G-d: To infinity and beyoooond!
A recent post on Orthoprax's blog had the following comment by B.Spinoza:
I don't know if I am being overlynerdypedantic, but the concept of infinity has never meant unlimited by time, space, or anything else. In mathematics, there is an infinite number of points on a number line segment between 0 and 1. It is infinity bounded. A line is infinite in two directions, but also bounded. A ray is infinite in one direction and bound in the other.
Maybe I am being too precise, but I think we need to be when we discuss important philosophical concepts.
At 11:57 AM, B. Spinoza said... >"Do you believe God is absolutely infinite?"
>I don't know what that means.
it means God has no limits. God is not limited by time and space or anything else. If the physical world has a separate existence from God then you would be saying that God has a limit i.e. God ends where time/space begins.
I don't know if I am being overly
Maybe I am being too precise, but I think we need to be when we discuss important philosophical concepts.
posted by e-kvetcher at 2:02 PM
2 Comments:
that's why I said absolutely infinite. You'd be right if I just said infinite.
b.spinoza,
Thanks for pointing that out, I didn't notice it. I've been having discussions with people lately that have just been talking about G-d being infinite, without really being precise.
I still have trouble with using that term in relation to G-d. The more I read Rambam the more the notion of using terms like infinite seems wrong to me. Infinite still implies some worldly attribute. Also, I think by saying that G-d is infinite in all ways, this to me seems to allow the possibility of other entities who are infinite in some ways, but finite in other ways, something like the Neo-Platonic emanations ideas.
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