Re: [asa] Goedel's theorem and religion

Thank you, Ian. Another ASA memeber has contacted me privately, making a
similar comment, and I was already approaching the topic with caution.
On the other hand, when a person as experienced as John Polkinghorne
thinks that Goedel's theorem has some relevance outside formal
mathematical logic then I have to take that seriously.
Yes, Goedel left behind an unpublished manuscript on a form of the
ontological argument, separate from incompleteness theorems. It is
unclear whether his failure to publish this was due to his
dissatisfaction about the strength of his argument or whether Goedel,
who was an intensely private person, just wished to keep out of
controversy about religion.
Don

Iain Strachan wrote:

> 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
> <mailto: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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>
>
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Received on Thu Oct 12 18:11:59 2006