alright, this terms gets thrown around a ton when it comes to the afterlife the god, so i want to hear what you all have to say. don't look on wikipedia or the dictionary, just tell me what you think the word infinity means.

are you asking what we think "eternal" means?

no, i am asking about the word infinity. it gets used a lot and i think people just used it in tremendously wrong ways so i'm curious what people seem to think it means

infinite = a series of (things, events, etc.) that never ends

I feel like this is a trick question and I'm about to look dumb, but oh well!

Infinity = never ending.

In almost every context I can think of, I would prefer to use the adjective 'infinite' rather than the noun 'infinity'. People talk about infinity as if it's a number, but it isn't a number. It makes sense to consider the limit of a mathematical expression as the variable x approaches infinity, but it doesn't makes sense to say x equals infinity. Because x is taken to represent a number, and infinity is not a number.

A statement such as "Time is infinite" could mean at least two things. It could mean that time has no beginning and no end, in the same way that the set of integers has no smallest or largest element (note that we're including both positive and negative integers). This leaves open the possibility that time proceeds in discrete clicks, where there is a smallest unit of time that is indivisible. For each instant in time, there is a previous instant and a next instant. In this discrete version of time, the number of instants between any two particular instants is always finite.

The second way time could be infinite is that it could be infinitely divisible as opposed to discrete. This is the infinity of the continuum - there are infinitely many instants between any two distinct instants of time. If time is infinite in this regard, there are infinitely many instants of time in every second.

Infinity is also a manufacturer of audio equipment, and if you spell it Infiniti it's an automobile company.

I can't speak for others, but I interchange this word with "eternal." Perhaps this might be an error. In context of God it's used to describe any property of God, or more generally God Himself.

To me it means the cardinality of any set which is equal to or greater than the cardinality of the set of natural numbers. Shouldn't this be in SMP?

It is the cueword for not reading that RGT post any longer.

Infinity = for every number there is always another number of greater or lesser value.

Infinity = loads and loads and loads squared and then some.

this is correct and what i think everyone should think, but the point i am trying to make is that in the short while i've actually been reading this forum i see the terms infinity and infinite come up on a lot of occasions and it is pretty rarely used in a way that has any concrete meaning. i am just confused what people mean by "god is infinite" or "the rewards of heaven are infinite". it seems like in those terms the the word loses all meaning and i think it is a subtle point that gets looked over. so i will rephrase to ask, "what do religious people mean when they use the word 'infinite'?"

I think you will find that the precise mathematical definition of "infinity" is not the only accepted use of the word. In religio-speak it usually interchangeable with either "eternal" and/or "without limit".

"god is infinite": Too vague to make any sense of it. Could mean anything. Maybe god is infinitely tall or has infinite mass or has existed forever and always will exist, but just saying "god is infinite" doesn't make any of this clear.

"the rewards of heaven are infinite": I think this is at least meaningful. If you take it from an economics perspective and as a rational decision maker, you're trying to maximize utility, you would choose heaven over anything that gave you merely a finite reward. If the reward of a chocolate sundae was worth 10 units of utility to you (using your own personal metric for utility), and the reward of an all expenses paid two week vacation in Hawaii was worth 100,000 units of utility, you wouldn't seek out those rewards in a way that sacrificed your ability to get into heaven. Because however great any finite reward might be, heaven offers a greater reward (assuming you believe in heaven, and that you think you have a chance of getting in).

This thread has me wondering, what is the internal rate of return in heaven and hell?

From my understanding it's more of a point-scale system based on deeds. The higher points you earn at death i.e., more noble and pious you are in life, the better the quality of your heaven. In Islam, for example, there are seven levels of both heaven and hell. Apparently, the first level of heaven has all of the pleasures and wonders of this planet times ten. I can't even begin to imagine the 7th level.

So the best play for heaven is to go for the high score when the angel of death comes to tap you on the shoulder.