God Infinity

[Ferdi]

Replace the notion of God by Infinity.
The label “God” has served its purpose. It needs updating. I suggest that it be replaced by Infinity, shortened to”Infy” for children. Infinity is the origin of everything in SPACE but during my 93 years I found it largely ignored. Peculiar, because Infinity has 2 spatial directions: large and small.
We are free to believe what we like. While beliefs serve a purpose, beliefs are not facts. We would not cross a road without believing the road to be clear. Science uses FACTS, but even scientific tests are preceded by scientist’s mere belief that something might be so. Research and tests are then used to prove that the believed assumption was either false or correct. During recent decades Science has taken increasingly larger strides. We can now walk on the moon and send investigative probes into space! Looking back to my childhood about the current Mobile ph driven teenagers: they can take not just photos but videos-with-sound and can instantly send such to anywhere in the world! The widening of our horizon has made religions less relevant, as shown by the dwindling church attendances. The TV, Movie and Sports industries are thriving on it, creating wealthy “Stars” and “Heroes”. Need I note that Professional sport is not sport; it is entertainment. Profit is the objective.
Our infinite Universe. Astronomy has increasingly widened our understanding of the universe. The Universe is INFINITE. The size of Infinity was made clear at school by taking any little stick, and in our mind doubling its length, again, and again, continue doubling it, longer and longer, until you realise that you are getting beyond our imagination and reaching into the endless INFINITY of the Universe. However, I have never been told, it appears commonly overlooked that there is another side to Infinity. Take your imagined stick again but this time break it in half, and keep breaking one half into smaller halves, again and again, smaller and smaller, the pieces will become too small to cut, too small to see, but we know that there is smaller than small. In fact it also will never come to an end in the endless “smaller aspect of infinity”. Thus: INFINITY is not just out there in Space beyond our Universe but also right here where we are. We live in it; it surrounds and penetrates us and everything. We stand with our feet on Planet Earth, held to the ground by its gravitational pull. Astronomy tells us that everything in Space is held in place by forces of the infinite Universe. Science suggests that there will have been a starting point in “time” when only a primordial atmosphere existed and that the first MATTER may eventually have formed from “non-matter”. Astronomical-spans-of-time later Life may have formed from the sun’s rays shining on some astronomical “soup”. During more astronomical-spans-of-time such LIFE evolved, successively at least into the variety of life that exists with us now on Planet Earth. It remains to be seen if there is life elsewhere in the Universe. The difficulty is that we do not know what forms of life there may be; some may be totally beyond our observation abilities.
Humans. We are all born with a free will, but we are not all born equal. We gradually become aware that our siblings and friends have different abilities and handicaps. The world produces leaders and followers, bosses and servants, have and have-nots, etc. We come to realise at some stage that we have landed on Planet Earth in an environment of which we had no choice, rich or poor, healthy or sick, clever or stupid and . . . . with whatever religious belief. Religious believers may mean well but may be wrong, which makes me writing this.
God. Where did the “God” concept come from? The word God, and its translations into other languages, is just a “label” which one of our earliest forefathers invented for the almighty powers behind natural events, invisible but omnipresent powers, beyond our comprehension. Natural phenomena like thunder and lightning gave rise to Gods-for-Volcanoes etc. and a plethora of religious beliefs. Some created an Almighty God as the Omnipresent Power.
Bibles. Historically, major events are noted in records. Thus our forefathers recorded their Almighty God beliefs in a “Bible” and other such Holy Books. The Adam & Eve story came from someone’s imagination. Objectively, these books are just like children’s Story Books with Fairy Tales, informing about good & bad; harmless, were it not for some fanatics who self-righteously promoted Biblical stories as facts. Such fanatic believers cause religious disputes. Some feel to have a God-given duty to kill infidels. History Books describe ”Holy Wars”. There are still plenty of religious zealots today who feel to have a God-given right to bully others, be it about abortion, homosexuals or allocated boundaries such as in the Middle East.
QED: it is time to eliminate the label “God” and to gradually replace that word by the more realistic “Infinity”, readily shortened to ”Infy” for children, as the origin of all and everything in the SPACE in which we live on planet Earth. It is essential to be aware that Infinity has 2 spatial directions: large and small.

[Veritas Aequitas]

Why jump from one view of illusion to another [of infinite regress] which cannot be verified and justified empirically and philosophical within a credible framework and system of reality [FSR] or knowledge [FSK].

What is more critical is to research and understand how the idea of God emerged onto the consciousness of the majority of humans since ancient times with good and evil consequences;

I wrote this in another thread;

Note: All sort [secular and religious] of evils and violence must be resolved. Since this is "Philosophy of Religion" the focus on on the evil and violence from theism.

I believe theism and theistic religions are a critical necessity for the majority up to the current phase [but not the future] of human evolution since there are no efficient alternatives.

Whilst theism and theistic religions has significant positive contributions [psychological and social] to the majority of humanity, they inevitably also has their terrible negative and evil manifestations.

The problem is, the current trend is such that the negatives potentials of theism is going to overtake and outweigh whatever positives there are from theism.

To ensure we resolve the evil and violence from theism, humanity must analyze its proximate and ultimate root cause, i.e. why the majority clings to theism.

From my analysis, the factor with the greatest weightage of why the majority of people cling to theism is the psychological factor, i.e. relying on theism as a consonance to relieve the existential dissonance, angst, etc.

At present there are no effective alternatives to replace theism as a consonance to relieve the inherent unavoidable existential dissonance.
What is critical here is the majority of theists are ignorant they are suffering from an existential dissonance.

Thus to strive to eliminate the evil and violence arising theism and theistic religions, the following strategies need to be adopted,

• 1. all theists must understand and realize the root cause of theism, i.e. the existential dissonance.
  
  2. humanity must strive to bring about practical and effective alternatives to deal with the inherent unavoidable existential dissonance.

If there are rational and fool proof alternatives to theism, with better choices people will not opt for theism to relieve the existential dissonance.
When the above is achieved, there will be no more theistic driven evil and violent acts, e.g. from some Muslims and other religious extremists who obey the commands of their God to commit terrible evils and violence.

Note, in the case of theistic driven evils, we need to get control theism as a whole. There cannot be half-measures. To resolve the problems fully we need to 'pull out the roots'.

[Age]

Why jump from one view of illusion to another [of infinite regress] which cannot be verified and justified empirically and philosophical within a credible framework and system of reality [FSR] or knowledge [FSK].

But 'infinity' can be and has ALREADY BEEN verified and justified empirically and philosophically within a credible framework and system of reality [FSR] or knowledge [FSK].

'you', "veritas aequitas", just have NOT kept up.

[Terrapin Station]

You're talking about infinity as if it's a "thing" rather than simply being a term for never-ending (relational) extension, which I have to say makes zero sense to me. It would be like talking about "to the left of" as a "thing in itself."

"'To the left of' is the origin of everything in space." It wouldn't make any sense to say that, would it?

Likewise it makes no sense to say that infinity is the origin of everything in space.

[Skepdick]

You're talking about infinity as if it's a "thing" rather than simply being a term for never-ending (relational) extension, which I have to say makes zero sense to me. It would be like talking about "to the left of" as a "thing in itself."

It is a "thing in itself" in any relational algebra, It's called an operator.

Given the relationship between X and Y such that X is to the left of Y. The "thing in itself" is the "<" operator.

X < Y is true.
Y < X is false.

In the most general/abstract sense operators are functionals.
In the intuitive sense operators are human judgments/assertions.

Likewise it makes no sense to say that infinity is the origin of everything in space.

it makes perfect sense to say it.

The reflection principle (as Cantor understood it) implied that every property of the Absolute Infinite is also held by smaller objects.

https://books.google.co.za/books?id=PVN ... &q&f=false

The only question that remains to be asked is whether Mathematics is about the external universe (reality), or internal universe (thought).
It's easy for an anti-realist... Mathematics is invented, not discoverd. It's invented in the mind.

Upon reflection all mathematical objects are a property of me. I found Cantor's Absolute Infinity. I am it.

The limits of my language are the limits of my world--Wittgenstein

[Ferdi]

Why jump from one view of illusion to another [of infinite regress] which cannot be verified and justified empirically and philosophical within a credible framework and system of reality [FSR] or knowledge [FSK].

What is more critical is to research and understand how the idea of God emerged onto the consciousness of the majority of humans since ancient times with good and evil consequences;

Thank you VA. Like all of us you are free to believe what you like. Infinity is a fact not an illusion.

[Ferdi]

You're talking about infinity as if it's a "thing" rather than simply being a term for never-ending (relational) extension, which I have to say makes zero sense to me. It would be like talking about "to the left of" as a "thing in itself."

"'To the left of' is the origin of everything in space." It wouldn't make any sense to say that, would it?

Likewise it makes no sense to say that infinity is the origin of everything in space.

Thank you TP. Infinity is the label for a concept that we know to exist but our senses of time and dimensions of space do not apply to it.

[Veritas Aequitas]

Why jump from one view of illusion to another [of infinite regress] which cannot be verified and justified empirically and philosophical within a credible framework and system of reality [FSR] or knowledge [FSK].

What is more critical is to research and understand how the idea of God emerged onto the consciousness of the majority of humans since ancient times with good and evil consequences;

Thank you VA. Like all of us you are free to believe what you like. Infinity is a fact not an illusion.

Note,

• In physics and cosmology, whether the Universe is infinite is an open question.
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Infinity

[Skepdick]

Thank you TP. Infinity is the label for a concept that we know to exist but our senses of time and dimensions of space do not apply to it.

Well. Maybe they do apply to it.

Infinity is simply "whatever you specify there's always more of". We aren't being explicit about how much more - just more. It's bigger than you know.

So if the universe is "infinite" there is simply more of it than the observable universe. In that sense you could say "The ontology may be infinite but epistemology is always finite".

It's bigger than we know.

It only needs to be slightly bigger (beyond the bounds of our knowledge/observability) to at least appear infinite to us.

[Ferdi]

Well. Maybe they do apply to it.

Infinity is simply "whatever you specify there's always more of". We aren't being explicit about how much more - just more. It's bigger than you know.

So if the universe is "infinite" there is simply more of it than the observable universe. In that sense you could say "The ontology may be infinite but epistemology is always finite".
It's bigger than we know.
It only needs to be slightly bigger (beyond the bounds of our knowledge/observability) to at least appear infinite to us.

I have a faint feeling that I am not using the correct replying procedure, which someone will most likely remind me of. Meanwhile I'll try and reply to Skepdick's of 11Feb'21.
You apply whatever you wish but by definition: infinity excludes finite. We are not dealing with "observable".

[Skepdick]

You apply whatever you wish but by definition: infinity excludes finite.

That really depends on what you think it means to "exclude" something.

By some other definition infinity includes everything therefore it also includes the finite.

There are infinitely many finite subsets of infinity.

And if we are to apply this model to reality, then you could trivially imagine the infinite universe having finite galaxies.

infinity.png (27.72 KiB) Viewed 1786 times

We are not dealing with "observable".

I am. I can "observe" mathematical objects in my head. How else would I be conceptualising them?

The mind is the workshop of abstractions.

[Ferdi]

You apply whatever you wish but by definition: infinity excludes finite.

That really depends on what you think it means to "exclude" something.

By some other definition infinity includes everything therefore it also includes the finite.

There are infinitely many finite subsets of infinity.

And if we are to apply this model to reality, then you could trivially imagine the infinite universe having finite galaxies.

infinity.png

We are not dealing with "observable".

I am. I can "observe" mathematical objects in my head. How else would I be conceptualising them?

The mind is the workshop of abstractions.

I am dealing with the infinite side of Infinity. I think that you are in the finite side..

[Skepdick]

I am dealing with the infinite side of Infinity. I think that you are in the finite side..

There are no "sides" in the image which I have shown you.

You are manufacturing a dichotomy.

[Terrapin Station]

You're talking about infinity as if it's a "thing" rather than simply being a term for never-ending (relational) extension, which I have to say makes zero sense to me. It would be like talking about "to the left of" as a "thing in itself."

"'To the left of' is the origin of everything in space." It wouldn't make any sense to say that, would it?

Likewise it makes no sense to say that infinity is the origin of everything in space.

Thank you TP. Infinity is the label for a concept that we know to exist but our senses of time and dimensions of space do not apply to it.

What I'm getting at is not that but the fact that there has to be an infinity of something.

Think, for example, of finite quantities. If someone says, "The origin of x (x being whatever existent) is 5," then people would ask "5 what?" 5 is a quantity of something. It doesn't make sense to say that 5 exists "on its own" and that it does things (like having some effect on objects or creating things or whatever). Only 5 OF something can do that.

[Ferdi]

You're talking about infinity as if it's a "thing" rather than simply being a term for never-ending (relational) extension, which I have to say makes zero sense to me. It would be like talking about "to the left of" as a "thing in itself."

"'To the left of' is the origin of everything in space." It wouldn't make any sense to say that, would it?

Likewise it makes no sense to say that infinity is the origin of everything in space.

Thank you TP. Infinity is the label for a concept that we know to exist but our senses of time and dimensions of space do not apply to it.

What I'm getting at is not that but the fact that there has to be an infinity of something.

Think, for example, of finite quantities. If someone says, "The origin of x (x being whatever existent) is 5," then people would ask "5 what?" 5 is a quantity of something. It doesn't make sense to say that 5 exists "on its own" and that it does things (like having some effect on objects or creating things or whatever). Only 5 OF something can do that.

Infinity just IS ! Our ideas of space and time do not apply. We float on Planet Earth in the infinite space of Infinity. You cannot see it and there is nothing you can do about it but you are in it. If you want to get out of the temporary phase of life, just kill yourself. Your body stays here; without you in it, it will start to disintegrate, return into the "dust" it was made off. At the instant of your death "you" will cross from the finite "zone" into the zone-less infinity. IMO at the instant of your crossing you will see in a flash, with Infinite Wisdom what you have done with your "life"; you will judge yourself. It is my explanation for us having a free will, my reasoning for having been born with the ability to choose between being good or bad while on planet earth.