Math is a language that you use to describe statistics, but really it's about collecting information and putting it in an order that makes sense.
- Lauren Stamile
Life's a little like walking a tightrope suspended between daily challenges and/or opportunities. Mixed among the mundane are a subset of choices made all the more interesting by their very nature.
The Zero Infinity Principle (ZIP) is quick way of recognizing areas where the likelihood of a possible occurrence may be infinitesimal yet their importance may be nearly as infinite as are their possible positive and/or negative repercussions.
Without question the challenges are many of mortal man seriously attempting to probe eternity. In fact, wisely navigating between concrete and abstract reality presents mankind's greatest dilemma. When it comes to religion, some like Carl Marx philosophically and theologically throw the baby out with the bath water by declaring it "the opium of the people." The modern version, as illustrated by Hugh Laurie depicting the brilliant MD and hostile atheist Gregory House goes even further, maintaining "Religion is the worship of nothing and thus the placebo of the people."
Such over simplification of both our spirituality and human condition might be justifiable, were it able to provide answers to mankind's two greatest concerns:
1. Where did we, not to mention such a vast creation, come from?
2. Where do we go after death?
Dismissing such ultimate questions as unanswerable, without exerting good faith effort to do so, adds insult to injury and may well prove not only a temporal but eternal mistake. Treating such mysteries with the respect and attention they deserve is an example of what might be called the Zero - Infinity Principle. For our QC purpose ZIP states:
Even should the likelihood of a possible occurrence be infinitesimal, it's importance may be as infinite as are its possible positive and/or negative repercussions.
For example, with Hell to loose and Heaven to gain, given mankind's mortality rate of 100%, it behooves each of us to make every effort to answer at least question 2 above. Any serious endeavor to do so quickly recognizes that to the best of our ability answering question 1 is an indispensable first step.
Exponential progress in technology has allowed incredibly rapid progress in understanding and lifestyle. So much so, billions have lost sight of important limitations common to mankind.
In point of fact, the nature of even modern human existence is not only extremely finite but so limited in a myriad of was as to make it possible to know only a handful of ontological things with certainty. Chief among them:
1. There is a God.
2. We are not Him.
These scientific and self evident points having been established, one can begin to rationally research and conclude that Christian faith is not only reasonable, it is the best of all possible bets.
This being said, we also do well to admit Biblical Christianity at it's most fundamental level requires not only much but literally everything from its adherence. The teachings and lifestyles of Jesus and His apostles reveal the true appropriate response to Christ's death on the Cross is our shouldering our own:
- "Then he said to them all: “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me. For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will save it. What good is it for someone to gain the whole world, and yet lose or forfeit their very self?" (Luke 9:23-25 NIV)
- "The matter is quite simple. The bible is very easy to understand. But we Christians are a bunch of scheming swindlers. We pretend to be unable to understand it because we know very well that the minute we understand, we are obliged to act accordingly. Take any words in the New Testament and forget everything except pledging yourself to act accordingly. My God, you will say, if I do that my whole life will be ruined. How would I ever get on in the world? Herein lies the real place of Christian scholarship. Christian scholarship is the Church’s prodigious invention to defend itself against the Bible, to ensure that we can continue to be good Christians without the Bible coming too close. Oh, priceless scholarship, what would we do without you? Dreadful it is to fall into the hands of the living God. Yes it is even dreadful to be alone with the New Testament.”
While the truths stated thus far are as axiomatic as they are vital, billions choose to invest huge quantities of disposable time and energy in amusements or worse, relegating ultimate concerns as the preview of clergy and academics if not fodder for the gullible and feeble-minded. Yet in light of the vast quantity of conflicting opinions and given the literal eternal importance of these questions, failing to do our due diligence in this regard may prove to be our greatest possible and perhaps final act of foolishness.
So to reiterate, genuine and honest research into spirituality, which by definition is largely if not solely a sojourn into the subjective if not immaterial is problematic at best. Nevertheless, with an eternity filled with the possibility of infinite joy or pain in the balance for every man, woman and child, ZIP strongly suggests such a purist is well worth our best effort.
As is generally the case, it is wiser to err on side of caution. As a modified Pascal’s Wager might point out, better to be too careful than reckless. The Wager uses the following logic:
1. God is, or God is not. Reason cannot decide between the two alternatives.
2. A Game is being played... where heads or tails will turn up.
3. You must wager (it is not optional).
4. Let us weigh the gain and the loss in wagering that God is. Let us estimate these two chances. If you gain, you gain all; if you lose, you lose nothing.
5. Wager, then, without hesitation that He is. There is here an infinity of an infinitely happy life to gain, a chance of gain against a finite number of chances of loss, and what you stake is finite. And so our proposition is of infinite force, when there is the finite at stake in a game where there are equal risks of gain and of loss, and the infinite to gain.
6. But some cannot believe. They should endeavor then to convince themselves.
Pascal’s principle is a spiritual form of risk management suggesting it’s better to err on the side of caution. Food for thought when it comes to today’s liberal vs. conservative beliefs and/or lifestyles. Even so, beyond it’s original intent, his famous Wager is incorrect on two points. First, as has been shown, the simplest math equation possible 0 + 0 = 0 does in fact prove the existence of God. Second, salvation is a free conditional gift quantumly costing closer to everything than nothing:
“Again, the kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and hid; and for joy over it he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field.” Matthew 13:44 New King James Version
“Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant seeking beautiful pearls, who, when he had found one pearl of great price, went and sold all that he had and bought it.” Matthew 13:45 New King James Version
“If we carefully judge ourselves, we won't be punished.” 1 Corinthian 11:31 Contemporary English Version
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