The religious view of the meaning of life is wonderfully stated at the end of one of my favorite movies of all time (and I do mean it)--THE INCREDIBLE SHRINKING MAN! Haven't seen it? You must!
In high school calculus, I thought infinity was a deep and elusive concept I should strive to master. A few years later, I read an interview with a mathematician who said, "Infinity is an approximation for a very large number." I felt disappointed but happy to learn something.
More recently, a Jewish friend told me infinity is in the realm of God (or maybe vice versa). And the shrinking man says:
"And in that moment, I knew the answer to the riddle of the infinite. I had thought in terms of man's own limited dimension. I had presumed upon nature. That existence begins and ends in man's conception, not nature's."
But infinity is an idea we made up, so the shrinking man's epiphany presumes man's conception of infinity upon nature. It's like the ontological argument (as I learned it as an undergrad, from MIT's humor magazine VooDoo):
"God is too cool an idea for me to think of, therefore he exists."
In high school calculus, I thought infinity was a deep and elusive concept I should strive to master. A few years later, I read an interview with a mathematician who said, "Infinity is an approximation for a very large number." I felt disappointed but happy to learn something.
ReplyDeleteMore recently, a Jewish friend told me infinity is in the realm of God (or maybe vice versa). And the shrinking man says:
"And in that moment, I knew the answer to the riddle of the infinite. I had thought in terms of man's own limited dimension. I had presumed upon nature. That existence begins and ends in man's conception, not nature's."
But infinity is an idea we made up, so the shrinking man's epiphany presumes man's conception of infinity upon nature. It's like the ontological argument (as I learned it as an undergrad, from MIT's humor magazine VooDoo):
"God is too cool an idea for me to think of, therefore he exists."