Time, Space, Material, and Infinity

This is one of my largest and most important ideas, created far before this blog. It covers several antinomies (there are more). Antinomies are fundamental conflicts within the real world. Something we observe in the world doesn't seem to make sense, or contradicts itself. For instance, the heated debate about free will and the absolute sovereignty of God is an antinomy. Scripture seems to say that God is absolutely sovereign and in control of all things, while at the same time it seems to say we have free will. These two concepts of soverignty and free will appear to be in opposition.
In this post, I outline three antimonies based on the impossibility of infinity and the nature of time, space, and matter itself.

Summary: The existence of time, space, and material requires either infinity (either divine or universal), or illogical results that beg a solution outside of the natural world. I'm essentially presenting two different ways the universe could work, two different options scientists could find as they continue discovering. It's a dichotomy because they have to either discover on or the other, yes or no. Both options either drive us to conclude that the universe is infinite, which contradicts mathematics and has many undesirable implications, or conclude that something outside of the natural world is upholding its existence.

Infinity: In mathematical number theory, infinity is not a number. It can't exist in the real world and does not obey mathematical laws. You can't have an infinite number of teacups at a party, no matter how many you buy. Infinity can be added to itself and remain the same. If it does not obey mathematics, it must be outside mathematics and science, which means it is unreal, or in other words, supernatural. A supernatural thing is either a sort of God in itself or suggests a God who created it.

Some claim that the universe is infinite and in reply to the impossibility of infinity might say that no one object in the universe is infinite, but the number of objects is infinite. In this case I would point out that then the object: universe, contains all those other objects and is therefore infinite. If that fails, I would like to have them talk with a mathematician. If that fails also, I would then give the implications of an infinite universe. (See Futility of the Finite)

Time: Cause and effect. All things (effects) in this world must have causes, and those causes in turn must have causes. We can trace this line of cause and effect far back in history (or simply trace time itself backwards), even back to the big bang but the question will remain, what came before? And we will never be able to answer it with science because the question will never go away. There are two options: 1) There was a cause that was not caused, which disobeys the laws of logic, and therefore is outside of the natural universe (God). Alternatively we can say there was an agent outside of time (unnatural) that started time (God). 2) Time stretches backwards into infinity. This either suggests a violation of mathematical laws or the existence of God.
          Some would point to the Big Bang as the place where time began. Some sort of singularity (infinite matter density) occurred and then everything exploded. How can time begin if we need time to define before and after? Why would a singularity cause time to begin? Couldn't the singularity just sit there forever (or for no time at all), because time didn't exist for it to start blowing up? Oh, well you might say that because of timespace bending in the theory of relativity the infinite matter density caused some infinte bend in time and.... ok ok ok, just pause for a moment. 1) If time doesn't exist then there is no timespace, it's just space, and you can't bend time if it doesn't exist. 2) How did the universe get to the point of having a singularity? If there is no time, nothing can change. Whatever state the universe you imagine the universe to begin in, it won't change.

Space: If we reach our hand out into space, it keeps going. We can continue reaching out for a long time,. We exit the Solar System, the Milky Way, the Local Group, the Local Supercluster (or Virgo Supercluster), and then the Great Wall, many millions of light years across. But we can keep going, keep reaching out. When does it end? There are two options: 1) Space ends in a wall. What is beyond the wall? Why does it stop? What is it we are running into? The proposition is ludicrous. 2) Space goes on for infinity. Again, this either suggests a God-like universe or a God who created it.

Note: Some think three dimensional space might be bent in a fourth dimension, so that traveling into space forever in a straight line would eventually bring us back here where we started. This is not impossible, but I think we should wait the test of time to see what happens to the idea. Furthermore, one can ask again, how far can we expand into the fourth dimension? No matter how many spatial dimensions you imagine, or whatever orientation they are to each other, those dimensions have limits or don't. If three dimensional space is wrapped onto the surface a fourth dimensional sphere, how far out from the center can we travel in the fourth dimension?

Material: Now, instead of going out, we go in. Inside our bodies are cells, within them organic machines, within in them molecules, then atoms, then fermions (electrons, protons, and neutrons) then gluons, then, what after? We can keep going. According to Rob Bell, scientists have found at least 30 level of particles lower than the atom (Everything is Spiritual). Again, we have two options: one, we stop. And the result is a material or particle that acts in a certain way and we have no idea why because there are no particles within it that we can use to describe its behavior. It might have an electrical charge, or something equivalent, and we can’t explain it without God upholding the particle and making it do what it does. Two, it goes on forever, infinity. This doesn't mean there are a bjillion levels of particles and we just don't understand them yet, it means that the particles don't end. So really, if there is space between particles, we are all made up of all space. Material doesn't exist because it keeps splitting up into smaller pieces with space in between. Additionally, there are no consistent laws that determine the behavior of whatever matter we believe does exist, because there are no fundamental particles that cause the behavior of the larger ones - all matter is simply based on something that doesn't exist.

Note: Mass-energy equivalence may seem to provide the answer by saying that fundamentally everything is made out of energy - string theory actually - vibrating strings of energy. Ha! As if turning the stuff into energy somehow makes it unique and impervious to physical laws? How can something be made out of energy? If I'm making something, I can still split it up. Energy forms string loops - so... can I cut the string? That makes it smaller. No matter what you imagine could exist down there, it can either be split up or it can't, and the question still remains.

That's the beauty of these arguments. In regards to Gods existence, I care very little what science finds in the future, because whatever it is, it will still beg the existence of God.