Sunday, July 02, 2017
Sunday Reflection: Infinity
While addressing the issue of space exploration this week, President Trump said this (in response to a Buzz Aldrin "to infinity and beyond" joke that he apparently didn't get):
This is infinity here. It could be infinity. We don't really don't know. But it could be. It has to be something -- but it could be infinity, right? Okay.
I'm not sure I understand the metaphysics of what Trump was trying to say, but I can tell you one thing: the idea of infinity freaks some people out. I think it has to do with the ultimate unknowability of the concept of infinity-- the idea that most of the universe is stuff we don't know.
I've never been one of those people, though. Of course the universe is infinite; that seems consistent with a God who creates endlessly. What would scare me is a limited universe, one where we knew with a certainty the shape and scope of it. To put a limit on all that is, after all, is to put a limit on God.
Probably Trump wasn't thinking about all of this... but I'd like to think that he was.
This is infinity here. It could be infinity. We don't really don't know. But it could be. It has to be something -- but it could be infinity, right? Okay.
I'm not sure I understand the metaphysics of what Trump was trying to say, but I can tell you one thing: the idea of infinity freaks some people out. I think it has to do with the ultimate unknowability of the concept of infinity-- the idea that most of the universe is stuff we don't know.
I've never been one of those people, though. Of course the universe is infinite; that seems consistent with a God who creates endlessly. What would scare me is a limited universe, one where we knew with a certainty the shape and scope of it. To put a limit on all that is, after all, is to put a limit on God.
Probably Trump wasn't thinking about all of this... but I'd like to think that he was.
