Kelly asked:

My name is Kelly and I am 15 years old. I am very interested in philosophy and would like to learn
more about it. I don't do very well in basic school subjects because I am always thinking about
philosophical topics. I don't know any of the terms or anything, I just know I have a philosophical
mind. I have been thinking about how everything goes back to infinity, and I don't know what that is
called? I think about how if there is one God, then who made him, and who made him....and so on, it
all comes down to infinite measures. And how we are all so stupid, and we only have the ability to
imagine and think about so much. And I also have this obsession with time, I mean what is it? Does it
even exist or is it a system. I don't think our minds have the capability of even imagining these
answers, but still, the questions are on my mind all the time. I know you're probably thinking, 'What an
idiot' but I really am interested in learning about this stuff, and anything would help. Thank you.

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When I was fifteen my all-consuming passion was chemistry, and all I knew about philosophy was
that it had something to do with 'old men in beards'. But I did think of myself as an atheist (I don't
now) and got into lots of scraps because of that. It was good practice for philosophy.

The traditional ideas of theology provide a good starting point for thinking about metaphysics, which is
what your questions are really about. There is the contrast between the infinitudeof God, the creator,
and the finitudeof his creation, including creatures like ourselves. Then there is the contrast between
the way things appearto finite beings who are dependent on perception as the source of all their
knowledge, and the way things are in reality,or in themselves - or maybe for God.

Time figures prominently in both kinds of questions. You are right that we oscillate between the idea
of a time stretching endlessly into the past and endlessly into the future, and the idea of a universe
that came into existence at some time in the past, and will cease to exist at some time in the future.
Things necessarily appear to us as occupying a position in space and time, yet in reality, from God's
eternal standpoint, time is like the pages in a book or the tracks on a CD.

One of the philosophers who thought most deeply about these issues was Immanuel Kant, in his
book The Critique of Pure Reason('Kritik der Reinen Vernuft'), first published in 1781. Although it is
one of the most difficult philosophy books you're ever likely to see, it won't hurt you just to pick it up.
Have a look at the Preface and Introduction. Check out the index and list of contents. See what you
can learn about Kant from doing a bit of detective work.

Kant argued that we can have no knowledge of 'things in themselves', and that there is no way to
prove the existence of God. Gathering knowledge is an unending process, so in that sense space and
time have no finite boundaries. But the infinity is potential, not actual. The concept of the universe as
a totality is one that kant thinks is too big for our minds to grasp. He tried to show that there were
limits to what human beings can discover through the use of reason. His purpose, he said, was to
deny the possibility of rational knowledge - about God, about the way things are in themselves - to
make room for faith.

There are lots of good introductions to philosophy. (Some are listed in the Pathways Introductory
Book List on the Pathways web site.) It is important, though, if you don't want to kill your enthusiasm
for philosophy, to look at some original texts, like Plato, Berkeley, Descartes, Russell, Wittgenstein.
Better to get a taste for the real thing than rely on watered-down versions.

Thank you for sharing your questions with me. I hope that your philosophical journey proves to be a
joyful one.

Geoffrey Klempner