Said Solomon...

“Infinite dreams I can’t deny them, infinity is hard to comprehend…”
Taken from Infinite Dreams; Iron Maiden.
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…Somehow
The earth moves in grandeur,
Yet, I cannot step over the rain puddle
Outside my front door.
Taken from Concentric Images of Reality; EjG
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Said Solomon to the scribe, “show me your definition of infinity, and I will show you the limitations of your brain that trivializes incomprehension down to a miniscule thought of completeness. You cannot show, nor fully describe, infinity.”

And the scribe said, “infinity is nothing but a theoretical concept set forth by man’s god. The universe has an end, it has to, as it is expanding. In order to expand, you have to have an end. This cannot be infinity.”

“Man’s god?” shouted Solomon. “Man can no more describe God, as he can describe air. They both exist, unable to see either does not disprove their existence. The contents of a vacuum and a balloon are identical in appearance, and yet you cannot see either of them.”

“And yet one has substance and the other does not,” noted the scribe.

Solomon went on, “Religion is a philosophy, we all hold a piece of understanding to this philosophy. We all hold onto a piece of the puzzle that defines existence as we know it. At the intersection of all theological debate comes truth and understanding.”

At this the scribe became irritated, “You closed-minded, educated fool, you are avoiding the concept of infinity. Your theological dissertations on God and theology do not prove infinity. The universe has an end, as I said, it is expanding. It is finite, though in a broader sense than we have come to understand.”

“Yes, as you stated, it is expanding, but into what?” said Solomon, questioning as a professor should question. “There has to be an emptiness, a void, for the universe to expand. It is expanding into infinity, and infinity has no limits, nothing. If the universe could not expand, I could accept your arguments, but this is not the case. There is a vastness, an infinity, into which all enter.”

Solomon went on to explain, “The limitlessness of infinity drives madness into the sane, as they spew inane attempts of explanation. You cannot explain the endlessness of time, the limitlessness of numbers, nor can you explain infinity.”

The scribe, noting frustrations, exclaimed, “There is a philosophical component of logic that notes that ‘to explain what something is, is to explain what it is not.’ I can explain what infinity is not. Do you disagree that I can explain what it is not?”

“No, I do not disagree,” said Solomon.

“Exactly,” stated the scribe, “death teaches us where a piece of time ends, a cave teaches us the limits space can have imposed upon it, eternal love dies, and the scientists have both theorized and calculated the end of the universe. These are all ends, of which infinity cannot have. So, knowing these, I know they are not infinity, therefore, the opposite is what infinity can be. The opposite has described what infinity is by what it is not.”

“And yet your examples are trite, and infinity is anything but trite,” said Solomon. “I can tell you that a tree is not water, but I have done no more to explain the tree, than I have done to disprove water. We are not arguing over the existence of infinity, but rather the ability to explain it so mankind can conceptualize. We cannot, which is what drives the madness to the sane.”

“Infinity reaches beyond the universe,” Solomon further explained. “It describes the heavens, it describes our philosophy, it examines our limitations, and it exposes us for the fools we are.”

And at that, they both sat and stared at each other in silence. The impasse was not only deafening, but futile. EjG

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Dudley Dee