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Proof of God
“Ever since the creation of the world his eternal power and divine nature, invisible though they are, have been understood and seen through the things he has made.” Romans 1:20 NRSV-CI Two Ways Perhaps there is no other question that can elucidate the differences between the objectivist/materialist view on the one hand and those who…
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Kurt Gödel, Philonoemist
“To you it has been given to know the secrets of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been given.” Matthew 13:11, NRSV-CI Phenomenon of Phenomenology What in the world is a philonoemist (pronounced fill-o-noy’-mist)? You won’t find it in the dictionary, because I made it up (as a good patent lawyer, I…
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The Reason for Reason
“What a piece of work is a man. How noble in reason, how infinite in faculties. In form and moving, how express and admirable. In action, how like an angel. In apprehension, how like a god!” WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE, HAMLET Rationalism vs. Mysticism We all have a sense of what we mean by ‘reason.’ For the…
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The Ostracization of Paradox
“Paradoxes have always seemed specifically designed to convince us that we are simply not smart enough to take up whatever topic brought us to them.” Rebecca Goldstein, Incompleteness, p. 50 Conceit and Exhaustion It cannot be over-emphasized how fearful we can become when confronted with our own limitations by paradox. This is particularly true for…
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The Hubris of Scientism, Part 2
“Imagination is everything. It is the preview of life’s coming attractions.” Albert einstein In Part 1, we explored how science’s inability to answer the big questions leads to scientism pretending as if the big questions don’t even exist. What Remains after Science? Science works from the inside out, needing always to be able to refine,…
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The Hubris of Scientism, Part 1
“You live in a deranged age, more deranged than usual because in spite of great scientific and technological advances, man has not the faintest idea of who he is or what he is doing.” walker percy Believe the Science Popular culture bombards us with the admonition to ‘believe the science.’ As a slogan, it’s catchy,…
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Incompleteness is a Feature, not a Bug, Part 2
“If the whole universe has no meaning, we should never have found out that it has no meaning.” C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity To summarize Part 1, despite the best logic of the best thinkers, paradox is here to stay, thanks to the transcendence and unassailability of Gödel’s incompleteness theorems. Call It Intuition Almost immediately…
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Incompleteness is a Feature, not a Bug, Part 1
Prelude It was a dark and stormy night. As Ludwig, a tall, dour looking man with perpetually tousled hair, stepped out of his favorite coffee shop in old Vienna, the proprietor urgently seized his elbow, imploring, “Here, please take this.” “What is it?” inquired Ludwig. “A lantern,” answered the proprietor. With a wry, resigned smirk…
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Why Paradox? (The Point of this Blog)
“For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then we will see face to face. Now I know only in part; then I will know fully, even as I have been fully known.“ 1 Corinthians 13:12, NRSV-CI Early Encounters Like a slow-burning romance or a lifelong friendship, paradox still lingers as my constant companion,…