Oddbean new post about login | logout Do you think God is one, or composed of parts?
God is one AND composed of parts... Infinite parts, at will, higher and lower, inside and out.. Its fractal in all directions, including directions we can't think of.
yes, it is an AND God is a number - infinity, and a quality - uncountable we use that word "uncountable" in the sense that we would require infinite time to count all the attributes mathematicians play with this nonsense all the time with their "real" numbers but that's something a mathematician can never show you a "real" number, that is not an integer or a limited precision representation.
Can't be both, that is a contradiction in terms. Something that is one is not composed of parts, and something that is composed of parts is not one. Deny that, and you have to throw out all of logic. Y'all are denying the law of non-contradiction.
you can relate infinity and nothing but you can only relate finitude with other finitude when you relate finitude with infinity or nothing you get infinity or nothing, they are special identities they even can be categorised: countable and uncountable ironcially, "real" numbers are literally uncountable when it comes down to it, any number you can represent is finite and singular, and thus it can be related to any other finite and singular value infinity and nothing are qualities, not numbers it's not that God is not composed of many parts, it's that He's composed of infinite parts, so you can sit there listing them until you drop dead, and still not even touch a fraction because there is no fraction of infinity
the real question is, can you equate the parts with the whole? obviously not! thus you can't say infinity = 1 but you can assert a relation between infinity and nothing, that's a separate thing, they are the boundary conditions of counting infinity is endless counting, nothing is not counting
That is, I think, missing the point. If God is identical with his attributes, and we can say God is infinite, then it is also true the infinite is God. God has to possess all objects and categories in Himself in some way, or He could not create all of them. Yet His creations are distinct from Himself. Perhaps that's a more philosophical way to state what you've been trying to talk about mathematically?
i like to boil it down to arithmetic because that's the simplest form of relation but yes
the proper name for it is ontology relates to set theory as well, you could use set concepts to explain it God is the infinite set all things are members of the God set equality in set theory means the identical set, obviously this means no subset of the God set can be God The trinity itself is a subset of the God set, the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost are subsets of God ah yes and the last one that makes it all the best fun Any infinite set can contain another infinite set i was reading about this a few weeks ago, how there is many kinds of infinity... i suppose there must be infinite kinds of infinity, ultimately in my opinion, to know mathematics, arithmetic, set theory, algebra, physics, and to not have an inkling of the God set is wanton blindness