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Re: [HM] mathematics and religion/faith
Posted:
Apr 14, 2004 6:21 PM
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Luigi:
My work called _Marriage and Divorce of Astronomy and Astrology:
A History of Astral Prediction from Antiquity to Newton_ contains
some material relevant to your questions. It can be found on my
website .
Let me ask you some questions about your proposed search:
(1) What does "carsic" mean, as you use it? Does it have anything to
do with "carsic rock", i.e. formations created by erosion of limestone,
with pinnacles and the like?
(2) Would you elaborate on what you consider to be covered by the term
"religion". For example, my work has a chapter which considers early
Christianity in connection with mathematics (and astronomy), but it
also has reference in other places to numerous other religions,
including some in Asia, Africa and pre-Columbian America, stretching
back to Babylonia, ancient Egypt, etc., up to the time of Newton.
(3) Would you elaborate on the connection you see between the topics
you are interested in, and Platonism? For example, how do you take
the existential status of Platonic Ideas to be related or comparable
to existential status of a deity or deities? Do you have in mind the
connection between the reality or nominality of infinite and
infinitesimal quantities?
(4) You write: "It seems that a sharp distinction prevails so
that faith can be only a personal affair and religion's concerns are
only about explicit natural themes (origin of life, of universe, nature
of mind, etc.)" Surely themes such as origin of life, of universe, and
nature of mind, are concerns not only of religions, but of relevant
sciences? Also, faith is not only a personal affair for many, but also
a communal one? And also a political one?
Gordon Fisher gfisher@shentel.net
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