RE: Simulation Hypothesis: "So God created human beings in his own image. In the image of God he created them; male and female he created them."
I think that many thinkers of the past had something to do with the Bible. I also believe that truth is one of the highest values.
When the human will is directed by truth, honesty and confidence, man is guided and directed by an unerring vision of right, and even thought failure should await his efforts, his whole moral nature has been strengthened by disinterested endeavor, and the way is prepared for some greater achievement with more telling results.
Moral intelligence is another topic less known these days but certainly not the less important one. I believe that whoever applies it believer in God or not, will end up in the same place.
Like two parallel lignes going in the same direction. The catholic religion demands that you think before you act and demands that you question everything it teaches. Because a catholic that dos not question it’s religion is faithless. When it comes to our creation that God created us in his image it’s a way of telling us that whe are his children. Parents can say the same thing to there children. Its a beautiful way to tel us that He loves us and a beautiful way to tel them that they are loved.
At some points in history it did not. e.g. The Cathars, Luther, etc. The terms Heretic, Blasphemer, etc.
Yet this is not the sole province of Catholicism. I am a firm believe that most organized religions will become corrupted at varying points in history just as corporations, nations, etc become corrupted. They all are directed by humans, and there are always those that seek power, and they tend to rise to the top more often than those that just want to carry on with their life.
I have a big problem with the bible in the form of the two Councils of Nicea. The first over 300 years after Christ's Death/Resurrection, and the second hundreds of years later.
Both decided what would be in the bible, and what would not. In otherwords, editing. They were humans. The bible as we know it did not exist until after the first council as that is where it was created. Yet many writings did not make it in, and many were potentially edited to more closely fit with others.
Were they intelligent thinkers? Yes. That doesn't mean they didn't have an agenda.
It also makes me scoff at the "word of God" aspect when people speak of the Bible (or any other religious text) for they are clearly the word of man, and limited by the words and knowledge available to man.
Thus, as a deist the only bible I trust is reality itself. The mysterious golden mean repeating throughout so many things, the wonderous fractal designs everywhere, physics, chemistry, the strange phenomena in the quantum, and the dancing stochastics that surround us and we find difficulty in predicting. Pretty awesome, daunting, and beautiful. Not so easily described in the words of humans, and an ongoing adventure to try to read/observe that bible that thankfully for us may very well have no end. :)
If there was nothing left to seek or know I'd be miserable.