Q&A: Infinite Regression
Infinite Regression
Question
I saw that you said an infinite regression is not possible because infinity does not exist, but I didn’t understand the difference between saying that the universe is just like that, in an infinite regression, and creating an infinite God who created a universe and saying that God was always like that.
Answer
There is no principled problem with saying that the universe is eternal, aside from the fact that it isn’t true (it is 14 billion years old). But there is a problem with saying that it is its own cause (because matter is not its own cause). And there is also a problem with an infinite chain of explanatory links (because that is a concrete infinity, not a potential one). All this is explained in my book The First Existent, in the second discussion.
Discussion on Answer
No. And as I wrote, an infinite world is also not a principled problem.
Just to be precise, the Rabbi means that an infinite world and God’s eternality are in the category of potential infinity.
The Rabbi’s words: I explained here and also in the booklet. There is a difference between a chain of reasons where each one is held up by the next. Such a chain is not an explanation if it stops somewhere, and therefore this is a concrete infinity (as if you have to get all the way to the bottom). To say that there is a chain of explanations whose end I do not know is to say that you have no explanation. By contrast, to say that God exists at every time you can reach is a potential infinity, because I am not speaking about infinity but about a magnitude as large as you wish (there is nothing larger than it). To sharpen this further requires mathematical knowledge. If you have that, you can certainly understand the point. If not, it is hard for me to explain it here.
And an infinite God isn’t a problem?