If God is omnipotent, omniscient and omnipresent just like the Holy Bible describes, does God has the ability to produce an infinite number? Fundamentally, both yes and no.
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Lets walk through this puzzle by answering the NO part first. Asking a question like this is similar to question God whether he can write a sentence in red using a blue ball pen, or asking God whether he can create the infinitely heavy object physically and holds it with his bare hands. The contradiction lays upon the philosophical limitation of logic. Essentially, one must understand the basic concept of infinity before understanding of the contradiction at the higher level. Infinity is not solid number mathematically, infinity is practically a philosophical concept. The nature of infinity has the fundamental ability to break down the hard-stoned laws of mathematics and science.
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Perhaps you had never noticed before – we naturally accept the concept of infinity without any scientific proves. Infinity does not have a mathematical end point, the entire concept is simply presented by an elegant symbol ∞, yet magically we sense the nature of infinity conceptional. Or take this to a more proximal approach, our brain is restricted by a practical cognitive limitation although we think we understand infinity. Although we can “sense” infinity, or imagine the “largest” number we can think of, that number is essentially finite because we’ve all know, we can take that number and add 1 to it. Our brain contains approximately 10^27 atoms, and based on calculations of the molecular brain structure, there are approximately 10^70,000,000,000,000 kinds of “cognitive combination” we can facilitate. Such astounding increase is responsible by the brain’s complex neuro circuitries and multiple neuro-synapses. And
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if 10^70,000,000,000,000 + 1;
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The mathematical number stated above is beyond our mankind comprehension. Infinity originates here. The complexity from there is “infinitely” difficult to comprehend by our tiny brains and can only be understood as a “sense” or a “feeling”.
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So if God facilitate a number of 10^70,000,000,000,000 + 1, should we conclude that number as “infinite” because it is beyond human comprehension? Well, initially it is a little tricky to define what is infinite.
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Lets assume we have a bag that contains infinite numbers of marbles, we have (∞). Next, we take a marble from the bag and we have: (∞ – 1). The bag still has an infinite number of marbles only it has one marble lesser from the beginning. If we take another marble from the bag of infinity, we have: (∞ - 2) and so on. Ironically, regardless of the (n) number of marbles we have taken from the bag, we will still have infinite marbles left. Taking this idea to an extreme, we take away ∞ numbers of marbles which results in: (∞ - ∞) and yet we still have infinite number of marbles left in the bag! In fact, we cannot distinguish the quantity of infinity nor can we analogize or compare the fundamental nature of infinity.
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Taking from here on, we understand that infinity is a theoretical concept that is virtually beyond the laws of mathematics. The almighty God cannot create a number that is infinite because an “infinite number” itself is a logical fallacy. We can assume God cannot write a sentence in red using a blue pen because if a “blue pen” writes in red, the pen is essentially a “red pen”. Thus, NO in a sense. Please also kindly keep in mind that the answer “NO” of God does not equal to God’s failure to be omnipotent.
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The yes part of our question is slightly easier to grasp. The omnipotent, omniscient and omnipresent God is able to take oneself off from the domain of logic, science and mathematics, of all are the necessary properties of physical laws. An approach to answer “YES” from the question cam be demonstrated by the fact that the almighty God has the ability, as fore mentioned, to create a number of infinity that is beyond our cognition, that number is intrinsically classified as an “infinite number” at a certain extent regardless of its logical contractions.
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After all, there is one more point I wish to introduce. As we have walked through the basic concepts of infinity, perhaps we can go a little beyond and answer the “now what?” question. Blaise Pascal, one of the greatest mathematician of the all time (or should I called him the greatest gambler…) evidently illustrated the dominance argument based on logical probabilities.
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Specifically by a two by two matrix,
| God Exists | God does not Exists | |
| Believe in God | Infinite Reward | Finite Loss |
| Does Not Believe in God | Infinite Punishment | Finite Gain |
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I think the chart is pretty self explanatory. As a man, there are only four possibilities one can have.
A) If you are a believer, and God does exists, you will be rewarded “infinitely”.
B) If you are a believer, and God does not exists, your loss is finite (ie offerings to ones church).
C) If you are not a believer, and God does exists, you will be punished “infinitely”.
D) If you are not a believer, and God does not exists, your gain is finite (ie time spared for ones material life)
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There is another approach from the above case, we assume believing in God & God does not exists results in no benefit and ultimately is a “finite loss” case. Interestingly, theists does live a relatively happier life statistically from the sense of religion comfort compared to atheists; hence we may categorized that kind of happiness can results in a “finite gain” in a believer’s case. On the other hand, living a life not as happy reduces the level of “gain” from non-believers. The original “finite gain” of non-believers is reduced and we can assume the “finite gain” of a non-believer is lesser than the “finite gain” of a believer given that God does not exists.
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As illustrated, Finite quantity can be comared while infinite quantity cannot, at least from the human cognitive approach. Based on the most simplistic probability calculations, and regardless of whether God truly exists, believing God is the most rational belief to have.
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Of course I am not to naively concluded Pascal’s logic is entire correct practically because considerations of other elements must be taken into account (ie, whether the christian God is initially and ultimately omnipotent, omniscient and omnipresent). Nevertheless, viewing the issue at a fundamental basic aspect, believing God is mostly rational.
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“Eternity’s a terrible thought. I mean, where’s it all going to end?” quoted from the brilliant British playwright Tom Stoppard. infinity is indeed a terrible thought at first, but it is not too terrible when one tries to understand it logically.
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Memorti
Zea mays (maize) is the common corn that we can find from almost anywhere. A very unique property is that the plant can emit volatile terpenes, a communicating agent that attracts enemies of its eater. First when the plant is damged by its herbivore, specifically, butterfly larvae, the chemical from the larvae’s saliva miraculously triggers a cascade of molecular events through its signal transduction pathway and evokes the emission of attractants that attracts a particular type of parastic wasps. Then the wasps lay eggs on the larvae, and soon enough – the newly born baby wasps on the caterpillar consumes it alive.
Edward Wong is a Year 3 Neuroscience student at University of Alberta, Canada.
