Axioms and Faith - Comments and Discussion

Geometric Axioms (Postulates) vs Theorems: This simple classroom discussion exercise covers everything from religion to Non-Euclidean Geometry!

Home

Axioms and Faith - Comments and Discussion

This is the comment and discussion page for the article
Geometry, Axioms, And The Nature Of Faith, published in Directory : Mathematics : Geometry.

If you would like to add your own comments, please take the time to read what others have written, then click the "Comment" button at the bottom of the page. Please keep your comments in line with the topic of the article under discussion.

Comments which are off topic or inappropriate will be removed by the site editor.

zaphod wrote on Apr 19, 2005	quote options
that's an interesting idea that axioms are closely related to faith. i saw a different take on it though on another website another writer argued that axioms were really unrelated to faith because - and i quote - Math in itself is not intrinsically connected to the real world. in other words math is based on abstract constructs such as points lines planes etc and since these abstract constructs have no intrinsic connection to the real world it is not a matter of faith whether they behave according to certain rules in other words the axioms are nothing more than the rules of the game and we can make them whatever we want whattdya think?
Humphrey Nowlin wrote on Apr 21, 2005	quote options
Well, I do see the point on that. In a sense, mathematics is just a game we play with abstract concepts, and so axioms are nothing more than the rules by which we play the game. In another sense, however, I disagree. Because math - from a pragmatic sense - is typically valuable insofar as it is a model of the real world. In other words, Euclid didn't choose his postulates because he thought they would be an interesting intellectual exercise; he chose them because he believed they were an accurate model of the universe as he knew it.

Click the comment button below to add your comments. Please keep your comments on the subject of the article. This is a great place to add further suggestions or ideas, or present a different viewpoint.