A Koan

Some time in the 20th century, a Shaolin master died in his bed somewhere in southern China. After he died, he went to the other world and was told to wait in line by some angels. He waited, waited, and waited. After some long hours, God invited him to a chamber and spoke to him:

“Shaolin master! I am the God written in the Old and New Testaments, all powerful and all knowing! I decide who goes to heaven and who does not. You have spent all your life worshipping false Gods, why should I let you into the heaven? Will you repent? NOW SPEAK!”

Shaolin master, calm and composed, looked at God and said, “You said you were all knowing, I have a question to you, God. I want to know if the following sentence is true or not: You will never tell me that this sentence I am telling you right now is true.”

“So, what do you think, God, what is the answer?”

God thought about this question for a while and said to himself, “Goddamnit! I have no idea!!! I was asked if I could create a rock I was not able to lift before, but I had a perfectly logical explanation for that. But this question, who the hell knows? If I say that the sentence is false, then the sentence will actually be true since I will not have told him that the sentence was true. But if I say the sentence is true, the sentence itself becomes false since I told him that the sentence is true; thus I will be wrong by saying the sentence was true.”

God thought about this question for hours and hours, but could not come up with an answer. He was perplexed, indeed. At last, he spoke upon the Shaolin master:

“I give up! I do not know what the answer is, I cannot say it is true, and yet I cannot say it is false. What is the answer?”

Shaolin master said, “The sentence is true, but you will never be able to reach that answer.”

God said, “But, I don’t understand. What does this all mean?”

The master stood still, and slowly gazed upon God. He said, “Godel and God are ONE.”

Upon hearing this, God was enlightened. He let the Shaolin master into the heaven, and they never spoke again.