This article tries to come up with justifications to God and Infinity based on the existence and non-existence of each other

Bhat, Raghavendra

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God and InfinityRaghavendra BhatSpring 2020The words ‘impossible’, ‘unbelievable’ and ‘incomprehensible’ are usuallyoverused on a day to day basis. However, it is safe to say that even these adjec-tives end up becoming a terrible understatement while discussing two concepts: God and Infinity. Since the beginning of civilization, many a learned man hastried to explain, comprehend and explore these two vast areas; mostly leadingto even more complicated questions, doubts and paradoxes. In fact, it is alsopossible that these two topics do not have answers at all. And that might be thebest possible answer to any question, even broadly associated with the abovementioned topics. Stalwarts of all fields alike have reached various types of deadends while trying to explain God and Infinity. Thus, the effort of this paperis to just give an ‘idea’; a possible approach that might pave way for a likelyexplanation, which in turn might allow us to begin our journey of understandingthese vital concepts. Let us try and understand why these topics are so vast,how they are so strange, yet familiar, and what are the possible explanationsfor their seemingly unexplainable nature.The main reason for ambiguity and debate arises from the inability to definea word in such a way that everyone is in agreement. When the topic of discussionis not clearly defined, it complicates the argument beyond measures as eachparty leads life trying to defend the argument from the point of view of ‘theirdefinition’. This is an ‘infinite’ loop as nobody ever comes to a consensus.Thus, let us first try and define the two words ‘infinity’ and ‘god’, (at least theirmeanings in the context of the arguments of this particular paper).The term ‘infinite’ is a mere notion of something that is endless. It expressesthe largest possible quantity, the farthest possible distance and the greatest everminds. It is the mother of all adjectives and there is nothing greater, bigger orlarger than something which is ‘infinite’. One notices quickly that even in thesefew simple, easily understandable statements, there are a good many questionsthat suddenly arise. If there is nothing larger than something which is infinite,how can there exist many different quantities which are all infinite ? All theyall greater than one another ? Is there a particular infinity that is greater thanthe others ? How can there be a largest possible quantity ? What if there issomething larger than the largest possible quantity ?If you set off on a journey to define infinity, you encounter a tremendousamount of road blocks in the first step : defining what your journey actually is.It is important at this instance to understand that our journey is a mere ‘effort’1to understand infinity. We do not claim to know infinity, nor are we Ramanujan(the only one perhaps who understood infinity albeit mathematically) (1).Infinity has very many uses and the one thing common to all of them is thenotion of ‘never - ending’. For our three dimensional human mind which is madeup of only a few trillion cells, it is almost impossible to fathom such a possibility :the existence of something which is never ending. Although the natural numbersnever seem to end, the fact that they are abstract and not actually present inthe physical word, makes it hard to use them as an appropriate example for thisdiscussion. Thus, to answer the questions on infinity, to give a good example ofinfinity and also to give rise to more complicated questions, I introduce you tothe second topic of this paper : God.There are two possibilities : God exists, god does not exist. However, if hedid exist, I claim that he has to be ‘the’ example for infinity. The universe iscreated by God (assuming he exists) and the first thing to understand is that theuniverse is spatially and also timely infinite. There are various theories regardingthis conjecture. However, I feel that if the universe was finite, there has tobe something holding it, or containing it. Thus by the logic of mathematicalinduction this leads to infinite things holding infinite other things. Hence, when Isay ‘universe’ I do not refer to ‘our universe’ or ‘known universe’. I am referringto the totality of everything there ‘is’. Anything that exists is a part of my‘universe’. The second thing to ponder is the notion of ‘creation’ and ‘creator’.If the universe is indeed infinite and is a creation of some creator, this leads toa paradox. Is the creator part of the creation? If he is not, then where washe when he made the creation? Since the creation itself is everything that everexisted, exists or will exist, there is no ‘where’ where he could have been whilehe made the creation. And if he is part of the creation, how did he create it inthe first place?Thus, I make a claim : There is no ‘creator’ or ‘creation’. It is mere existence.God himself is the universe. It was not created by him. It is him. So, my beliefis that when someone refers to God, they are referring to the entire totality ofthe universe. This ‘totality’ is infinite. God or universe has no beginning, end,length, breadth, or even a boundary. Anything else which is conceived to beinfinite, has to be part of the totality of the universe. Hence, the universe is‘the infinity’. It is so big that it contains each and every possible infinity, be itphysical, spatial, abstract or even imaginary.I am thus claiming that God is a ‘hunk’. He is infinitely divisible and I feelthat the known universe is just a part of the massive totality which I defineas ‘God’. A good way to imagine this is to use the dimensions logic. A onedimensional ‘dot’ can be drawn on a two dimensional sheet of paper. Thepaper can in turn be placed in the real three dimensional world. I believe thattime is the 4th dimension of the universe. Thus, the three dimensional spacethat we are aware of is actually contained in the fourth dimension, i.e. time.Thus, every known object can be contained in a larger object that has a greaterdimension. God, however, is the totality of all the dimensions possible, because,he himself is the totality of everything that exists. Dimensions exist; thus theytoo, are a part of God. It is however extremely challenging for the simple, three2dimensional human mind to perceive the totality of things that go beyond ourcomprehensive abilities. I thus feel that it is convenient for us to imagine Godas a person or a power or a thought, as it makes it easier to live and learn aboutlife on a day to day basis.As mentioned in an article by Jill Le Blanc (2) from McMaster university,’The actual infinite, as I have said, can be conceived as collection of an infinitenumber of parts, the completion of some process that builds the infinite fromthe finite.’ God is a concept that fits this idea perfectly. God is a collection ofmany different things, each of whom can potentially be infinite or finite. ‘Thetotality of everything’ is my definition of God. The entire universe, in bits andpieces makes up the whole of ‘God’. Thus, in a sense we all are part of thisuniverse, making us all a part of God.If someone ever proves why an infinity can never exist, that could be used asa proof for atheism. God, if he exists, has to infinite. If he is existing and finite,and an infinity can exist, that would make him less powerful as compared tothe infinity which is existing. If God exists and he is finite, and infinity cannotexist, then it would imply that human beings were powerful enough to come upwith a concept more powerful than God itself, meaning that the power of thebrain, mathematics and abstract thought is greater than God, which would leadto a contradiction in the theory of theism. If God is finite, it would imply thathe is not limitless. Thus, if God exists, he has to be infinite. Hence, I conclude: There is only one true example of infinity : The entire universe, the totalityof everything. This is nothing but God. If there is no God, there is no infinity.Hence, it is an if and only if relation. God <=> Infinity.Sources Cited:(1) ‘The Man Who Knew Infinity’ - Robert Kanigel.(2) ‘INFINITY IN THEOLOGY AND MATHEMATICS’ - Jill Le Blanc, De-partment of Philosophy, McMaster university, Canada.3

God and Infinity

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