From: Alexanian, Moorad (alexanian@uncw.edu)
Date: Thu Sep 04 2003 - 15:17:18 EDT
Richard,
I share your Christian faith just as you stated it. The question is, if
we were to ask Christ, the Creator of all that is, is the continuum real
or something we think of to describe nature? I think the answer may be
that given by Kronecker, "I invented the integers and you guys play
around with the continuum."
Moorad
-----Original Message-----
From: asa-owner@lists.calvin.edu [mailto:asa-owner@lists.calvin.edu] On
Behalf Of richard@biblewheel.com
Sent: Thursday, September 04, 2003 2:43 PM
To: asa@calvin.edu
Subject: RE: The Unreasonable Effectiveness of Traditional Christian
Hermeneutics
Moorad wrote:
>Richard, the exact equations are human
>constructs----both in the mathematics
>used and the physical model developed.
>---never mind the approximations to them.
>The creative power of man is God granted
>and there is an infusion of truth in what man
>creates. God sustains the creation and the
>shadow of that are our laws of nature.
This is a debatable point. While it is true that humans "constructed"
the
mathematics and the physical model in the natural sense that such are
the
products of human efforts, it could simultaneously be true that these
"constructions" are actually *discoveries* of the patterns God used in
the
design of the Universe.
But I am not dogmatic on this point. Your idea that the equations are
"shadows" of patterns from an ultimate reality that is not described by
our
mathematics seems like it could be true. But this also seems to be a
mute
point since either situation would yield the same results, namely that
our
"constructions" are actually discoveries of the "way things really are"
on
some level, whether ultimate or shadow.
Also, I am and will remain eternally enamoured with the Christian
revelation
of the Logos "through whom all things came to be." This informs my
reasoning
here. It is He, the Logos, "in whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom
and
knowledge," that created the Universe. I have every reason to see the
comprehensibility and discoverability of Natural Laws as a natural
consequence of the desires, character, and purposes of their Author.
This is
one of the great powers and glories of the Christian revelation - it
opens
the doors of Heaven and makes the comprehensibility of the universe
comprehensible.
In the everlasting Joy of knowing Christ my Saviour,
Richard
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