Posted on 08/11/2015 6:03:41 AM PDT by xzins
In a recent ABC News article, journalist David Knight writes that two German scientists have proven logician and mathematician, Kurt Gödel’s, theorem for God’s existence is logically accurate [1].
Knight writes, “The details of the mathematics involved in Gödel's ontological proof are complicated, but in essence the Austrian was arguing that, by definition, God is that for which no greater can be conceived. And while God exists in the understanding of the concept, we could conceive of him as greater if he existed in reality. Therefore, he must exist.
“Even at the time, the argument was not exactly a new one. For centuries, many have tried to use this kind of abstract reasoning to prove the possibility or necessity of the existence of God. But the mathematical model composed by Gödel proposed a proof of the idea. Its theorems and axioms -- assumptions which cannot be proven -- can be expressed as mathematical equations. And that means they can be proven.”
The two computer scientists are Christoph Benzmuller and Bruno Wolzenlogel Paleo.
godel proof godKurt Gödel was an Austrian-American mathematician, philosopher, and logician. He was born in 1906 in the Czech Republic. He died in Princeton, New Jersey in 1978, having befriended Albert Einstein and other notable scientists. After teaching at Princeton, Gödel was institutionalized, thinking his food was poisoned. Gödel is best known for his work in recursive axiomatic systems and incompleteness. From these systems scientist derived Gödel numbering. Additionally, Gödel was a believer in God and sought various proofs for God’s existence, one of which is the theorem the German scientists have recently verified.
For more information on Gödel I recommend three works that are both enjoyable and fairly approachable: Gödel: A Life of Logic by John Casti and Werner DePauli; A World Without Time: Gödel and Einstein by Palle Yourgrau; and Gödel, Escher, Bach: An Ethernal Golden Braid by Douglas Hofstadter.
Mathematical purity has also been said to be proof of an ordered universe
“the language of God”
I thought that Anselm was the guy who popularized this argument. Am I wrong?
Perhaps the argument, but not the math
Much easier to read, but even with an engineering degree, I need a bit more explanation of the proof.
I like the Ontological argument It is the only one that unbelievers can’t really handle.
I haven’t seen a posting of the German proof yet. If you see it, post it.
Proof that Germans exist?
I think that’s just accepted.
> Mathematical purity has also been said to be proof of an ordered universe
I believe in God but from a devil’s advocate point of view couldn’t the definition of “order” be a man-made construct based on his observations of symmetry thus the “proof “ of an “ordered” universe would be based on a false premise?
^ meant to add “and patterns”
ping
see my post #14.
The ontological argument is invalid, and will always be invalid.
As St. Thomas said: The existence of God is self-evident to God, BUT NOT TO US.
I think it’s remarkable that St. Anselm is famous primarily for an invalid argument for the existence of God, and the monstrous “satisfaction theory.” But I hear he was good to his mother.
Math Induction gets you to a greater being whose full extent is unknowable to us.
I tried to read Hofstader’s book in the early 1980s. It's pretty deep, and I admit I didn't finish it. Reminds me of Hawking's A Brief History of Time in that many people bought it, some people talked about it, but (I suspect) very few people read it all the way through to the end.
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