Why Infinity is Important

Why is the concept of infinity important to our discussions? It is important because every major religion deals with infinity. When we talk about God, we are talking about an infinite being. In a loose sense, you could say that the evolution of Mankind’s understanding of God and the Universe has grown with its understanding of infinity.

Do a quick Google search of infinity and religion. There are many articles on the web that discuss the subject, ranging from a scientific perspective to a purely religious outlook to some very new and exotic ideas. I am going to add my own perspective to the mix.

I thought a lot about infinity that night when, as a 9-year-old, I was snuggly under the covers contemplating my own mortality (see the full essay www.jacob2012.com/essays/9yearold). Is the Universe in a physical infinity? Science says that space-time was created at the Big Bang. But if everything we see and know as the Universe is contained within the explosion after-effects of the Big Bang, then what is beyond the edge of the Universe? Nothing or Something that we cannot comprehend? Infinity is pretty big!

On a different note, I refer to a passage from the Bible. In Chapter 1 of Genesis, “God said, ‘Let us make man in our own image, in the likeness of ourselves” (1). There is a huge problem here: God is infinite and we are not! We die. God is an Infinite Being.

I submit that in reality, Man created God in Man’s image. Mankind did not understand much as it made the transition from a hunter-and-gatherer society 5,000 years ago to small settlements. The ancient Hebrews developed the first definition of God based on what they knew at the time. We have learned a great deal in the intervening 5,000 years! For example, Mankind did not understand infinity in the slightest bit back then. Only in the 1890s did Mankind finally have a stable and robust definition of Infinity, and that was supplied by the work of Georg Cantor.

It is time to update our definition of God to include this new information.




(1) New American Standard Bible Updated Edition (1997). The Lockman Foundation, Foundation Publications, Anaheim, CA 92816 (gift from Dennis and Nancy, New Jersey, 1998)