Thinking about the finite and the infnite.

Going from the finite to the infinite will not get you where you long to be. But going from Infinite to the finite will work every time.

One of the pleasures of being retired is the luxury of slowly waking up and letting the subconscious overlap with the conscious. The same thing happens when I go to sleep; the two overlap. In that state of the cerebral “netherland,” I am the closest to being a brilliant philosopher. In that critical sub-region of consciousness where we briefly live at least twice a day, and two more if you take a nap as I do, our mind is free ranging through the bits and pieces of our logical and illogical memory dust.

What triggered this query direction is lost in the deeper parts of my sleep. All I remember is comparing the infinite to the finite as I rejoined the living. 

It’s hard to understand how there can be so much serious debate over the “possibility” that there is a God.  Can there be a winnable debate about what we cannot analytically prove? This pondering is about why I believe God exists.  I have no “tangible proof.” Yet, I am more than confident. Some cognitively superior people conclude that since no apparent empirical proof of the person of God can be cited, God is a myth. A superstition built by humans to manage their anxious emotions and erratic behavior. This, for some, explains why there are so many “world religions.” Each culture creates its version of life to explain its existence and create its cohabitation glue.

One of the difficulties of understanding the infinite is that it is, well, infinite. Add to that those who seek to fathom it are finite and you have an inescapable quagmire of conflicting speculations. Since the human mind finds its realm of being in the human brain, which is encapsulated in a bony cranium, its concept of infinity is limited, i.e., finite. The human mind, at its highest potential, is not capable of anything but controlling what it assumes fills in the blanks of what is outside our experience, what is unseen or unseeable.

At best, our “noodles” are like a pasta machine. All our intellectual components are dumped into a hopper, and our desire to explain ourselves forces the doughy conjectures through a chosen extruder die. What comes out on the other side is only differentiated by the shape of the extruder die we select: macaroni, spaghetti, shells, etc. That “extruder die” is in the shape of the reality that makes us feel secure and in control.

Our limitation is that we can only explain or describe the infinite in the context of our finite reality. In other words, “what makes sense to me.” I chose the shape of the extruder die.

If you do not want there to be a “Creator,” you will likely find all the evidence needed to prove your desire. Many folks like me deeply long for the Bible’s God to be real. Accordingly, all of what is finite is justification for our view.  As a result, we do not understand why those who do not believe God exists persist despite all the “evidence.”

We can easily substitute our cultural assumptions and cliches as a foundation for our faith. But those are not great rebuttals to prove our conviction. To compensate for our finiteness, we need to begin not with what we behold but what we cannot behold: the infinite—or, properly, THE INFINITE. The first four words of our Infinite God’s activities are, “In the beginning, God…” That “beginning” is the beginning of the finite coming out of the Infinite.

What is interesting to me is that when God created humans, they were created in His “image.” For me, that has come to mean, in part, that I was created as an image of the INFINITE. No other living creature tries to explain its origin, destination, or reason for being. That is reserved only for those in whom the Creator “breathed the breath of life into his nostrils” (Gen. 2:7)

I’ll never win a tactical argument with someone satisfied that every living thing wasn’t, is, then isn’t again. I cannot prove to you that God exists. Nor can you prove to me that God does not exist. We cannot prove or disprove what is infinite. Humans have no concept of what is infinite, but that doesn’t stop us from speculating. If we did have a firm grip on the infinite, there would no longer be an infinite.

I can listen to my mind’s deep longings, that non-material part we call the soul or heart, as a divine invitation and lean into its calling. I do not use the Bible, God’s revelation, to prove the infinite. I use it to lead me in a fantastic exploration of the INFINITE.

Hebrews 11: 1-3, 6

1 Now faith is the reality of what is hoped for, the proof of what is not seen. 2 For by this our ancestors were approved.

3 By faith, we understand that the universe was created by the word of God, so that what is seen is made from things that are not visible. …

6 Now without faith it is impossible to please God, since the one who draws near to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.

You will not find the proof that God exists in the created but in the shadow of the Infinite.

When I stand in the shadow of the Washington Monument facing away from the sun, I do not have any tangible proof that there is a sun or a monument, except for the shadow cast before me. The same is true for believing that I am a creation of God made in his image. The fact that I can meditate on the finite and the infinite is proof enough for me to shape the awareness of my existence in the finite in light of the revealed INFINITE.

Photo – One of my maple bowls is now sitting in a box in the basement.