The Finite & the Infinite - Akira the Don

Be careful where you aim at

Be careful where you aim at

When I started working on this problem

Or I guess when it start working on me was probably really in the mid 80s

I found myself suffering from two things, one was a very lengthy sequence of

nightmares of nuclear destruction

They were very affective dreams

And associated with that was a sense of amazement that the dream that was that

awful could reflect a reality that could be that awful

And additional amazement at the fact that despite the production of tens and

thousands of weapons of unimaginable destruction

That people could go about their day-to-day lives without acting as if anything

fundamental, whatsoever had changed

I’ve never really been able to figure out why that disturb me so much when it

seemed to not disturb most of the people I knew

It doesn’t really matter

Spent my whole life trying to understand what evil was and more importantly,

what might be done about it

Human existence consists of the confrontation between

The finite and the infinite, the finite and the infinite

Human existence consists of the confrontation between

The finite and the infinite, the finite and the infinite

Human existence consists of the confrontation between

The finite and the infinite, the finite and the infinite

Human existence consists of the confrontation between

The finite and the infinite, the finite and the infinite

Before you can dare to talk about something like evil

You should do some thinking about what it is that you’re talking about

And I don’t think you can talk about it at all

Until you distinguish it from tragedy

The nature of human being is such that

It consists of a confrontation with the bounded finite, with the unbounded

infinite

That those are the bare facts of the matter

The world of experience as it presents itself to us is literally and not

metaphorically

Complex beyond our capacity to understand

And that means people deal in a real sense on an ongoing basis with the infinite

That fact is the reason why religious experience is essentially endemic to

mankind

It’s a healing universal, and it’s not because people believe

Human existence consists of the confrontation between

The finite and the infinite, the finite and the infinite

Human existence consists of the confrontation between

The finite and the infinite, the finite and the infinite

Human existence consists of the confrontation between

The finite and the infinite, the finite and the infinite

Human existence consists of the confrontation between

The finite and the infinite, the finite and the infinite

And religious systems merely take that into account

Now our finitude in the face of the infinite

Has some inevitable consequences

Those consequences are essentially the existential conditions of life

The finite is always overwhelmed by the infinite

It has to be, because it can’t encapsulate it

So what that means is

Suffering is central to the nature of human existence