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Holy Logic: Computer Scientists 'Prove' God Exists
Spiegel Online ^
| 10/22/2013
| David Knight
Posted on 10/24/2013 5:12:05 PM PDT by Alex Murphy
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When Gödel died in 1978, he left behind a tantalizing theory based on principles of modal logic -- that a higher being must exist. 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.
That is where Christoph Benzmüller of Berlin's Free University and his colleague, Bruno Woltzenlogel Paleo of the Technical University in Vienna, come in. Using an ordinary MacBook computer, they have shown that Gödel's proof was correct -- at least on a mathematical level -- by way of higher modal logic. Their initial submission on the arXiv.org research article server is called "Formalization, Mechanization and Automation of Gödel's Proof of God's Existence."
To: Alex Murphy
2
posted on
10/24/2013 5:16:21 PM PDT
by
GrandJediMasterYoda
(What do we want? Time travel. When do we want it? It's irrelevant.)
To: Alex Murphy
To: Alex Murphy
A mathematical expression sophisticated enough to be sentient.
4
posted on
10/24/2013 5:32:36 PM PDT
by
Excellence
(All your database are belong to us.)
To: Vince Ferrer
Gödel published his two incompleteness theorems in 1931 when he was 25 years old, one year after finishing his doctorate at the University of Vienna.
***The first incompleteness theorem states that for any self-consistent recursive axiomatic system powerful enough to describe the arithmetic of the natural numbers (for example Peano arithmetic), there are true propositions about the naturals that cannot be proved from the axioms. To prove this theorem, Gödel developed a technique now known as Gödel numbering, which codes formal expressions as natural numbers.
***He also showed that neither the axiom of choice nor the continuum hypothesis can be disproved from the accepted axioms of set theory, assuming these axioms are consistent. The former result opened the door for mathematicians to assume the axiom of choice in their proofs. He also made important contributions to proof theory by clarifying the connections between classical logic, intuitionistic logic, and modal logic.Huh?
To: cloudmountain
6
posted on
10/24/2013 5:37:06 PM PDT
by
smvoice
(HELP! I'm trapped inside this body and I can't get out!)
To: Alex Murphy
‘I refuse to prove that I exist,’ says God, ‘for proof denies faith, and without faith I am nothing.’
‘But,’ says Man, ‘This mathematics proves you exist, and so therefore, by your own arguments, you don’t. QED.’
‘Oh dear,’ says God, ‘I hadn’t thought of that,’ and promptly disappears in a puff of logic.
‘Oh, that was easy,’ says Man, and for an encore goes on to prove that black is white and gets himself killed on the next zebra crossing.
7
posted on
10/24/2013 5:40:09 PM PDT
by
null and void
(I'm betting on an Obama Trifecta: A Nobel Peace Prize, an Impeachment, AND a War Crimes Trial...)
To: Alex Murphy
I take it that this is not a man Obama would hire for his website?
8
posted on
10/24/2013 5:40:13 PM PDT
by
Hardraade
(http://junipersec.wordpress.com/2013/10/04/nicolae-hussein-obama/)
To: smvoice
Ahhhh Bach...One of our species finest!
To: cloudmountain
To: cloudmountain
11
posted on
10/24/2013 6:21:04 PM PDT
by
smvoice
(HELP! I'm trapped inside this body and I can't get out!)
To: Alex Murphy
As someone once said of the ontological proof of God's existence, you can almost see the rabbit being put into the hat. I think Aquinas did a better job with his Five Ways.
12
posted on
10/24/2013 6:24:52 PM PDT
by
JoeFromSidney
( book, RESISTANCE TO TYRANNY, available from Amazon.)
To: Alex Murphy
What software did they use? java? C#? Mathematica? Is there a download I can try at home?
To: GrandJediMasterYoda
14
posted on
10/24/2013 6:39:46 PM PDT
by
tophat9000
(Are we headed to a Cracker Slacker War?)
To: Alex Murphy
Philosophically such proofs cannot be real for a simple reason. Abstracts, such as mathematics, only describe reality; they do not define reality.
You may paint the prettiest, most accurate picture of an apple ever made, but it remains just a picture, not the apple itself.
15
posted on
10/24/2013 7:10:24 PM PDT
by
yefragetuwrabrumuy
(Welfare is the new euphemism for Eugenics.)
To: yefragetuwrabrumuy
well then nothing written - numbers or words - can really describe anything. they just are attempting to define concepts in either a number, or a language term. and yet writers write about the world and scientists use equations to model the world.
16
posted on
10/24/2013 7:19:07 PM PDT
by
Secret Agent Man
(Gone Galt; Not averse to Going Bronson.)
To: Alex Murphy
God exists. Things do not just spontaneously create everything out of nothing, there are no self-creating effects, there is always a cause. Only God fits a self-creating cause. Information and codes prove an intelligence in DNA.
You either know He exists and know Him, you know He exists but don’t know Him, you just don’t know, you don’t care, or you know He exists but wish He didn’t exist.
17
posted on
10/24/2013 7:27:40 PM PDT
by
Secret Agent Man
(Gone Galt; Not averse to Going Bronson.)
To: null and void
18
posted on
10/24/2013 7:30:24 PM PDT
by
MV=PY
(The Magic Question: Who's paying for it?)
To: MV=PY
Thank you I stole it (with minor modifications) from Douglas Adams.
I really miss him.
19
posted on
10/24/2013 7:33:52 PM PDT
by
null and void
(I'm betting on an Obama Trifecta: A Nobel Peace Prize, an Impeachment, AND a War Crimes Trial...)
To: GrandJediMasterYoda
Chancellor sure looks blue and so does that map. Illinois, too, wow.
20
posted on
10/24/2013 7:35:02 PM PDT
by
1010RD
(First, Do No Harm)
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