What has caused some mathematicians to reassess their views on intelligent design ?

Okay, thats one person's response. The picture is a little blurred though.

What exactly are you talking about ? That some have gone pro-ID ? or some have gone anti-ID ? ...or what ?

Hi fresco,

I'm merely pointing out that some, due to what is now better understood in the field of mathematics, have begun to entertain the idea of intelligent design.

Here is an exsmple of what is causing some to take a fresh look at intelligent design. So right now, I’m eating an orange, which is made of cells. Why do they have the properties they do? Well, because they’re made of molecules. Why do the molecules have their properties? Because they’re made of atoms put together in a certain way. Why do the atoms have those properties? Because they’re made of quarks and electrons. What about the electron? What properties does it have? And the cool thing is, all the properties that electrons have are purely mathematical. It’s just a list of numbers. So in that sense, an electron is a purely mathematical object. In fact, there’s no evidence right now that there’s anything at all in our universe that is not mathematical.

Given that some cognitive scientists argue that mathematics is founded in bodily processes ( the embodiment theorists) and given that religious epiphanies are related to hormonal upheavals, I suggest any "conversions" are likely to be of minor significance. Indeed they may be as significant as the graffito on the men's washrooms at my university....'God =The square root of minus one'.

Many years ago when I was a student, I lived near a liquor store. Outside most evenings would be an old Irish vagrant guy, who used to ask for spare change. He was more entertaining than most. Even if you did not give him any money he would have a conversation with you. One evening he asked me if I believed in God. I said no. He asked me what three times three was. "Nine" I replied. "Now give me the square root of nine!" he said. I told him "three". Triumphantly he said ""And you tell me there's no God!". I was so impressed that I dug in my pocket and gave him enough to buy a bottle of Thunderbird.

I wonder what he would have said if you had given the more advanced answer of 'plus or minus 3'.

It did cross my mind to do so, but I had one eye on the clock (I had a date). I wonder if he might have said I had confirmed the existence of the Devil, or ant-Christ as well as God.

None the less, the fundamentals of mathematics cannot be ignored. Everything in existence is based on mathematical properties. This provides us with a question: Where did the numbers, the mathematical equations that make up all existing matter, come from?

Equations describe things, they are not identical with the things that they describe.

I think you can find a few fools in every area of expertise, and apparently this includes mathematics.

Now, if you want to provide some actual examples of how mathematics has caused a few people to change their views, then we'll have something to actually discuss.

I do recall praying before an algebra test.

"EveryTHING in existence is based on mathematical properties"

I doubt whether you understand that this can be considered as a vacuous tautology. "Thing-hood" starts with the human process of naming...the nominal level of measurement...counting one of...a potential member of a set. In short, no humans=no 'things'=no mathematics. On this view, unless you play the dubious game of 'man made in the image of god' , there is nothing that mathematics can tell us about 'existence of things' per se...it can only suggest re-assignment of 'thinghood'.

Absolutely.

Could you find a smaller image, Edgar?
That one is so large, it extends beyond my thumbprint.

Irreducible complexity . . .
God of the gaps . . .
Statistical reservations . . .

While, in themselves, they do not provide certainty, they ought to provide scrutiny.

I think it boils down to personal decision.

I aced algebra. I prayed before my French exams.

Tony I can't see how math even figures into "intelligent design." However there is a strong intuitional pull in the idea that everything was set up to permit evolution of the humanoid, that the slightest difference in one constant or another would make us impossible