be in Heaven. That will be a sad day, and eternal suffering!

 

[Tom 1]

So I'm trying to use "God" as a short-cut to success. When I don't succeed I don't really feel inadequate... I kind of blame God.

Sounds like you have created an escape hatch for yourself so you don’t have to commit to pursuing whatever it is you want to be successful at. It would be healthier to either admit that you don’t really want that success enough to put in the work, which is fair enough, or to accept that it is entirely your responsibility to achieve it, and if do want to succeed at it then plan how you might do that and get on with it.

 

[JohnClay]

Sounds like you have created an escape hatch for yourself so you don’t have to commit to pursuing whatever it is you want to be successful at. It would be healthier to either admit that you don’t really want that success enough to put in the work, which is fair enough, or to accept that it is entirely your responsibility to achieve it, and if do want to succeed at it then plan how you might do that and get on with it.

Lately my plan was trying to sell t-shirt designs. When I've come across feedback they seemed to think my designs were lame (though I thought they looked elegant). I got a $5 plan on fiverr and that made it a lot better. I tried to make a branding design but read that often the highest-end logos cost $100k to develop. I thought what I came up with (with help from God?) was clever but a problem is that it involved a pentagram (a 5 sided star). My Christian sister was against the pentagram. I came up with a star that was bulging out from the centre but she thought that no longer looked like an "A" (different shapes were meant to look like different letters). Anyway the fiverr designer can do another 20 designs for about $50 but I'm pretty broke at the moment so I'm putting that off. I still feel some hope that my t-shirt plans will eventually sell. I'm also starting development on a Bible related game.

 

[Tom 1]

Lately my plan was trying to sell t-shirt designs. When I've come across feedback they seemed to think my designs were lame (though I thought they looked elegant). I got a $5 plan on fiverr and that made it a lot better. I tried to make a branding design but read that often the highest-end logos cost $100k to develop. I thought what I came up with (with help from God?) was clever but a problem is that it involved a pentagram (a 5 sided star). My Christian sister was against the pentagram. I came up with a star that was bulging out from the centre but she thought that no longer looked like an "A" (different shapes were meant to look like different letters). Anyway the fiverr designer can do another 20 designs for about $50 but I'm pretty broke at the moment so I'm putting that off. I still feel some hope that my t-shirt plans will eventually sell. I'm also starting development on a Bible related game.

Good for you.

 

[JohnClay]

BTW I just found this:
Five Holy Wounds - Wikipedia

Prior to its modern association with the occult, the pentagram was used as a symbol for the Holy Wounds.....

Pentagram - New World Encyclopedia

Religious symbolism - Christianity
....Possibly due to this, and to misinterpretation of symbols used by ceremonial magicians, the pentagram later became associated with Satanism and subsequently rejected by most of Christianity sometime in the twentieth century.