I would like to make one more post on the issue of infinity and meaning. However, I would like to give the other side a hearing. The idea of infinity from a non-theistic position leads to great despair. Perhaps, then, this is also an apologetic when we think of what the idea of infinity does to people. The quotations are from a book entitled On The Heights of Despair written by E.M. Cioran.
“I cannot speak of infinity without experiencing a double vertigo, both external and internal-as if, suddenly abandoning a well-ordered existence, I threw myself into a whirlwind and began to move through space at the speed of thought…This is the paradox of infinity: it makes the sensation of the end more real while at the same time making it ever more impossible, for infinity, both in time and space, leads to nothing. How can we accomplish anything in the future when we have behind us an eternity in which nothing was accomplished? If the world had had any meaning, it would have been revealed to us by now and we would know it. How can I continue to believe that it will be disclosed in the future when it has not been made manifest yet? But the world has no meaning; irrational at the core, it is, moreover, infinite. Meaning is conceivable only in a finite world, where one can reach something, where there are limits to stop our regression, clear points of reference, where history moves toward a goal envisioned by the theory of progress. Infinity leads to nothing, for it is totally provisional. “Everything” is too little when compared with infinity. Nobody can have the experience of infinity without spells of dizziness, a profound and unforgettable anxiety. How can one help being anxious when all is equally infinite?
Infinity renders impossible any solution to the problem of meaning. It gives me demonic pleasure to think that the world lacks meaning because of infinity. What’s the use of ‘meaning,’ after all? Can’t we live without it? Universal meaninglessness gives way to ecstatic inebriation, an orgy of irrationality. Since the world has no meaning, let us live! Without definite aims or accessible ideas, let us throw ourselves into the roaring whirlwind of infinity, follow its tortuous path in space, burn in its flames, love its cosmic madness and total anarchy!… Infinity shakes you to the roots of your being, disorganizes you, but it also makes you forget the petty, the contingent, and the insignificant…
The penchant for form comes from love of finitude, the seduction of boundaries which will never engender metaphysical revelations. Metaphysics, like music, springs from the experience of infinity. They grow on heights and cause vertigo. I have always wondered why those who have produced great masterpieces in these domains have not all gone mad. Music, more than any other art requires so much concentration that one could easily, after creative moments, lose one’s mind. All great composers ought to either commit suicide or become insane at the height of their creative powers. Are not all those aspiring infinity on the road to madness? Normality, abnormality, are notions that no longer mean anything. Let us live in the ecstasy of infinity, let us love that which is boundless, let us destroy forms and institute the only cult without forms: the cult of infinity.”
People do experience infinity every day if they would recognize it. Infinity is true, but we either see it as impersonal or Personal. If we see infinity as impersonal, then there is no meaning and all thought is simply irrational since there is no boundary or limit or definition of rationality that will work. In the impersonal view life is without meaning as there can be no meaning drawn within an infinite world that is not Personal infinity. The very teaching that God is infinite should give us an ecstasy that goes beyond what the writer spoke of. We must drive people to think beyond false boundaries and confront infinity. People must confront infinity to taste reality. When they do, they will be driven to one of two logical positions; that of the author that I quoted from or the Personal God who has revealed Himself in the Bible. The infinite God shakes people to the roots of their beings and makes them forget the petty, the contingent, and the insignificant. It is the God of the Bible who is infinite and gives life its meaning. God is the One who gives us boundaries within a boundless love and wisdom. We all will deal with infinity at some point and in some way. Let us be prepared to speak of the infinite God who brings meaning and order into a world of sin that wants infinity apart from God.
God Loves... Himself 
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