The inability many people today who view themselves as being "scientific" as well as math fans (left-brain prisoners) have in comprehending that .999 isn't the same as 1, is completely connected to their inability to grasp eternity and infinity. Their minds have basically been programmed to believe eternity and infinity are impossibilites. Over the course of the last 10 or so centuries of indoctrination into an alien world-view, they've "learned" to be unable to comprehend it.

This difficulty they have with eternity/infinity shows up in many different fields, from math to astrophysics.

This mental handicap is inherited directly from the (((Abrahamic))) religions, more specifically Christinsanity for us Westernerns. In it's origin, the inability to understand infinity and eternity is 100% Judaic in thought/philosophy. In contrast, the non-Jewish man; the Pagan man, at least the /European/ Pagan man, never had any problem with infinity and eternity. Christinsanity introduced into the minds of people the idea of life and the world/universe being linear, starting from point A and ending with a point B, whereas in the Native European world-view everything is infinite, a circle.

That's why many people today can't understand that .999 repeating forever will never reach 1 -- they refuse to accept the idea of an infinite/eternal repetition. Saying "it's 1" is their method of escaping from the uncomfortable (and to them insurmountable) challenge which the concept of infinity/eternity is to thier Judaically-induced mental disease.