Achilles and the Turtle

The ancient Greek philosopher Zeno posed the following problem. Say that Achilles has to run against a turtle and the turtle is allowed to start first. When the turtle is halfway Achilles starts. According to Zeno Achilles can never overtake the turtle. For when he is halfway of overtaking the turtle, then the following half can be divided into half and this ad infinitum. Up till today no satisfactory explanation has been found.

I humbly suggest the following solution. First of all it must be stated that there cannot be anything that is infinitely small or infinitely large. The word infinitesimal, therefore, must mean the very smallest, indivisible in fact. Only the divinity is infinite. If time and space were to be infinitely small and infinitely large, then there would be no place for God. Then, in fact, the universe would be God. But even a scientist like Stephen Hawking believes that the universe started with the size of a pea (but, a good friend of mine countered this with the argument that gravity in that case would be so strong that the Big Bang could not even have happened!).

That there cannot be anything that is infinitely small is not only an axioma, it makes good sense. For if there is no smallest particle then the universe is nothing but an illusion. Matter would not be matter but spirit. However the bible talks about an indivisible moment and the ancient Greeks thought about the real atom (the uncuttable very smallest particle). Achilles can definitely overtake the turtle because there is an indivisible particle and therefore an indivisible length of space!

The indivisible particle, the real atom, must be held by the hand of God. And in fact the bible states that the Son of God carries everything through the word of His power. He holds the whole world in His Hands!

That God dwells in eternity does of course not mean that He has an eternal house. According to the Bible God lives in an unapproachable light. The Father house must be a created place, as explained here. Nor does it mean that in heaven we will know no time, for we will not be like God in this regard. Even angels experience time, no matter how relative it must be for them. The biblical expression 'to the ages of the ages' clearly implies the progress of time. Only God inhabits eternity, where, as if on a high mountain, He sees all space and time; past, present and future (to the very smallest particle)!

Tertullian, an early church father, thought that God consists of the finest matter. However the bible foretells that the material universe will once be set ablaze and totally melt down; and then the Lord will make the eternal heavens and earth.

That deists are wrong is shown by the reasoning (not to mention Hebr.1.3) that there must be an indivisible particle. Physicists that argue that once we have cracked the universal code of the universe, we will know the mind of God, are like acosmics that argue that everything is soul. It is not for nothing, therefore, that they are like pantheistic mystics. This is the paradoxical identity of the mutually opposite positions of materialism and acosmism.

Modern nihilistic thinkers have in common with Greek thinkers like Pyrrho that we cannot know anything and that the universe makes no sense to us.

That the bible states that all men (past, present and future) are like a speck of dust on His scales, is because of the indivisible particle. However, of course only matter is meant here, not some pantheistic notion. For the Lord died for all souls and therefore everybody is unique and precious.

Mystics that enter into things they have never seen and that implicitly worship angels as their intermediaries (also Catholics that venerate Mary and so-called saints [and in fact the saints have the exact same functions as the ancient gods of the Greek and Roman worlds]) distance themselves from the Lord just as much as the deists that claim that God, once having created, has now withdrawn from the universe and lets it unwind like a clock. Also this is a paradoxical identity of mutually opposite positions.

Satanists do not seem to worry about this too much and they seem to prefer to have an attitude that Satan and his hordes are winning the battle. Or they expect eternal hell consciously.

Because there exists a very smallest, an indivisible particle of space and an indivisible moment in time, and because the universe is finite, there must be a mathematical equation of the universe and the Lord, carrying all things through the word of His power, must have that equation The new heavens and earth of eternity to come, also will have an equation with the possibility of infinite and eternal enlargement (Adam having lost that part through his Fall); but still being relative for the divinity. For the soul and the spirit, however, there are no equations, I assume, as they are immaterial. Therefore emotions are so valuable and spiritual matters are so meaningful. And yet, according to a psalm, He measures our tears as in bottle and He spiritually weighs all the nations as seen in the book of Daniel.

That the universe actually is not infinite is because there is nothing like infinitely large (except the divinity itself) and is also borne out by the scripture verse that all the stars have been named by God. So clearly He knows their finite number no matter how astronomical it would be to our limited minds.

The question arises what then is to be found beyond the universe of the stars. Also here the word of God gives us the answer. The bible talks of three heavens, paradise being in the third heaven. The first heaven, then, must be the atmosphere, called the air by Paul, and the second heaven must be the starry skies. The heavens of the angels (the bible talks in Gen. 1.1 of the heavens, Hebraically a dual; this being the first and second heavens [the angelic heaven existed already!]) are referred to by Solomon and elsewhere as the heavens of the heavens (like the holy of holies). It is the third heavens (plural!) that encompass the material heavens as the spiritual is stronger and more powerful than the material. And Solomon calls out in his prayer that "not even the heavens of the heavens can contain thee!" On the one hand one can look at it spatially, then, and say that beyond the stars you have the angelic heavens. However, as the heavenly regions are also a spiritual place, one can also look at it in terms of multiple dimensions, ranging ever higher according to the spiritual powers of the angels that indwell them. Such angels can as it were stretch our their arms through and across several dimensions at the same time. Does not the Bible state that the Lord is near!

This all may serve to show that the bible is not only good for soteriological purposes (for the eternal salvation of our souls), but that it also points the way to understand the universe theologically and philosophically and even scientifically in a way that satisfies our hearts and minds!