On the prior thread "God and the Holocaust" I don't think anything got resolved, but it did make me think of two things:

The first is that I can conceive of perfection, (as in imagining a perfect circle), but CAN'T imagine infinity. For example, when trying to imagine a straight line going out to infinity in both directions, I can bound it in some way (such as seeing it go across the galaxy), or I can see it going on for A LONG TIME without bounds, but CAN'T imagine the entirety of something that's infinite.

This being the case, I realize that I'll never be able to comprehend or understand any aspect of God, God being infinite by definition.

Secondly, a question arose of why have the universe at all, if God knows how it will end up, and could put people in Heaven or Hell BEFORE they lived their lives (since He knows the choices they'll make).

While no one REALLY knows the answer to this, what occurred to me was music. After I hear a song a time or two, I know "how they end", and the notes in the middle. This doesn't stop me from enjoying the EXPERIENCE of re-hearing music, though. Perhaps in some way God feels the same about (what we consider) the actual progression of the universe.

Frank

-- Someone (ChimingIn@twocents.cam), March 29, 2000

Answers

Who created God?

-- Questioner (question@questioning.net), March 29, 2000.

MAKES YOU THINK? If you mixed vodka with orange juice and milk of magnesia, would you get a Phillip's Screwdriver? Do infants enjoy infancy as much as adults enjoy adultery? If a pig loses its voice, is it disgruntled? When someone asks you, "A penny for your thoughts," and you put your two cents in, what happens to the other penny? Why is the man who invests all your money called a broker? Why do croutons come in airtight packages when it's just stale bread to begin with. When cheese gets it's picture taken, what does it say? Why is a person who plays the piano called a pianist, but a person who drives a race car not called a racist? If lawyers are disbarred and clergymen defrocked, doesn't it follow that electricians can be delighted, musicians denoted, cowboys deranged,models deposed, tree surgeons debarked and dry cleaners depressed? Why is it that if someone tells you that there are 1 billion stars in the universe you will believe them, but if they tell you a wall has wet paint you will have to touch it to be sure? If you take an Oriental person and spin him around several times, does he become disoriented?

If people from Poland are called "Poles," why aren't people from Holland called "Holes?"

-- (just@joke.ha), March 29, 2000.

The answer to it all is yes. lol lol lol lol lol lol lol

Oh, hey, that looks like code.

-- imho (Redy@or.not), March 29, 2000.

I thought your thoughts were interesting, Frank.

I'm pretty much done responding to the philosophy/religion threads, but I DO find it interesting that some thoughts were spurred by the other threads. Different opinions enable us to think of possibilities that we may never have considered previously.

-- Anita (notgiving@anymore.thingee), March 29, 2000.

The first is that I can conceive of perfection, (as in imagining a perfect circle), but CAN'T imagine infinity. For example, when trying to imagine a straight line going out to infinity in both directions, I can bound it in some way (such as seeing it go across the galaxy), or I can see it going on for A LONG TIME without bounds, but CAN'T imagine the entirety of something that's infinite.

This being the case, I realize that I'll never be able to comprehend or understand any aspect of God, God being infinite by definition.

One divided by zero would be infinity (forget for a moment those whose say division by zero is impossible). Think of God as the center point from which all else flows, kind of like the point at the center of a circle that makes the rest of the circle possible.

Another analogy is the still, calm center of a hurricane which is the basis of all the turbulance around it.

Then think about the Big Bang.

-- (Food@for.thought), March 30, 2000.

Food,

Thanks, but both of your examples exist in what I would consider a "bounded" or limited space, although infinite in themselves. My real problem is in something expansive (the circle itself almost worked for me though as an example of the infinite, in that I could think of going around and around forever at its level, but stepping back you could view the whole thing) but it doesn't, quite.

Frank

-- Someone (ChimingIn@twocents.cam), March 30, 2000.