Mathematics And A Crisis Of Non-Faith

Oh no, I knew I shouldn't have opened this can of worms, this Pandora's box, because now that it is open, it cannot be shut. Once the contents are glimpsed, even for a split second of a split second, it is too late, I cannot unlearn what I have come to know.

My non-faith has been rocked to its very foundations, and now I may have to reevaluate everything I thought I knew, there is a war raging on in my head at the moment, and the stakes are high, so high the outcome could change me forever!

Seeing Is Believing

Some of you yesterday may have read my Is Math Real? article. In that post, I explored the philosophical question of whether mathematics is real or not. The question arises because there is no physical manifestation of maths in the universe, in the same way that there are of physics, chemistry, and biology.

Gravitational waves are not just theory, even before they were detected we knew we were going to discover them.

However there is no physical evidence of the number 7, Thermat's theorem or pi. You are now standing at the mouth of the cave with me, you can turn back now, save yourself! No? OK, let's continue.

You see, I do not adhere to having faith in anything, whilst I don't mind you; and will never try to stop you or anyone having religious faith, I myself do not see faith as a useful tool.

Faith or belief is something that is expressed when we don't have any supporting evidence. This is not the way I'm wired, I like logic, evidence, and critical thinking, and I believe mathematics is real, even though I can't see its effects.

Edge Of Discovery

Pretty much every Sunday I get religious people at my door, I usually politely turn them away after thanking them for their concern regarding my non-existent eternal soul. However, now and again one persists, and tells me they won't be offended regardless of what questions or statements I may utter.

Two things occur when this happens, the first is that they come back with the phrase "Well you believe in science, it's no different to that."

After which, I give them a detailed breakdown of how I don't believe in science, I simply trust the scientific method to deliver a close approximation of the truth, based on a continual feedback loop of cause, effect and evidence.

The second thing that usually happens, is that they walk away with a despondent, why-am-I-doing-this-on-a-Sunday-morning type look on their faces.

There is nothing meaner than a man who would destroy another man's faith.

Bishop of New York, in response to Albert Einstein's answer to the question; is there a god?

Caught Between Faith And A Hard Place

OK, so let's get to the point now, you know that I'm a deeply logical human being, and that I reject the notion of believing in anything without some kind of indication that it's true; so what's the problem?

Well the problem is this; I believe in mathematics even though there is no physical manifestation of it in the universe.

This is because there seem to be objective values in mathematics that stay the same regardless of your belief in them or not.

However this also means that just like physics and the other scientific disciplines, that there will be a myriad of discoveries as we progress as a society.

MASSIVE RECORD SCRATCH!

Ah, wait, so what am I basing that belief on?

If you ask me for physics, I will say, well, looking back at certain studies and theories, of course I can say that we will discover new things in the area of physics, chemistry, and biology.

However there is no evidence that there will be any new mathematical theories.

Aha! I say to myself; if you are sure that there are going to be new discoveries in physics, then that just goes to show that there will be new discoveries in mathematics used to describe the new physical phenomenon.

Hmm, whispers the Devil's Advocate, that may be the case, however I can't say with any accuracy that the mathematics of today, won't be enough to cover those new physics discoveries.

BUT . . .

I still believe that there will be new mathematical discoveries. However I'm basing that belief on nothing other than blind faith!

Uh-oh, I'm in danger of believing in something . . .

Conundrum

So I am stuck with two possible outcomes:

a) I mathematics to be real, it has very real non-arbitrary values which all observers in the universe can agree on.

In which case, just like other disciplines, there are unmade discoveries. However unlike other sciences, there is no present indication that there will be any more discoveries, and so therefore I must base any belief on faith.

b) I reject mathematics to be real, and admit that it is just a useful construct of the human mind, in which case any future discoveries are only limited by our own imaginations.

Unfortunately I can't subscribe to the second because there's evidence to the contrary, and it would mean there are no mathematical objective truths. However I can't adhere to the first because there is no evidence to back up my claims.

I DON'T WANT TO BELIEVE, HELP! HOW SHOULD I DEAL WITH MY CRISIS OF NON-FAITH, I NEED TO STOP BELIEVING, HELP ME PLEASE! AS EVER, LET ME KNOW BELOW :-)

Cryptogee