In a mathematical sense something is continuous if it can be infinitely divided - that is, if you keep looking at smaller and smaller parts of it, you never reach a point where you have found the absolute smallest piece. Discrete is the opposite; there's a 'smallest' unit.
The easiest examples in a mathematical sense is the real numbers, which are all numbers including decimals, being continuous, and the natural numbers, which are the numbers 1, 2, 3 etc with no decimal part or fraction. These are discrete. In the real numbers there is no smallest part - you can always move the decimal over, always cut any number in half. With the natural numbers there is a 'unit part' - nothing is smaller than 1.
Jesus made mentions the 'least of these' with reference to believers and also with reference to the law - from that, because a least exists, it makes sense to me that us sheep are discrete and that the law of the covenant is discrete. But what is God? Is there such a thing as a smallest unit, like an atom, of God? Can He be divided at all lol.
Current understanding of the universe is that physical matter is discrete - it comes in packets ((quanta which n Latin, from which we get 'quantum theory')). We used to think stuff was made of atoms, that these are the smallest possible 'things' that everything is made of. Then it was electrons and protons. Then it was quarks. These days it's maybe something called strings. We don't really know.
I asked about time - is time discrete? Does it have a smallest unit? Is there some level, say, a billionth of a second, where anything less, like a 2 billionth of a second does not exist?
I dont think we know.
What about grace? Does grace come in packets or can you have any possible portion of it? Or faith? Can one count faith by some kind of faith unit, where there is no such thing as an half faith unit?
Probably meaningless questions.
I think you've actually raised many different questions across different categories.
And things in different categories cannot be "measured" against each other.
We need to think of different categories in different ways, which is both appropriate and logical.
It is generally understood, in theology, that God is not comprised of parts.
I think we can easily make some logical proofs for this.
In fact, if we were doing apologetics work with an atheist, we would NEED to show proofs for this, because if God were shown to be made of parts, that would undermine many of the various attributes which actually make him divine.
In essence, if God were made of parts, that would create a logical "snowball" effect that would eventually divest him of all divinity.
God cannot be made of parts and still be God... it is very much an either/or proposition.
Regarding grace, we're again dealing with a different category, something completely different from that found in the physical realm.
I can't see there is any reason to even discuss grace in terms of "quantity."
I can't see that's relevant to anything at all.
But if it is, we'd have to start with the fact it is in a different category, and therefore there is no reason for mathematical measurements to apply.
Mathematics were devised, either by man or by God, to represent and quantify elements in the physical universe.
Even in purely theoretical math, it still has the underlying purpose of engaging with the physical universe, in some way.
If we weren't talking about the physical universe, we wouldn't be talking about math - if there were no space or time, there would be nothing to measure, and no physics or cosmology to be concerned with.
When we move beyond the physical universe, math becomes both impotent and irrelevant... it simply has nothing to do with anything beyond the physical.
We cannot take a system for measuring the physical, and use it to measure the metaphysical.
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