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To: conservonator
Observable, but not provable, at least not mathematically

Indeterminable, not unprovable. No one doubts pi.

It used to bother me that all our knowledge and I mean all human knowledge, is an approximation to truth and fact

Why?

We can observation and interpret and approximate with remarkable accuracy but every aspect of our live is lived with some gap of the undefined or unknown

I think that is a sweeping generalization. There is no gap in our knowledge that the earth is round, that the sun doesn't go around us but we around the sun, etc. There are a lot of things we know for sure. The "gap" has to do with the degree to which we know things.

Most humans seme to have difficulty accepting that perhaps they are not capable of knowing everything; some even believe they are entitled to knowing everything.

This gap is closed with what theologians call faith and scientists call theory

Not really closed. Theory and faith are very much open-ended, by definition; but some mistakenly take them as close-ended.

It's entertaining to contemplate while fishing or smoking a nice cigar.

All of which is the benefits of the artificial world we created that makes us comfortable enough to engage in such trivia. We live in a bubble called the civilized world, which has no bearing to the world around us.

77 posted on 04/12/2010 3:14:19 PM PDT by kosta50 (The world is the way it is even if YOU don't understand it)
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To: kosta50
No one doubts pi.

You should. It's the ratio of circumference to diameter of a circle. And the Pythorean Theorem is the ratio of sides in a right triangle.

There's no perfect right triangle, and no perfect circle.

Yet you doubt one ratio and not the other. Why?

82 posted on 04/12/2010 5:23:31 PM PDT by D-fendr (Deus non alligatur sacramentis sed nos alligamur.)
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To: conservonator

Sorry, I should have included you in the reply to your post above.


83 posted on 04/12/2010 6:47:23 PM PDT by D-fendr (Deus non alligatur sacramentis sed nos alligamur.)
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To: kosta50
not unprovable. No one doubts pi.

of course it's unprovable, no one knows what the precise number is, we have an approximation, the fact that no one doubts Pi is a testament to the ultimate triumph of faith over fact.

Why?

I used to be a control freak

I think that is a sweeping generalization.

precisely, you think, but you can not know. The earth is in fact, not "round it's slightly oval, we think we understand celestial mechanics, but I'll wager that the suns relative motion to the earth is far from stationary. All of our knowledge is based on observation and is dependent to some extent on our senses. Every tool, every instrument we use is at some point simply a means of delivering some event or object to us in a more easily observed or manner. The size of the gap does not matter, what matters is that there is a gap.

Not really closed. Theory and faith are very much open-ended, by definition; but some mistakenly take them as close-ended.

Poor choice of words on my part, bridged would have been a better choice.

We live in a bubble called the civilized world, which has no bearing to the world around us.

Tell that to the AGW acolytes. What is the real world?

89 posted on 04/13/2010 8:38:04 AM PDT by conservonator (Should be working instead of lurking!)
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