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Climbing For Christ Australia 11-May-2010 At 12:50:52 PM Hendo

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On 11/05/2010 another dave wrote:
>Its probably a stupid question.

NOT a stupid question!

>But why can maths always predict it.

You are asking metaphysical questions here which are sort of like the foundations of scienctific thinking so science can't really answer them. The fact that there is order in the universe and we exist at all does lead people to religious beliefs. Read Plato's Timaeus for an interesting example. As a side note, while I might not agree with it, it does show that people have been having very clever ideas for a long time and there were people living many thousands of years ago who could be considered much more 'enlightened' than many people today who believe they live in an 'enlightened' age.

You have to be careful here about saying math can always predict everything, by focusing and shaping your mind toward mathematical ideas it is easy to miss other things. During the scientific revolution there was a transition to focus on quantities rather than qualities. I think it was Galileo who talked about describing a feather, he cannot imagine it without a size, shape, mass etc, all things which you can put a number on easily, however he can imagine it without the quality of ticklishness and relegated such things to secondary qualities (this is all vague memories so check this before you go spouting about it). By ignoring certain things it could be construed as cheating, or as progress.