Do you truly understand all that INFINITY implies?

Question

I have had trouble with this one... my uncle Bill gave me this hypothetical story to explain it to me, and he said:

"If a bird were to take a single grain of sand and fly it to the moon, it would take two million years; one million years to fly there and one million years to back to earth. Now, this bird's mission will be to deliver each and every grain of sand on the planet to the moon - And when the bird finally flies back to earth to find his mission accomplished, infinity will only have begun."

I'd LOVE to hear other explainations of infinity - if they are interesting! :)

Answer 1

First of all, the word ALL and INFINITY do not belong together... For there is no way to quantify infinity; thus, one can never understand ALL that INFINITY implies... *wink*

That being said.... I have actually discovered two ways to look into the depths of infinity...

The First (which some might debate with me on) is to look into your eyes in the mirror. Sounds simple, but is one of the most complex things we can ever do with ourself.
Or, if you want to explore the depths of infinity with another being... come face to face with each other and stare deep into each other's eyes for as long as possible. (Beware, however, this can bring about some -intense- energy exchanges that you may not be used to...)

The Second (also involving mirrors) is to face four mirrors directly towards each other in the shape of a box (with each side of each mirror touching the sides of the others)... Then, stand in the middle of them... Everything around you is infinity....

The funny bit with this one is, when standing in the middle of mirrors like this, everything around you is blackness, and YOU are the Light in the center of it all, reflected ad infinitum...
-Metaphor?- *wink* *wink*

However, be very careful with this second method, for it can give some people an immense feeling of vertigo... (I almost lost my balance...)

Answer 2

Here is an explanation that someone gave me on how long eternity will be in Heaven or Hell.

Suppose the earth were a solid ball of steel from the core to the surface, and a termite walked around the earth in a straight line over and over until the earth was worn in half. That would only be the very beginning of eternity.

EDIT: Here is another one somewhat like your bird.
It is 23 billion light years to the farthest point we can see through a telescope. Suppose the earth was made of grains of sand from the core to the surface. The bird in this case takes the one grain of sand and carries it 23 billion light years
into space and drops it off and returns. He continues to do this one grain at a time until the earth is totally gone. That would only be the beginning of eternity.

Answer 3

Infinity does not start from somewhere and ends somewhere. We are always in the infinity ie eternal.

So your uncle was wrong in saying that infinity will begin from there on. He should have realised that he was already a part of it. And he made the poor bird unnecessarily struggle, though hypothetically!

I know it was not your uncle, but you only? But it is alright thinking about infinity. You will get tired and stop thinking, that is where I will say infinity will start.

Answer 4

Suppose you developed a rocket ship with a self sustaining atmosphere and a way of producing fuel and food that would never run out! The crew would breed and reproduce new crew members to replace the ones that die of old age! The ship had a crew of say 5000 people and it flew the same direction from earth forever, 500 generations later people on the ship would be totally different from the people who left on it, but compared to infinity the ship hasn't even moved!

Answer 5

While being a great example of a vast amount of time it's actually not a very good example of infinity. The reason is that you are misunderstanding infinity. You're thinking of it as a never ending amount of time. But infinity is without time. Because we operate within space and time it's truly impossible to fathom infinity, but an example given that relies on a vast amount of time is already missing it.

Answer 6

I personally think that infinity means everlasting. EXAMPLE: Some people might not know what it means to be married and in love for an infinity, but it would it mean everlasting love. That is the kind you want and the kind some people need.

Answer 7

I think the most mind bending one I ever heard was to do with the universe:

If the universe is infinite in size, it means that there are an infinite number of planets each with a person exactly like you, and there are an infinite number of planets with a person on them who is exactly like you except for one small detail. And so on and so on - each time, there being an infinite number of planets just like this one, with a person just like you but diferent in a tiny way.

Not necessarily true, but it certainly makes you think.

Answer 8

No, but I have studied it with mathematical rigor.

Let's say you have a hotel with an infinite number of rooms, each with a number on the door. Every room has a guest in it. A new guest arrives. You can give him a room. Just have every guest move to the next higher room number and put him in room 1. An infinite number of guests arrive. Just have the existing guests move to the room with twice their current room number, and put the new guests in the odd numbered room. Infinity violates our experience.

Answer 9

No mortal can comprehend the concept of infinity. The same holds true for eternities. Once we are on the other side of the veil we could come closer in understanding, but to attain that understanding we would first have to reach a level of godhood.

Answer 10

I probably don't understand it, but I FEEL it when I feel the Holy Spirit. I don't think of it in terms of time... years, etc. It's just existance that never began and never ends, a feeling of being at one with God. I am part of eternity. Infinite means no boundaries... eternal progression into greater light and understanding.