8/14/2019 Duped By Infinity & Zero

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Duped by Infinity & Zero...

Dustin Cassell

March 03, 2007

Infinity and nothing, these are my two greatest adversaries. Personally I think we were duped, cheated, belied too, and all by our own creations. WE created these golems and made them our saviors. These

two abstract concepts are the central players of not only religion but also science. Infinity and nothing

are two formidable enemies. I've come to realize it's like fighting everything and nothing all at once.How can I possibly expect to win against such odds?

Every theory of creation from religion to science is based on the foundation of either infinity or 

nothing. God an infinite being in the Bible creates the heavens and the earth out of the void (nothing).Physicists believe the universe or multiverse is infinite in nature, with infinite energy and matter always

 being created. Or an alternative explanation is that everything came from nothing. What came before

the big bang? Ask a cosmologist, they'll probably say it all spawned from the void. Some even go so far as to say the universe is the ultimate free lunch. Meaning everything sprung into existence from the

void.

Well I say it's all rubbish. Think about nothing for a moment... wait, don't think too hard because as

soon as you think up nothing, you've made it something and missed the point. Now think about

infinity... keep on thinking, gonna havta wait awhile because it's unimaginable. Both concepts are justarchetypal dreamscapes that don't really correspond to anything tangible. Yet everywhere I turn

theologians, philosophers, scientists, etc. summon these phantasms to explain our world, our existence,

and our souls. But then we're told we can't picture either of the ideas because we're too simple to

understand infinity or too complex to understand nothing.

One idea that I really like is that everything that exists now has always existed. Matter/energy is

neither created nor destroyed. It can take different forms, under these guidelines one doesn't have toconjure the evil duo of infinity and nothing. You might now be asking if everything "always" existed

doesn't that present another problem of eternity? Which is just as infamous as infinity or nothing?

Perhaps, but maybe not.

J. Richard Gott has some very interesting ideas regarding how time can loop back on itself. Check out

this page if you want to know more. Stephen Hawking in his book, A Brief History of Time says there

are three arrows of time. The three arrows are thermodynamics (entropy), psychological (logical flowof time, past to future), and cosmological (expansion of the universe). He hints at the idea that the

arrow of time is moving in one direction, but alludes to the concept that intelligent life may only be

able to exist when the arrows move in that direction. Hence this very well could be the only time periodin which intelligent life could exist to question why the arrows of time flows in only one direction.

Overall, I like the idea of a multiverse, but only one where matter/energy is not created, but rather recycled. In this idea, there is no need for a beginning or an end. Rather everything just exists. Of 

course these are just ideas, we need to better understand time before we can make any definite

conclusion. But I'd be willing to bet that the final answers won't include infinity or zero.