Georg Cantor equated what he called the
Absolute Infinite with
God.
He held that the Absolute Infinite had various mathematical properties, including (if I recall correctly) that every property of the Absolute Infinite is also held by some smaller object... --
The Anome
- The actual infinite arises in three contexts: first when it is realized in the most complete form, in a fully independent otherworldly being, in Deo , where I call it the Absolute Infinite or simply Absolute; second when it occurs in the contingent, created world; third when the mind grasps it in abstracto as a mathematical magnitude, number or order type. -- Georg Cantor, as quoted in Mind Tools by Rudy Rucker.
- That's interesting, and belongs on the Cantor page, maybe on the God page, and on the infinity page. Goedel's ontological proof is unrelated: it uses "perfection", not "infinity" as the defining feature of God. --AxelBoldt
I agree with you that it belongs in those places. I thought it was relevant here because of the repeated theme of possession of properties by a mathematical God-like entity equated with God, and because Goedel presumably knew of Cantor's related idea.
Perhaps there should be a Mathematics and God[?] article? -- The Anome
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