“Nature is an infinite sphere of which the center is everywhere and the circumference is nowhere,” writes the philosopher Blaise Pascal.
Here, Pascal brings up the philosophical question of infinitude, as we have seen illustrated in past posts, especially in literary representations of God or the universe.
Nature is infinite because it comprises part of the “great beyond” that exceeds our human limitations.
As human beings we are limited in time and space.
We ultimately will die and we cannot occupy more space than our bodies do.
Nature, like our conception of God, survives time and is omnipresent.
Pascal also wrote a great deal about religion.
I would be hard put to separate Nature from God in my beliefs. I am glad my body will go to Nature, to no longer contribute to its destruction. Shedding my bad habits and going from decadent to decay.
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That is the fate of our bodies in their finitude. The religious question remains regarding the possible infinitude of the soul.
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Letting go of the body, the source and housing of all I know was the hard part. Religion’s secret to success is its promise of immortality. Yet I feel insincere practicing religion. Of course one can have the belief without the ritual. My journey to belief in having a soul came mostly from secular sources; NDEs psychics who communicate with the departed, tripping; because those at least start with an earthly knowable. The motivation to believe in my eternity the same as everyone’s–existential terror. I think atheists are very brave.
I wonder what quantum physics will tell us about time and space and whether the new information will effect our religious/spiritual beliefs.
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