Posted on 03/11/2006 5:46:39 PM PST by Zender500
Math and theology have had a long and checkered relationship. The Babylonians and Mayans both associated numbers with God. In fact, both societies named their gods with numbers. The Mayans used 13 and the Babylonians used 60. In the Greek world, followers of Pythagoras prayed to the first 4 numbers and thought they were the creator. On the other hand, in the 18th century, the French mathematician Laplace told Napoleon he had no need of God even as a hypothesis, and in 1744, John Wesley confessed: "I am convinced, from many experiments, I could not study either mathematics, arithmetic, or algebra … without being a deist, if not an atheist."
No one knows what Wesley saw in 18th-century mathematics that he feared would lead him away from the God of the Bible, but today, many Christian mathematicians think that numbers point to God. Three numbers in particular suggest evidence for God's existence. They are 1/1010123, 10162, and eði.
Fine-tuning the universe The first recent number that points to God is 1 in 10 to the 10 to the 123. This number comes from astronomy. Oxford professor Roger Penrose discusses it in his book The Large, the Small, and the Human Mind. It derives from a formula by Jacob Beckenstein and Stephen Hawking and describes the chances of our universe being created at random. Penrose spoofs this view by picturing God throwing a dart at all the possible space-time continua and hitting the universe we inhabit. The Beckenstein-Hawking formula is too complicated to discuss here, but another approach to the same problem involves the fine-tuning of the universe and the existence of habitable planets.
The fine-tuning of the universe is shown in the precise strengths of four basic forces. Gravity is the best known of these forces and is the weakest,
(Excerpt) Read more at christianitytoday.com ...
And thanks for all the fish!
Yes, thank you.
42.
Twice 21.
or (7 x 3)2.
Gotta love these threads, most of whose replies are ad hominems or Casey Stengelese non sequiturs.
.
Praise GOD that...
GOD is the Only reality and that...
GOD is LOVE:
MEL's -PASSION- was sparked by -WE WERE SOLDIERS-
http://www.Freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1085111/posts
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A dearth of series replies, to be sure.
And let's give it up for Casey Stengel, Patron Saint of evolution threads:
Eminently reasonable. People just know, intrinsically, that we are not here by accident. Evolutionists' claims that evolution is more than "chance" or "accident" ring hollow. What they believe is that it IS just by chance. They say all there is are the molecules, and we know it's not true. Even with all the best selling books saying that believers in God are nutcases, we'd be crazy to give up our faith just to please them. Hey, here's a good quote from American Spectator a few months back:
Among certain sectors of the media, for example, it is an article of faith that those who believe in God, or advocate principles supporting that belief, are just a mob of Bible-thumping, knuckle-dragging, Scripture-spouting, hellfire and brimstone-preaching, rightwing, gun-toting, bigoted, homophobic, moralistic, paternalistic, polyester-wearing, mascara-smeared, false-eyelashed, SUV-driving, Wal-Mart shopping, big hair, big gut, fat butt, holy-rolling, snake-handling, Limbaugh-listening, Bambi-shooting, trailer-park-dwelling, uneducated, ignorant, backwater, hayseed, hick, inbred, pinhead rubes, mostly from the South, or places no better than the South, who voted for Bush.
That is to say, life is hardly the delicate flower early Evolutionists imagined it to be.
Of all the possible Universes, there are none where life cannot manage to find sustenance ~ and it's just a matter of time where even the worst of all possible states of existence will see life move in and do its thing.
I think you get down to the question of which came first ~ God or life.
I love it -- the best and longest string of adjectives, hypenated or otherwise, I've seen in one sentence.
And you typed/spelled all the adjectives correctly, too, unlike this poster: hypenated = hyphenated.<<
I like hypenated, it is descriptive and funny at the same time. You should copyright it.
LOL
DK
LOL!!
But in all seriousness..most of us Conservatives have a bit more class than to shop at Wal-Mart :)
That may be true (never been inside one), but it's also true, let's admit it, that we like to shoot Bambi!
Bambi doesn't have a chance.
hmmm... some interesting stuff. FYI, you might find this interesting:
http://www.neoperspectives.com/theoryofgod.htm
Just a reminder, 04/01/06 is "National Athiest Day"
Psalm 53:1
How many liberals can whine on the head of a pin?
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