How Big is Heaven?

[sdi]

Since the material world is a subset of the ætherial world (e.g. you can only realize a fraction of the ideas you have), and the ætherial world is a subset of the empyrean world (e.g. you can only think the things that are available to be thought), heaven is much, much bigger than the earth.

Extending this up and down the Neoplatonic cosmos, I guess it'd look like this?

The One

infinite

The Ideal

finite but unbounded (e.g. "grows" faster than anyone could ever hope to explore, so it might as well be infinite)

The World

finite and bounded, but vast

The Empyrean

big

The Ætherial

middle-sized

The Material

small

The Submaterial (e.g. realized formal systems, computers, "game worlds")

tiny

Comments

[boccaderlupo]

Kind of off topic here, but I find "set" arguments to be extremely compelling when it comes to countering materialism. I've been trying to find the source for some time, but I remember an argument (Tegmark, or Dawkins, maybe?) to the effect that, given the size of the (material) universe, anything that created it would have to be larger than it (physically, of course...the materialists only admit physical things, generally).

But, turning this on its head...if we assume that the material is "downstream" from the immaterial planes, then of course the immaterial universe is larger than the merely physical.

And considering mathematics (and math ain't my strong suit): What is more likely, that a finite set (the set of things instantiated in the material universe) would give rise (through emergence) to a set of infinite things (the maths + all abstractions + all subjective experience etc.)? Or that an infinite set (the maths 2+ all abstractions + subjective notions + all spiritual planes) given rise to a finite set (the set of all physical phenomena, the cosmos, which is admittedly very large)?

Maybe I'm not explaining it well, but...

[sdi]

No, I think I follow what you're getting at. It reminds me of something, but I can't quite put my finger on what it is... I'll mention it if I can recollect.