On Fri, Jan 16, 2015 at 2:44 PM, Bruno Marchal <[email protected]> wrote:
> Take my definition of God in the Plotinus paper. That is God = the set of > Gödel numbers of the true (in the standard model) sentences of arithmetic. > So since according to you it was Christianity who invented the idea that God was a intelligent conscious being I guess all those statues that the Egyptians and Babylonians carved were of the set of Godel numbers that were sentences of arithmetic. It must be tricky making a statue of Godel numbers, but somehow they pulled it off. > Evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins has said that "theology is not a >> field of inquiry, it is little more than erudite noisemaking". >> > > > You don't cite the context, > OK, when Dawkins said that he also said "theology should not be taught or have a department at Oxford where I teach". Thomas Jefferson would have agreed with him, he founded the University of Virginia and insisted that "a professorship of theology should have no place in our institution". > > and I am not sure which theologians he has in mind. > I think he was referring to the sort of theologians that breathe. >> Cosmologist Lawrence Krauss also has something interesting to say about >> theologians and theology: >> "In regards to theology not being a real subject, I put this challenge >> out to all theologians. Name me one piece of knowledge theology has >> contributed to human society in the last 500 years. When I speak to >> theologians, they always seem to answer “well, what do you mean by >> knowledge?”, but when I talk to chemists, physicists and medical doctors, >> they give me concrete facts straight away not this epistemological stuff." >> > > >Which theology? > What a flabby gutless mealymouthed reply, if it's not "what do you mean by knowledge?" its "Which theology?"! Nobody would ask for such a ridiculous "clarification" unless they had nothing better to respond with. If you asked a astronomer to name one piece of knowledge astronomy has contributed to human society in the last 500 years he'd just tell you and would have no need to resort to these silly evasions; he'd name something, lots and lots of things actually. > What about step 4? > What about the blunders in step 3? John K Clark -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Everything List" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/everything-list. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
