Indeed. Eddington's comment reminds me of something that the great American psychologist and philosopher William James said to the great British mathematician and philosopher, Bertrand Russell (in a letter dated October 4, 1908):
My dying words to you are, "Say good-by to mathematical logic if you wish to preserve your relations with concrete realities!"Concrete realities include such things as redness, love, fear, faith, etc., etc. — all of which are wholly beyond the methods and scope of science, and which really can't be modeled mathematically. Or so it seems to me.
I'm still working through your intriguing article, djf. And I'm still not sure what conclusions, if any, you meant to draw — but then I'm a little slow on the up-take sometimes. :^)
I'll write again later.
Thank you so very much for your fascinating "Pt. 2" essay/post!
For once, I find myself in disagreement with one of your points":
For my spatial analysis software for archaeologists, I created an algorithm that directly converted the absorption color values from the Munsell soil color charts to RGB illumination for display on a calibrated monitor.
Creating a numerical formula to generate any degree of "redness" you want is a trivial exercise. All that is required is agreement on a single wavelength that constitutes "red".
For example, the hexadecimal value, "#FF0000", produces supposedly "pure" red when rendered by FR's HTML interpreter, whereas "#CC0000" produces a "pure" red in a darker shade, "#EE4900" produces a red with an orange cast, and "#DD0055" produces a red with a bluish cast.
"Redness", can, indeed, be modeled mathematically. So, I would exclude "redness" from your
"Concrete realities include such things as redness, love, fear, faith, etc., etc. — all of which are wholly beyond the methods and scope of science, and which really can't be modeled mathematically."
list. Of course, I agree with the others... ;-)
Christianity has much competition from other beliefs. Atheism is a belief, as is scientism, communism, and Islam. Agnosticism is not an enemy because it is the suspension of belief, but agnostics lean more toward scientism than Christianity. Like doubting Thomas, they need something they can see before they can believe.
Evolutionists believe in scientism although the Bible explains reality better. Why? Because to them the Bible ain’t science! Their belief is scientism and it is in competition with Christianity. If the scientific method cannot be employed or it can’t be predicted by quantum mathematics, then it is questionable at best and most likely false. That is their belief. That is who they are.
To borrow a liberal phrase, why can’t we all just get along? Accept the fact that the energy behind everything, Einstein’s unifying force, is God and then let the scientists satisfy themselves with discovering what he did it. They can never understand how, only what.
Science can’t explain the abstracts that give meaning to existence. The Bible can. Science can’t even explain existence other than to accept that “it is” and then attempt to explain the mechanics, chemistry, etc., of that which exists. If science can accept existence, a leap in faith from the very beginning, why can’t they accept the Bible’s description of the beginning and of man’s importance to God in His creation?
I gonna tell you why! Competing world views become so engrained, so personal, that the destruction of a world view destroys the essence of those who hold it. It threatens their very existence. Hegel and his Dialectical Materialism, on which Marx and Engels based their philosophy, must reject Christianity in order to be true. So does Islam. So does scientism. So does atheism. To those who hold those views they are central to their lives.
Most of us don’t hold any of those world views to the extent I am describing. We just go along to get along. Yet, once a view gets broad acceptance in a society it gets incorporated into our basics belief about reality. It becomes us. Christian principles get incorporated into the everyday life and the laws and mores of a Christian society whether one is a Christian or not. The same with the others.
An interesting point in all this is that Christianity is rather passive. It depends on a sincere desire of a person to know about Jesus and the Trinity before God reveals Himself to them through Grace. Once that is granted, then Love, the Truth, the Light appear and the real world is revealed. That cannot be imposed by some firebrand preacher or massive movement. It has to be personally sought. Yet, once achieved, it destroys all the other beliefs. Salvation is a personal thing. It is not a collective thing like the others.
Evolution? Who cares? Big Bang? Who cares? It is all God’s creation. Is that begging the question? Who cares? It is still the simplest and most reasonable explanation, and look at all the fringe benefits! Joy, happiness, peace, a feeling of self worth and many more.
Let the scientists busy themselves with uncovering the details of God’s magic. Many worthwhile things have come from that with many more still to come.
Let the philosophers ponder. They enjoy it and occasionally great societies grow from their ideas, but only those ideas based on the principles explained in the Bible. I am not saying that all successful societies were based on the Bible but rather on the principles expressed in the Bible.