Palo Alto Institute for Advanced Study

        2007-12-18

The Good Shepherd’s Paradox

A New Paradox of Infinity

In Set Theory

(cont.)

The Man of the Cloth’s Paradox

The smile of our Man of the Cloth changed. From a smile of mere victory it softened into a smile of true humility... well, not really, but it sounds good. He finally spoke.

“This is more than an Earthly mathematical paradox! It has inspired me in my faith to see yet another example of the infinite mercy of our Lord, The Good Shepherd. You see, those golf balls and coins are really sheep, and, as the Good Shepherd tends His flock, not even one sheep — not even an absolute ‘0’ of a sheep — can be truly lost in the wilderness, not even in an infinity — not even in an absolute infinity — of other sheep, or other...” he hesitated.

“Wee small glasses?!” offered Willie.

“Slots?!”

“Shepherds?!” offered the Mathematician, finally rousing himself to the occasion.

“In any case, because this is a truly divinely inspired and divinely inspiring paradox, I would like to rename this paradox as...

“The Man of the Cloth’s Paradox!”

but just then...

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Last modified: 12/18/07