-
Starting today August 7th, 2024, in order to post in the Married Couples, Courting Couples, or Singles forums, you will not be allowed to post if you have your Marital status designated as private. Announcements will be made in the respective forums as well but please note that if yours is currently listed as Private, you will need to submit a ticket in the Support Area to have yours changed.
-
CF has always been a site that welcomes people from different backgrounds and beliefs to participate in discussion and even debate. That is the nature of its ministry. In view of recent events emotions are running very high. We need to remind people of some basic principles in debating on this site. We need to be civil when we express differences in opinion. No personal attacks. Avoid you, your statements. Don't characterize an entire political party with comparisons to Fascism or Communism or other extreme movements that committed atrocities. CF is not the place for broad brush or blanket statements about groups and political parties. Put the broad brushes and blankets away when you come to CF, better yet, put them in the incinerator. Debate had no place for them. We need to remember that people that commit acts of violence represent themselves or a small extreme faction.
A Funny, But Serious Question
- Thread starter Dream
- Start date
- Status
Right. So a figure with three angles that add up to more than 180 wouldn't be a triangle. We need to remember that God is not subject to our laws (scientific, mathematical, etc), but that the laws are really accounts for what we can observe and explain.FullyMT said:
Upvote
0
Lifesaver
Fides et Ratio
No.
A triangle with angles adding up to anything other than 180° (in Euclydean geometry) is not a thing.
It is merely a string of words without any meaning.
Just like 1+1=3.
Or a married bachelor.
Or a rock which God cannot lift.
All of these "problems" are actually nothing at all. They don't mean anything, since they carry contradictions in themselves, and thus it is irrelevant to ask whether they can be created.
A triangle with angles adding up to anything other than 180° (in Euclydean geometry) is not a thing.
It is merely a string of words without any meaning.
Just like 1+1=3.
Or a married bachelor.
Or a rock which God cannot lift.
All of these "problems" are actually nothing at all. They don't mean anything, since they carry contradictions in themselves, and thus it is irrelevant to ask whether they can be created.
Upvote
0
Ok, well then I guess could rephrase the question as "can God draw three straight lines connected to each other with the three angles adding up to more than 180 degrees?"clskinner said:
Upvote
0
So is that a yes?Brother Charlie said:
I think what it comes down to: are mathematical laws created and can therefore be changed by God or are they simply observations that are made, like clskinner said.
Upvote
0
ProCommunioneFacior
I'm an ultra-traditionalist, run for your life ;)
- Oct 30, 2003
- 11,154
- 562
- 44
- Faith
- Catholic
- Marital Status
- Married
Upvote
0
God created hierarchy in nature, organization, if you will. He ordained that things should act in a particular way. Mathematical (and scientific) laws are ways of explaining this observed order/action. So did God create the laws? No. Did he create the things about which we're able to construct the laws? Yes.DreamTheater said:
Clear as mud?
Upvote
0
Risen Tree
previously Rising Tree
- Nov 20, 2002
- 6,988
- 328
- Faith
- Atheist
- Marital Status
- In Relationship
- Politics
- US-Democrat
In Euclidean geometry, which a triangle is assumed to be in, no.DreamTheater said:
Here is the proof: http://www.math.psu.edu/geom/koltsova/section6.html
I know it's a bizzare question, but I'm very curious to see the responses.
Upvote
0
Ok, so God did not make mathematical laws. Mathematical laws are a way of explaining God's creation. Correct?clskinner said:
So if mathematical laws are a way of explaining God's creation, then what happens when God changes his creation? Wouldn't the mathematical (and scientific) laws also change?
Upvote
0
ps139
Ab omni malo, libera nos, Domine!
They are observations. The universe is so vast, and we know so little. We are definitely the observers. We have all sorets of "theories" which are theories because we have no means of proving them. In the grand scheme of things our intellects are nothing. Gods gives us reason so that we can discern Him, love Him, and we can detect right from wrong and follow Him.DreamTheater said:
Upvote
0
Yes.DreamTheater said:
I guess we'd need an example. The most obvious thing I can think of is what we call a "miracle". Miracles often seem to violate the laws of math, science, medicine, but as St. Augustine said:
"Miracles are not contrary to nature, but only contrary to what we know about nature."
I really believe that, both as a scientist who acknowledges the limits of her discipline, and as a faithful Catholic woman who recognizes the greatness of God.
Upvote
0
So God can not violate the laws of mathematics, but he can violate our view of mathematics? I'm sorry if I misinterpreted what you said, but I found your post kind of confused me.clskinner said:
I guess this is just a rather confusing topic.
Upvote
0
God can violate the laws of mathematics and science. I believe that would be what we'd call a miracle. A person could miraculously recover from an illness. People like St. Padre Pio can bilocate. That is surely a violation of at least what we normally know to be the laws of science.DreamTheater said:
I'm sorry if my last post was unclear. In short:I'm sorry if I misinterpreted what you said, but I found your post kind of confused me.
1) Laws of math and science are ways that we describe the regular occurrences of certain things. E=mc2. pi *r2 = diameter of a circle. etc.
2) But the laws are not in themselves, created beings. Humans construct them to explain the world.
3) God is not limited by our human constructions. He can do things that are beyond our ability to explain.
Does that help and/or make sense?
Upvote
0
- Status
Similar threads
