To: GodGunsGuts
Godels theorems prove that either the universe is infinite, or it is finite and infinity lies outside the universe (as theists maintain). I don't get this. I'm not a mathematician, but I thought Godel's proof referred to formal systems, like rational (and in the event man made) systems of mathematics.
How does a proof that formal systems cannot be complete (generate proofs of all true theorems) say anything about the universe, let alone what's beyond the universe? After all it's possible (is it not?) to have infinities within mathematics, for instance an infinite number of integers, without the universe itself being spatially infinite.
536 posted on
07/02/2007 12:21:10 PM PDT by
Stultis
(I don't worry about the war turning into "Vietnam" in Iraq; I worry about it doing so in Congress.)
To: Stultis
The universe is finite and unbounded.
—What Poincare’s conjecture comes to.
544 posted on
07/02/2007 12:36:07 PM PDT by
RightWhale
(It's Brecht's donkey, not mine)
To: Stultis
Godel proved that no finite system is sufficient in itself. And while Godel’s theorem demonstrates that the finite infers something greater than itself, it is also true that the finite cannot prove the infinite. It must be inferred. Moreover, yet another implication of Godel’s theorem is that faith is ultimately the only possible response to reality. So, in so far as Godel is concerned, it would appear that faith and science are not strictly incompatible.
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