Three Questions

Philosophy comes first, then religion.

If you can't get straight on what you believe about the nature of Reality, or if you refuse to do that work, then your religious convictions...no matter how vehemently stated...are just arbitrary and lazy. In effect, your faith is merely convenient and no better than a bumper sticker I once saw on the highways of America:

The Bible says it. I believe it. And that settles it.

Over the years, my model for Reality has become Media...Reality is a type of immersive media. The laundry list for this philosophical neighborhood includes things like: "The Matrix", Eternalism, Simulation Theory, David Bohm, and lots of other stuff. Yah...okay...I am an amateur philosopher, but this is still what I believe.

My basic tenet is that existence is like a movie reel. It is thousands and thousands of still photographs with little gaps between them and when you play it, it conveys the illusion of motion and it tells a story.

The inspirational aspect of this belief is that it implies (for me) the real existence of a thing called consciousness. The movie can't watch itself. There has to be an audience. I call them Souls.

And so it is in that light that I then turn my attention to religion. I am not pretending to be exhaustively all-inclusive here. I just want to comment on three religions from the point of view of someone who believes that Reality is Media.

Christianity definitely does not see the world as media. Instead, life is a high-stakes moral tightrope. Modern Christianity is uncomfortable with this statement and tired of constantly being attacked on the basis of Hell and Satan and Damnation...but...I don't think that conciliatory words from liberal theologians really change this basic paradigm for Christianity. Like it or not, life is the grand game of free will, good vs evil, and final judgment...and...you might not come out on the side of the Angels. This is a real possibility.

So for Christians, the most critical question is, "What should I do?"

It is about me, my free will, my body, my soul, my actions, and my consequences. (sorry. do I over-simplify? I just can't accept the modern, softer versions. In the course of history, Christianity laid down a foundation of belief and in that core, existence is defined as a moral hazard. I don't think that Christianity can sidestep this, however much it may want to.)

But if Reality is truly Media, then Christians are like those kids in the grocery store who are "steering" the cart.
In Buddhism, Reality is just a bunch of silly happenings and mutual causes...dependent arising. It might be painful. It might be fun. However, it is ultimately pointless...dukkha. The question for Buddhists is, "How do I make it stop?" 

And again...I over-simplify. Sorry, again. 

Buddhists are tired of being accused of nihilism and they propose all sorts of complex contortions to avoid this charge...but at the end of the day...in my eyes...Buddhism is nihilistic. It is good to meditate, but I cannot accept the premise for why we should meditate. Escaping into stillness may relieve me from time to time...but it does not fulfill me.

If Reality is truly Media, then Buddhists just want to leave the theater and go home to bed and endless, dreamless sleep.

You may not consider Jungianism a religion, but I do. It is the religion that looks at Reality/Media and asks the question:

What does it mean?

The goal for the Soul is to experience many lives and many points of view and then, armed with that experience, to participate in changing the media to make it better. This is evolution and redemption in a single stroke.

I doubt that I am convincing anyone. Eternalism is believed by people you should respect...like Albert Einstein...but it is still difficult and weird and absolutely non-intuitive. I admit all that.

But if Einstein and quite a lot of other physicists are right, then Eternalism is true and we are left with the need to decide which question we really, really want to dedicate ourselves to:

• What should I do?
• How do I make it stop?
• What does it mean?

I choose to interpret Reality as an eternal quest for knowledge, experience, and improvement. I don't want to judge it. I don't want to escape it. I want to know what it means.

One final point...You might object to Eternalism because you feel that it denies free will. I have three tentative ideas on that issue:

• Reality/Media may very well be branched...like The Garden of Forking Paths by Borges. Free will may then be operative, but only at certain points in a reality-story...like hypertext fiction and also like Groundhog Day. The Soul chooses which "story" to "read" and by virtue of in-story decision points changes the progress of the story. In Groundhog Day, the soul does this repeatedly...practicing until he gets it right. 
• Or free will may operate only in between the lives that the Soul chooses to live.
• And finally, I would say that the whole issue of free will really doesn't interest me much. If you had it and then God took it away, how would that feel? Conversely, if you didn't have it and then God suddenly gave it to you, how would that feel? 

I don't think free will is as important as people say it is. 

Souls might have it at certain points, but the characters in the media do not have it. The characters in the media don't even move...so how could they have free will? It would be like saying that Frodo has free will. That is all that I can say.