Tuesday, December 4, 2007

Mathematicians In Search of Infinity

Someday I will write the book entitled "The Best and Worst Cases for God." The worst case is well known: The Problem of Evil, and is a particular obsession of this blog.

The best case is less known, I think, and is to be found rolling somewhere around in this marvelous documentary from the BBC entitled "Dangerous Knowledge."

The mysterious power of mathematics, which so fascinated Plato and contributed to his Theory of the Forms, is also one of my fascinations.

I don't claim to have the analytical and logical power of a mathematician. One of the great regrets of my life is that I did not pay enough attention in my high school's experimental "Unified Mathematics" course, despite the solicitous concern for my success there by Sister Higgins. (I was too interested in analyzing the various properties of 1653 girls in my new high school.)

But like many philosophers and mathematicians, I am compelled to ask "Why the Unreasonable Effectiveness of Mathematics?" (Kurt Godel is a particular fascination. What are the implications of his famous Theorem?)

I have found my way back to mathematics somehow. I hope that somewhere Sister Higgins is smiling.

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