You ask does infinity exist as a real thing. I would say it is possible that we are
in the process of creating it.
I am in the midst of a new book. "The Life of the Cosmos" by Lee Smolin. He
begins the book with the following:
"This interconnection (or accomodation)
of all created things to each other,
brings it about that each simple substance
has relations that express all the others,
and consequently,
that each simple substance
is a perpetual, living mirror of the universe.
Just as the same city
viewed from different directions
appears entirely different
and, as it were, multiplied perspectively,
in just the same way
it happens that,
because of the infinite multitued of simple substances,
there are, as it were, just as many different universes,
which are, nevertheless,
only perspectives on a single one,...
And this is the way of obraining as much variety as possible,
but with the greatest order possible,
that is it is the way of obtaining as much perfection as possible."
- G. W. Leibniz, The Mondadology, 56 - 58, 1714
Sodom wrote:
> I will agree that: For all practical purposes, mathematics gets closest to truth
> of anything we have yet created. I will admit that it is close enough that I am
> willing to bet my existence (Which since it is all I have - being an Atheist -
> is a lot to bet) that mathematics is an exceptionally close model of reality. I
> will fly on an airplane, trust my vehicle, take my medicine - all on the bet
> that math is close enough in this frame of refrence. But like I said, it depends
> on a certain frame of refrence. For the concept of "truth" to exist in my mind,
> it must be absolute. To me, truth is much closer to the concepts of good or bad
> - in otherwords completly subjective. I will concede that mathematics is the
> best model yet.
>
> One other thing, just as an aside, "does infinity exist as a real thing?" I know
> it exists as a concept, but is anything infinite in scope?
>
> Sodom
> I have seen the light, and since it was there infinately, everyone should see it
> everywhere
>
> Keith Elis wrote:
>
> > Sodom wrote:
> > >
> > > I dont know of any turth in either of those, and I study them both quite a
> > > bit. Maybe you could provide an example.
> >
> > Your orginal inquiry concerned what would lead me to believe there is
> > truth. Science and philosophy, inter alia, are ways of testing
> > propositions. The root being logic. Once all testable propositions are
> > tested, then what remains ought to be true. This is what leads me to
> > believe that there is truth. Without having infinite time to regress,
> > actually testing all propositions is another matter.