IX
Theological
Blaise Pascal (1623 - 1662) Teaching of the three orders:
Body
Mind
Infinitely small Finite
Heaven
Infinitely large
Believing is worthwile because the expected gain surpasses the investment.
Sir Isaac Newton (1642 - 1727)
God is more important than physics and mathematics.
God made the world as we just see it.
Time and space are absolute.
The space it God‘s sensuality.
God always winds up the big clock.
More than half of all books in Newton‘s library concerned alchemy and religion. The
old Newton wrote only about those topics. Fight against catholicism. Interpretation
of involved parts of the Bible.
Before creating the universe God did nothing. There was no time.
(He made hell)
Page of "De civitate dei"
12th century.
Aurelius Augustinus (354 - 430)
Saint. Doctor of Church 16th century
Realization of the actual infinite
Saint Augustinus claims that God
knows the set of all natural numbers.
So they all must actually exist.
(De civitate dei. lib. XII, cap. 19)
Georg Cantor mit Frau Wally
Realization of the actual infinite
• God
• Nature
• Mathematics
Georg Cantor mit Frau Wally
I distinguish an "Infinitum aeternum increatum sive Absolutum",
referring to God and his properties, and an "Infinitum creatum sive
Transfinitum", referring to infinity in the created nature.
Galileo Galilei
(1564 - 1642)
Nicolaus Copernikus
(1473 - 1543) .
Giordano Bruno
(1548 - 1600)
Ultimatum of the church:
The heliocentric system is
at most a hypothesis to
easen calculations,
Galilei: In my opinion that
would be an error
My telescope shows
* Hills on the Moon
* Sunspots
* Moons around Jupiter
* Phases of Venus
Galileo Galilei
(1564 - 1642)
Ultimatum of the church:
The heliocentric system is
at most a hypothesis to
easen calculations,
Galilei: In my opinion that
would be an error
Salomon (who had his wisdom from God himself): Earth is at
rest forever, Sun goes up and down …
Josua 10, 13 There sun and moon stood still, until the folks had
taken revenge … Sun stood still and did not set for nearly a
whole day. Jesaja 38, 8 ...
Habakuk 3, 10 The sun forgot to rise.
Matthäus 24, 29 ... The stars will fall down from sky.
Albert Einstein (1879 - 1955)
It is understandable that the churches always
have fought against sciences and have persecuted
their followers.
Georg Christoph Lichtenberg (1742 - 1799)
Mathematician in Göttingen
Why does the paradise not start immediately here?
Preaching in churches does not replace lightning concuctors.
Charles Darwin (1809 - 1882)
Origin of Species
Natural selection.
Useful details
remain.
Fossils show the evolution.
Bible, written about ca. 500 BC.
Creation of the Welt about 4000 BC.
In the beginning God created Sky and Earth.
Day 1: God divided light and darkness.
The whole earth was covered with water.
Day 4: Sun and Moon.
Day 5: Fishes (including whales explicitly mentioned) and birds.
Day 6: Animals and men were created. No saurians.
Sintflut: The whole earth covered with water. Impossible.
Noah‘s Ark: Many animals missing: Kangaroos …
Immanuel Kant (1724 - 1804)
Is there as a part or original cause of the world a
necessary being or is all that purely accidental?
(4. Antinomy)
1763: The only possible proof of God
Ontologic proof of God: The idea „God“ implies ist reality.
Without being real God would not be the absolutely perfect
being.
1781 Critique of pure reason
Equally well a merchant could add some zeros to his account
in order to improve his economical situation.
Bertrand Russell (l872 - 1970)
Why I am not a christian
Many different religions in the world. Only one can be the
right one.
At most one!
Proofs of God
Necessity of a first cause. - Who made God?
To bring justice in the world. - Is there justice in the world?
Albert Einstein (1879 - 1955)
A God who rewards and punishes the creatures of his
creation a God who has a will as we experience it, I
cannot imagine.
The word God is in my opinion nothing but an
expression and producr of human failings, the bible a
collection of honorable but rather primitive legends.
No sophisticated interpretation can change the fact that
the belief in a personal God is only childish
superstition.
For me the unadulterated jewish religion like all other
religions is an incarnation of primitive superstition.
God created mankind in his own image. That probably means:
man created God in his own image. (Lichtenberg)
Anthropomorphous picture of Gods
Science requires doubt in the believable.
Religion forces belief in the doubtful.
Glowing is better than knowing!
During the Flood nearly all animals were killed. Were all gulity?
Many prayers could only be heared when violating natural laws –
never observed.
Omniscience requires determinism  Fatalism
Richard P. Feynman (1918 - 1988)
It doesn't seem to me that this fantastically
marvelous universe, this tremendous range
of time and space and different kinds of animals,
and all the different planets, and all these atoms
with all their motions, and so on, all this
complicated thing can merely be a stage so
that God can watch human beings struggle
for good and evil — which is the view
that religion has. The stage is too big for the
drama.
We cannot prove the existence of God and cannot
prove the contrary.
The existence of God is questionable.
If a God exists then his infinity is questionable.
Why did he need 6 days and a rest day?
God cannot simultaneously be omniscient and infinitely merciful:
Tree of knowledge amidsts the Garden of Eden
Creation of female and snake.
Order to Abraham to sacrifice his son.
Plague and ruin of the Egypts
The Flood
Every torture of a living being
Can God make a stone so heavy that he cannot lift it?
Realization of actual infinity
• God ???
• Nature
• Mathematics
Georg Cantor
1845 - 1918