Infinity

For quite some time, I was confused by – what I thought was - a simple question that involved limits, infinity, and asymptotes. In Algebra, everyone learned that when you graph the function y = 1 / x, you have a result with asymptotes, or sections where the graph appears to be approaching zero from different directions, but never really reaches there…or does it?

Everyone has probably also been over the fact that dividing 1 by half, then by half again, over and over the result approaches zero, but shouldn’t ever really get to zero. If you divide it in half an infinite number of times, you get so close to zero, you are practically at zero.

Which then leads to my confusion: if you are driving towards an oxygen molecule a mile away, you get closer and closer and closer, but at what point can you not get any closer? If you think of it, no matter how close the car gets to that oxygen molecule without touching it, there is an infinitely small distance that can be covered. So the car goes half the distance. Again, there is still more space that can be covered. Either the car is touching the molecule or not, right? Is it a truly this dichotomous? Is it so digital that there really is no such thing as analog? Does a baseball slow down when it is hit after being pitched, or does it instantaneously go from 100 mph one direction to 120 mph in another? How does that work?

One of the things I remember from physics is that the car and the oxygen molecule would never really touch, but the molecules on an atomic level would be close. My friend and I joked that when you kiss a girl, you really aren’t touching her because the molecules would be repelling each other. Although it’s funny, it’s still a serious question for which I want an answer I understand.

English Scoundrels!

Have you ever noticed how common an English accent is in movies? Although the actors themselves are usually American, they speak with an accent if the film is set in a foreign country or if the character being portrayed is a villain.

Instead of speaking Italian for a film set in Italy or Russian for a film set in Russia, they actors speak with an English accent, as if that is supposed to clue us in as to their native language. What happens when this Italian immigrant goes to London? Do they all speak with the same accent? Does the immigrant hold up subtitles?

What type of stereotype is being compounded by having only villains speak with an accent? I don't get it.

Is This Too Deep? Not Deep Enough?

One of the questions that everyone seems to have, whether Christian, agnostic, atheist, or Jew: if God exists and we are His children, why does he let bad things happen to good people? And on the flip side, why does he let good things happen to bad people? Yes, you can argue that going through hard times are learning experiences and where you learn to define yourself, but that doesn't say anything as to why good things happen to bad people. Karma isn't judgmental about who it decides to work for or against, does it?

Believing in God could be seen as a way for us to validate our own existence. No one likes to think of humans as being related to monkeys or as a link in the evolutionary chain. We want our existence to have meaning rather than being an accident. If there is no god, it means me sitting at this computer is just a part of evolution and maybe in the next million years my descendents will be fly-eating trees.

If there is a god, it means our creation was with a purpose, it means we are more than a monkey's uncle. For all those who suffer and still try to do the "right" thing, belief in God gives their suffering a purpose, knowing that they will be rewarded in the life to come. But again, the question arises as to why these good people are made to suffer. What purpose is there in making the wicked powerful and successful? To read more questions this raises, see my 'Comfortably Numb', blog.