Re: [asa] Goedel's theorem and religion

Don,

I don't claim to be an expert in this field, but purely in my own personal
opinion, I think Godel's theorem is a bit of a red herring as far as
religion is concerned. It applies only to the comparatively narrow field of
symbolic logic, and states that consistent systems of symbolic logic are
necessarily incomplete, in that there will exist formally undecidable
propositions within that system. The kind of formally undecidable
propositions that occur seem to be to do with self-referential statements,
like the equivalent of "THIS STATEMENT IS FALSE". I think Godel constructed
an assertion that effectively said "THIS STATEMENT IS FORMALLY
UNDECIDABLE". Since this is only an existence theorem by construction, I
don't see that it has any general use in defining the limits of knowledge -
only that this kind of self-referential statement is formally undecidable.
There is no proof that statements not of this class are formally
undecidable.

As I understand it, from a brief web-browse, Goedel also constructed some
form of "argument for God" based on the ontological argument, but it appears
that this has nothing to do with the incompleteness theorems.

Iain

On 10/11/06, Don Nield <d.nield@auckland.ac.nz> wrote:
>
> For better or for worse, I have just accepted the job of writing a short
> handbook article on Goedel's theorem in the context of science and
> religion. If anyone in this forum has any expertise in the subject (or
> strong views on the subject!) I would like to hear (privately or
> otherwise) from him or her. I have in front of me Stephen Barr's book
> "Modern Physics and Ancient Faith". Barr discusses the work of John
> Lucas and Roger Penrose. I am also aware that Stanley Jaki has written
> on the subject, and that people like John Polkinghorne mention Goedel
> from time to time. What other books or papers should I be reading?
> Don Nield
>
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