Mathematically speaking, infinity has no need of numbers. You can't add anything to it to make it more complete.

I think that to conclude that God might be bored, one also has to assume that God's complete knowledge is static, that he has figured everything out, knows every fact in the universe and that he does not have anything new to develop, learn or discover or create in terms of his knowledge.

That is akin to the question I asked sometime ago whether it is possible to surprise God.

I don't think God would get bored because I also think God can be surprised and can experience something new and different to Him. He is The Creator which is to say he is creative. To understanding the creative process, compare it with the production by a master technician. The technician can produce/copy the same thing over and over again perfectly. The creator makes new and different things in endless infinite variety. That assumes a process of coming up with something new that is outside of knowledge before it is created. Otherwise God's "creative" process is merely replicating what he has in his mind until he has done everything he had in mind. Then what? He is done? What next?

If space and time are infinite, possibilities are likewise infinite, which would make knowledge and learning infinite. An infinite God could not get bored because his creative work is never done.

But then I can far better understand time without end better than I can understand time without a beginning. At what corner of the universe did God start? If God had no beginning what was the first thing he ever did?

Go back to the original idea that spawned this forum.

All of this is way too anthropomorphic for me!

It's humorous in a way how we all speak about God like He's one of us.

Hmm . . . He was though, wasn't he?

Alex

The anthropomorphic tendencies of the whole Christian view are one of the reasons that I choose to be an agnostic. The paradoxial nature of the whole god enterprise really argues against the confident claims of true believers.

It is quite evident that we have created god in our own image and all worship given to this god is really a worship of ourselves.

You say, "He was," but actually Christ still is a man. He returns as one of us, our elder brother, a glorified human being, the Son of Adam.

You don't believe that God loves human beings enough to become one of us?

Without God and what Christ did to save us, what do you believe will eventually happen to this world and the human race? What's the most positive scenario you have to offer?

John,

The beauty is that we just don't know what will happen. I think we make stuff up because we are afraid of the unknown. It's the ultimate control issue.

As far as a different scenario I think I could make up one that works out better for everyone.

How about we can do whatever we want with no negative consequences and no one gets hurt?

Don't scientists believe that the earth will eventually become uninhabitable and then soon uninhabited?

You and I die in some way-- possibly from heart attack or in an accident or from cancer (hope not from being beat to death!)-- and then about 2.3 billion years later, or at some other time, all of humanity will be destroyed by the heat of the sun. That will be it. And that's only if humans don't destroy each other in a nuclear war, etc. I don't see much reason to be encouraged in this scenario, and I don't see the beauty you mentioned (although I do see life as beautiful whether God exists or not.)

Here's what the wikipedia says about the future of the world and of humanity "without intervention":

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earth

Let's assume that this scenario is true. You and I lie in our graves endlessly without any prospect or hope of knowing anything at all ever again. Where is the justice in this? It seems to me that there's no real chance of righting any wrongs in this scenario.

You suggest your scenario would be for everyone to do whatever they want without negative consequences (not even from "nature") and no one gets hurt. But isn't that just the problem? Millions of people are already getting hurt--- almost all of them are hurt by other people-- and before now, many more millions died horrible deaths at the hands of other people. So, how do you mean "no one gets hurt"?

Am wondering if you believe in life or consciousness after death?

By the way, even if I were to find out today that God does not exist, I wouldn't change my life as I live it now, because I've found that living the way the Bible teaches me to live leads to the greatest happiness in life. At least it has for me, and I know it did for my parents as well.

There won't be 'humanity' in even a million years, let alone billions. At the rate we're going, there won't be 'humanity' in hundreds of years. I'm not so much talking about us blowing ourselves up or polluting ourselves to death, though those are possibilities too, but of becoming 'posthuman'. Life extension is nearing the point of virtual immortality at a stunning rate, and humanity is moving toward both genetic manipulation and merging with its technological tools at a similar headlong rate.

Given that, worrying about the death of the sun - in more like 10 billion years than 2.3 billion - seems like a fairly remote thing to worry about...

As far as no one gets hurt I did say that I was making that up.

I said that if I could make up a scenario I would think a universe where everyone could do what they wanted with no negative consequences would be rather nice for a change.

All this fear really is based on the imagination. The only use I have for fear is to help me run from immediate danger. Fear of the future is a waste of energy. I see no useful purpose to fear something I have no control over. And if I had control then there would be nothing to fear.

So, to me, we make up stories so we don't have to be afraid. And that seems to me what most religion is based on.