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Issues With Infinity

It came innocently in the middle of a dinner conversation.  I had joined my daughter downtown for a quick dinner before we both headed to our respective homes.  Somehow the talk went back to her years in high school.  Oddly, it centered on math, which I think she secretly enjoys.  But then she said, I do have issues with infinity!  I am sure I blurted out laughing.

I have never heard anyone put it that way: “issues with infinity.”  Of course, I could not resist asking what that meant and why did she have issues with infinity?  Of course, she was still talking about infinity in the mathematical realm.  Since I stopped just short of calculus, I don’t claim to know much about “higher math.”  So I both know what infinity means and I really don’t have a clue.

She continued by explaining that she was told somehow one “can approach infinity” but one cannot “actually get to infinity.”  Ok, so I don’t know enough math to go further.  Essentially, she was troubled by the idea of infinity and the fact that you could only “approach it,” but never get there.

But then the funny part began again.  She had some “odd” friends in high school.  For the most part they were too bright to be put in the regimented system.  Fortunately, some of them were in some honors’ programs which helped.  At least, there was some flexibility in that context.

So one day she walks into the classroom and found Ben, one of her classmates sitting under a table.  “Ben,” she asked as she bent down to address him, “why are you sitting under the table?”  “I have issues with infinity and just can’t deal with it.”  Now Ben was an “odd” child, too.  Apparently, it took a couple days under the table before Ben could emerge and again begin dealing with life in mathematics.

Of course, it is funny to me thinking about it.  I suppose Ben could be written off as psychologically flawed, etc.  I don’t care about that.  He has gone on to do quite nicely and, for all I know, is living a perfectly normal, successful life.

Probably what made the line, “issues with infinity,” so funny at dinner tonight was the easy correlation in my mind between math and God.  Most of us are aware that one of the key characteristics theologians describe God has is that infinity is one defining mark of Divinity.  You and I are not infinite.  We are finite, mortal, and all that.  God is infinite. Immortal, and all that.

So to say one has “issues with infinity” implies God-trouble.  There are many reasons folks have God-trouble.  Lousy things happen in the world and we ask why God did not somehow intervene?  Why is there evil?  And the list goes on.  God- trouble is very prevalent in our world today.
Is the answer Ben-like?  Do we crawl under our metaphorical tables until our “issues with infinity” pass?  I actually think many people do just that.  They are “under the table,” but it just doesn’t look like it.  The problem with this “under the table” coping is it just does not deal with the “issues with infinity.”

The healthy way to deal with “issues with infinity” is to engage them.  We may need to talk about our ideas of God, our sense of how we understand God to work in the world, and human responsibility in order to gain some clarity.  I find talking with friends and mentors to be quite helpful.

Because I understand at one level God to be mystery, then I won’t be able to comprehend fully everything about who God is and how God works.  I have come to be ok with that.  I find I can even laugh at that…and laugh at myself.

And now I can lean back and say, “You know what?  I have issues with infinity!”

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