What If There Were a Virtual Infinity of Gods?

Well, here is another blog on the philosophy of religion, but with a twist, or you could say twisted. I find it fascinating to contemplate a virtual infinity of gods. You may think that this is far out there in left field, but no more than a belief in any type of god or gods.

So, what am I talking about here. The basic thing is everything has its own god, sort of like animism, but in my scheme not only does each thing (and I mean each thing from the smallest to the biggest), but each set (group) of these things and each set of each set and so on has its god.

Let us start off with an atom, say of hydrogen. In this form of polytheism every single hydrogen atom has its own god, but the set of hydrogen atoms in say my laptop has a god. There is also a god of all the hydrogen atoms in the room I am in. Oh, the hydrogen atoms in my body has a god. But, let us get a little smaller. Each set of hydrogen atoms in each of my organs has a god. But, these are rather large groupings. Not only does each hydrogen atom has its god, and of course all hydrogen atoms have a god, but each hydrogen molecule (H₂) has a god, and all sets of hydrogen molecules have their own god.

If you get the drift so far, follow me a bit more. Every oxygen atom has its god, as well as each molecule of oxygen (O₂ and O₃). And, each set of atoms or molecules of oxygen has its god. But, let us combine hydrogen and oxygen to get a water molecule (H₂O). Well, each of these water molecules has a god along with each set and set of sets of water molecules. More complicated sets are parts of other systems. All the water molecules in my body have their god. But, combine the water molecules in two, three, ten, hundred, or a million people; each of these sets have their god. Are you getting a better picture now.

The hell with atoms. What about protons or neutrons? What about electrons? What about all the other particles or sub particles? Maybe you know about the quarks and gluons of protons and neutrons. Oh, do not forget the neutrinos. There are millions of them passing through your body right now coming from the Sun. Did I say quarks? Well, there are six types of quarks (top, bottom, up, down, charm, and beauty). Now, do not forget each particle and all their sets have their god.

While there is a limited amount of such particles in the universe, the combinations are more than mind-boggling, not to mention just the particles themselves. Now you can see where the virtual infinity in my title comes from.

Most of these things so far are rather small objects and their sets and sets of sets. But, take everyday items like computers. Well, there is a god of my laptop (some ASUS model). There are also gods for all of these models at amazon.com, all Best Buys (not to mention each individual store), or Staples (ditto). But, there are other groupings, such as all touchscreen laptops or all ASUS model laptops. Than there are other types and brands of computers and their sets. There are desktops, Macs, mainframes, mini-computers, supercomputers, and connection machines. Not that this is an exhaustive list. Do not forget their sets. So all these computers and theirs sets have their god.

Of course, computers are only one type of thing. What about glasses (both eye and drinking)? What about desks for desktop computers? What about different types of desk, say roll-top desks? Well, they ll have their god.

But, these are all inanimate things. So, what about animate things (i.e. living things—animals and plants)? So, my cat Baxter has a god (or is he a god). And, all orange tabbies have a god. What about all cats in my neighborhood? Cats in Gaithersburg? Cats in Montgomery county? Cats in the state of Maryland? Cats in the United States? Cats in Canada? Cats in Mexico? Cats in North America? Oh hell, lets just skip to all the cats in the world? Yes, all these sets of cats also have their own god.

As with cats and their gods, other living things and their sets and sets of sets and sets of sets of sets, etc all have their god. This includes dogs, pigs, elephants, monkeys and apes. Let us not even go into plants, bacteria, fungus, and viruses. Okay, viruses may not be living by all definitions of life, but at least they are quasi-living.

Oh, let us not leave out us humans. Some people might take offense at the notion that each human has a god, let alone sets of humans (each couple maybe). This is a fantasy of sorts, so do not be to offended. Are we puppets than? “Are we not men? [sorry women] We are DEVO.” Some would say we are puppets anyway because of determinism.* Well, I will not go into this here.

So are all these gods such a silly idea? Not in my book. At least not any sillier than an all-powerful, all-knowing, all-good god, who created everything, and who cares about each and every thing. I just multiplied the number of gods. No sillier than any type of god. Oh, I suppose each god has a god. And, each set of gods has a god. Oh, all these gods have gods too.

When you get into gods and sets of gods having gods, you might run into some of the paradoxes of naive set theory. Since, in this scheme the gods could be truly infinite, and there would be no highest of infinities of gods. I say naive set theory because the axiomatic versions are supposed to cleanse set theory of its paradoxes. But, this depends on who you ask.

Was there a point to this whole blog. The basic point, as I mentioned briefly above, is that belief in a god or gods is rather silly. So, you could consider this blog as a quasi-proof against the existence of a god or gods based on silliness. Or, just having a little fun.

 

PS – With an infinity of gods who do you actually pray to. I guess it depends on your purpose. If you want rain, pray to one of the multitude of rain gods (say the god of thunderstorms), or for those who believe in a scriptural god, like Christians, pray to that god.

PSS – Sorry for the use of god for a deity. Or, if you wish just substitute goddess for god, and everything said would remain the same.

Thunder. Does he have a god, or is he a god, or just cute.

* I do not believe that determinism makes us puppets. Puppets are just too simple to be a good analogy. For more on how I see determinism in respect to the brain see my blog – Why Are People Afraid of Their Brain?.

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