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The Forum > Article Comments > After millennia of silence, God is now speaking to us > Comments

After millennia of silence, God is now speaking to us : Comments

By Brian Holden, published 14/12/2011

Because of our ability to describe the physical world mathematically, you can take an object from your pocket and speak to your daughter in London as if she was next to you.

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Skeptic:

#If a God exists, he can last only as long as Man lasts, which cannot be another 10.000 years #.

Is this a "Bogan" view? Me thinks!
Posted by diver dan, Wednesday, 14 December 2011 8:51:19 AM
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Pericles,
I do not think the two sentences you quote contradict each other. As I understand it, Brian is apparently trying to say that mathematics (or science for that matter) is irrelevant to whether or not you accept the tenets (narrative models of the supernatural) of this or that established religion, but it can make you more open to what is known as deism (or “Einstein’s God”).

Pure mathematics teaches you to think rationally, follow the rules of logic, avoid non-sequiturs etc, and thus to better know what follows, and what does not, from your initial world-view presuppositions, be they theist or atheist or what. There are certainly mathematicians who are theists, or deists, as well as those who are atheists or agnostics. I do not think the proportions are very different from those for (natural) scientists.

“As far as the laws of mathematics refer to reality, they are not certain; as far as they are certain, they do not refer to reality” (Einstein).

Perhaps one could similarly say:

“As far as religious symbols (and norms) refer to reality (and rules that can be enforced) they are not certain; as far as they are certain they do not refer to observable reality (and rules that can be enforced).”
Posted by George, Wednesday, 14 December 2011 8:59:38 AM
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Islam incorporates "sacred geometry" into its concepts and art forms as a representation of the "language of the universe".....a representation of the concept of God and creation.

http://www.patterninislamicart.com/

...and looky here - something called quasicrystals.....

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2011-10-05/atomic-mosaic-wins-chemistry-nobel/3310930
Posted by Poirot, Wednesday, 14 December 2011 9:05:07 AM
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"After millennia of silence, God is now speaking to us"

For the postulation of your article to be correct and for the title to be accurate, the only conclusion is that there's been no mathematics for thousands of years.

"They arrived at conclusions by a stepwise rigorous method from first principles."

If it was good enough for 'them', why isn't it good enough for you? Or have I missed something?
Posted by WmTrevor, Wednesday, 14 December 2011 9:10:05 AM
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diver dan:

There are as many ideas of god as there are men.

The god in the imagination of one person cannot be equal to that of another even if of the same body of religion, be it theistic or non theistic.

When a man is extinct, his god is extinct. When all men are gone, all gods are gone.

It would be “bogan” to say “when all men are gone, women still remain”.
Posted by skeptic, Wednesday, 14 December 2011 10:18:27 AM
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Johm Craig.
Have you considered that if there were no universal laws, what we would have is chaos. Even the most religous believe that God restored order out of chaos.

David
Posted by VK3AUU, Wednesday, 14 December 2011 10:41:40 AM
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