How To Prove That The Universe Was Created: Part 3

The Christian Philosopher Episode 27: The Argument From The Impossibility Of Increasing The Infinite:

I have been discussing FOUR classical arguments for the FINITE nature of the past meaning that the world has not always existed, it had to have a beginning point.

This is the THIRD argument of the four that shows the world cannot have existed forever in the past and this is The Argument From The Impossibility Of Increasing The Infinite

I have been discussing FOUR classical arguments for the FINITE nature of the past meaning that the world has not always existed, it had to have a beginning point.

This is the THIRD argument of the four that shows the world cannot have existed forever in the past and this is The Argument From The Impossibility Of Increasing The Infinite

I got this argument from the great scholastic philosopher and theologian St Bonaventure, so I want to start this argument with a quote from his work he writes this:

“It is impossible to add to the infinite. This is per se evident because everything which receives an addition becomes more; but nothing is more than the infinite. If the world lacks a beginning however, it has had an infinite duration and consequently there can be no addition to its duration (but this is false since every day adds to its duration and past events)”.- St. Bonaventure

What is he saying here? St Bonaventure is saying that it is self-evidently true that THE INFINITE CANNOT BE EXCEEDED - there cannot ever be more than an infinite amount of anything.

Why? An infinite amount is unlimited. That is what an infinite means – without limit. And because an infinite amount is unlimited, it is impossible to have more than an infinite amount of anything.

Imagine a man with an infinite amount of dollars. It would be impossible to be richer than this man. Not even God could give you more than an infinite number of dollars. God making more than an infinite number of dollars is as absurd as making a rock so big that He cannot lift it.

How does this apply to the past?

Assume for a minute that the world never began. Now ask yourself, starting from today, how many days have already happened?
An infinite.

So counting from today, the past has an infinite number of days.

SO WHAT HAPPENS WHEN TOMMORE COMES? When tomorrow comes, today will be the new yesterday, And THAT MEANS THE INFINITE WILL HAVE INCREASED BY ONE DAY, AND WHEN YOU THINK ABOUT IT, THE PAST INCREASES BY ONE DAY - LITERALLY EVERY DAY.

Every new day that happens, increases the past by ONE DAY. Every day we have had an infinite number of past days and THEN WE ADD ONE MORE.

But all of this is absurd. You cannot have more than an infinite.
You can think of it this way too. Pick any day you want in the past and count backwards. You will easily see that every day qualifies as an infinite number of days plus one more - or as we jokingly say “forever and a day”.

On the hypothesis of an infinite past, any day you pick can be said to be “forever and a day”. Forever because all of the past days add up to infinite, plus the new day.
But again all of this is absurd.

IT IS SELF EVIDENTLY TRUE THAT YOU CANNOT ADD TO THE INFINITE - this very notion of “more than an infinite” is absurd.

The infinite cannot be increased

Just like it is impossible to have more money than an infinite number of dollars, so too it’s impossible to have more days than an infinite number of past days.

So we say that if the universe always existed, every day would be one more than an infinite number of past days. But “one more than an infinite” number of anything is impossible. Therefore, the universe has not always existed.

With this in mind we can highlight the contradictory nature of an infinite past this way:

The past can be increased but the infinite cannot be increased.
Therefore to say that the infinite past can be increased to say

“That which can be increased is that which cannot be increased”

For this reason then the universe had to have a beginning and so, as we will see in a later video, must have been created.

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