Re: virus: religion

Sodom (sodom@ma.ultranet.com)
Wed, 15 Apr 1998 11:58:08 -0400


I didnt mean to imply that all mathematics does is describe reality, but if
philosophy describes accurately, it falls into that catagory. I am sure that
much of mathematics is only in the conceptual realm.

Sodom

Eric Boyd wrote:

> Hi,
>
> Sodom <sodom@ma.ultranet.com> wrote:
> > Philosophy that fits reality well is called mathematics.
>
> Again, I disagree. There are many many part of mathematics which simply
> stand out there and bear no apparent relation to the "real world" --
> indeed, there have been many modern mathematicians who have critized modern
> math for exactly this flaw.
>
> (I also got a really good laugh the other day when I learned that for the
> century after Newton "invented" Calculus, the *priests* were laughing at
> the mathematicians becuase here was this wonderful theory of "fluxions",
> which did all these marvolous things, but at the bottom, it all rested on
> faith -- for you see, Calculus *now* rests on the concept of a limit, BUT
> THIS CONCEPT was not found until long after Calculus itself had become
> indespincile in math. In other words, Calculus itself was resting on a
> cloud in the sky -- as you probably know, Calculus is all about finding the
> VALUE of 0/0. So the priests laughed, and pointed out that mathematics
> uses FAITH as well.)
>
> ERiC
>
> And just so you don't think we've changed, and are better now adays,