THE UNCAUSED CAUSE

To see a world in a grain of sand, and a heaven in a wild flower, hold infinity in the palm of your hand, and eternity in an hour. - William Blake

The Fun House at Southport Pleasure Beach is a most unlikely place to catch a glimpse of infinity. However you will probably have seen the effect yourself. Two mirrors are all that is necessary to produce this illusion; they must be carefully sited so that when you look into the first, you can see into the second. The result is that the image reflected by the mirrors is bounced back and forth, between the two, forever; so that within the mirror appears an endless progression of images, which appear to extend to infinity. Sometimes on television, the same thing is demonstrated by transmitting a picture of a television on which is a smaller television, on which is another smaller television; and on it goes, ad infinitum.

In mathematical terms, we have no problem with the concept of infinity: no matter what number we can imagine, or write down, there is always an extra nought we could tack on to the end; which results in a new figure, ten times larger. This process could be continued until all of the writing material in existence had been exhausted and still we would have no problem with the notion that a larger number could have been written down; if only we had the paper. In fact, the Greek mathematician Euclid33 actually produced a wonderful proof, in about 300 BC, which shows that the quantity of prime numbers alone is infinite.

Conceptually then, we can live with the idea of infinity. In physical terms however, we cannot. How is it possible, we would reason, for something which has no quantifiable size to materially exist? How could something be constructed, or created, which has no physical dimensions? Imagine a hypothetical builder, with an infinite life expectancy and an infinite quantity of materials, given the task of building a wall of infinite length. It simply cannot be done: he would continue building for infinity and never complete the task. The infinite has no measurable size and therefore, by definition, simply cannot physically exist.

So let us now consider a fascinating question with regard to the void we call space: is it finite or infinite? This is an interesting puzzle and incidentally, one which concerned the Buddha. Though he wondered whether or not the world was infinite, it was essentially the same problem with which he grappled. Whichever side of the argument you come down on, it can be rationally argued that you are wrong. Further, it should be noted, that there is no middle ground to occupy because logic says that space must be either finite or infinite. This is a logical tautology and, of course, as A.J.Ayer asserts, ‘it is only tautologies that are certain34’.

Astronomers have theorised that space is perhaps curved35, and that if we were able to go off in one direction for long enough, we would eventually return to our starting point. If that were truly the case, then space like the Earth, would be finite; enormous of course, but finite. Quoting from Moon and Spencer’s paper Binary Stars and the Velocity of Light, Dr A.J. Monty White36 says that evidence exists to support the proposal that ‘the radius of curvature of space is five light years’ .This view satisfies our requirement for the material existence of space, but poses another problem because we are left to consider what lies beyond the boundary of its curvature.