The Finite Nature of Infinity

Infinity. Some say that it’s a purely mathematical concept, one that it doesn’t apply to reality. I don’t agree; I think infinity has a very finite nature. Allow me to reference an old Greek guy named Zeno to defend my position.

Zeno liked to create paradoxes. One of his most famous paradoxes states that motion is an illusion. To move any amount of distance, be it five feet or five miles, one must cross an infinite distance in a finite amount of time. How can five feet be an infinite distance? According to a geometric postulate, there is an infinite amount of points between any two points on a line. That is, the distance can be broken down into infinitely smaller and smaller units. Therefore, the both five feet and five miles are infinite distances. Old Zeno thought it impossible to cross this infinite expanse in a finite amount of time. However, a finite amount of time can be divided into an infinite amount of units as well.

I’m not sure whether that solves Zeno’s paradox, but that’s beside the point. The point is this: any finite measurement can be broken down into an infinite amount of units.

In our world, the infinite is tied to the finite, a theme which extends far beyond mathematics.

In fact, this concept has ramifications for theology, our perception of God’s nature.

We understand God to be both infinite in character and finite in action.

He is the same yesterday, today, and forever; His character is eternal and unchanging. Yet He constantly expresses His identity in new and varied ways; God’s activity in our world is ceaseless. I think God is rather like the sun – the sun cannot help but constantly radiate heat and light from within itself – it’s very nature is to radiate sunbeams! Likewise, God’s nature – His stable, unchanging nature – cannot help but burst out new and fresh behavior. No wonder one of the best prescriptions for a happy life is to live in the overflow of one’s identity; that is our experience with the Source of Life. God’s name - “I AM” - beautifully sums up the principle of the infinite embodied in the finite. The “I” denotes His timeless nature, while the “AM” exudes His activity in the here and now.

Just as the infinite and the finite are woven together in God, so the eternal and the daily are woven together in reality.

When we read literature, we often come away with a sense that we were made for something bigger … some grand adventure, some cosmic battle. And yet we find ourselves living a very ordinary, unromantic, and small-minded existence. We long for a metanarrative, but we find ourselves stuck in monotony. What we forget is that the epic is bound up in the ordinary.

Living with roommates has taught me the truth of this principle. I dearly love my roommates; our friendship is the life-changing kind. Yet I experience it every day, not just when we have intense conversations, but also when we brush our teeth, complain about the weather, or laugh together. But I am usually unaware of the magnitude of our friendship because I don’t hear an orchestral score playing in the background, cluing me in to the grandeur of the situation. I think my dorm life is ordinary, when in fact it is extraordinary. Yes, the eternal is incarnated in the temporal.

Therefore, one shouldn’t just look AT reality, seeing merely the
empirical, self-oriented, day-to-day reality...

That’s the mistake the secularists and atheists often make.

Neither should one try to look BEYOND reality, to some
platonic, higher, spiritual reality.

That’s usually the issue with mystics, philosophers, and some modern Christians.

Instead, one should look THROUGH reality, seeing eternal truths embodied in the gritty experiences of life.

Remember, the infinite is in the finite.