Questions of Truth and Quantum Theory (Religion)

by George Jelliss , Crewe, Friday, March 06, 2009, 19:04 (5739 days ago) @ David Turell

David Turell comments that "mathematics seems to have a predetermined existence of its own". This is correct, it does, it is a matter of logical necessity. But this does not mean we need a God to have invented it. Any Gods or super-aliens that might exist are necessarily governed by the laws of logic and mathematics. - None of this takes away from the wonder we, even atheists, can experience when we contemplate the strangeness of the quantum world, or the chemistry of cells, or, say, the Riemann hypothesis in mathematics. - The problem with "understanding" quantum theory or relativity is that all the measurements are so much smaller or larger than in our familiar middle-scale of existence. We try to explain quantum events in terms of particles (like tiny billiard balls) and waves (like those we see in water), but these concepts are inadequate; sometimes one picture works, sometimes another, sometimes none. - David continues: "The whole of our reality looks magical. Perhaps there is magic underlying the entirety of what we experience." - Again, I agree that there is much in our understanding of the world that is "magical". But that doesn't mean there is some mystical force called "Magic" that is responsible for it. One of my own interests has been in "magic knight's tours of the chessboard", where "magic" is used in a technical sense to mean that they add up to the same total in ranks and files (and sometimes diagonally). What is "magic" in the other sense (i.e. remarkable) about these is that they exist at all, since they combine two very stringent conditions. Like Fermat's Last Theorem, another magical discovery, they are outcomes of mathematical necessity. - In case someone says I am worshipping "mathematical necessity" in place of a God, I don't think this is so. The mathematician Erdos used to talk about the "Supreme Fascist" who knows all mathematical theorems, but keeps them secret, presumably to give mathematicians something to do. But I prefer to think that what is unknown to us is unknown, not known by some great Knowall.

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GPJ