(Aug 12, 2024 07:27 PM)C C Wrote: https://johnhorgan.org/cross-check/math-god-and-the-problem-of-evil

EXCERPT: Distinguishing math from science, Radulovic proposes an analogy between nature and games like chess. Scientists are trying to discover the basic rules of the game within which we find ourselves.

Mathematicians, in contrast, are trying to discover all logically possible games, whether or not they correspond to our reality. The odds are against any given mathematical invention proving useful to scientists, and yet time and again they do. Radulovic excels at showing how seemingly esoteric, impractical inventions, such as imaginary numbers and non-Euclidian geometry, end up solving problems in physics and other fields.

“It almost seems as if some magic hand guided the ancient mathematicians” toward formulas that would help future scientists. Unlike burning bushes and parting seas, Radulovic says, mathematics is a “real miracle,” and “the book of mathematics is written by the very creator; no matter who or what that is.”

And yet Radulovic, like Wigner and Goldenfeld, implicitly undercuts the theism theory. He notes that mathematics is riddled with pitfalls and paradoxes, like Gödel’s proof about the limits of proof. Is God messing with us? (MORE - missing details)