As astrophysicist Christian Magnan points out, although observing the stars may suggest the idea of infinity, it is not a physical concept but a mathematical one, created to simplify calculations. The mathematician and philosopher al-Kindi rejected the notion of infinity because he found it paradoxical that infinity was not unique:
> "The world is finite, for suppose that the world were infinite and that we removed a finite part from it. The remainder would then be either finite or infinite. In the first case, if we restored the finite part that had been removed, it would remain finite, yet it would become equal to what it was originally; the finite would therefore equal the infinite. If the remainder were infinite, what would happen if we restored the part that had been removed? It could not become greater than it was originally, for we would then have an infinity greater than infinity; nor could it remain unchanged, since a part had been added to it. Assuming an infinite world leads to contradictions and is therefore impossible."
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