Monday, June 05, 2006

Math and God

Who was it who said "God created the natural numbers. All else is the work of man."??? There is no connection at all from that to the two radically different things I read today. Or maybe there is. You all will have to decide.

First was the math courtesy of Teresa - an entry on Slashdot,
Chinese Mathematicians Prove Poincare Conjecture. The last I'd read was that the Russian mathematician, Perelman, had a proof that was being verified. It seems that I'm not the only one on that track judging by the question on Ars Mathematica.

Second were several blog entries at
ScienceBlogs referring to this story from Reuters - Lioness in zoo kills man who invoked God

Mon Jun 5, 2006 9:37 AM ET
KIEV (Reuters) - A man shouting that God would keep him safe was mauled to death by a lioness in Kiev zoo after he crept into the animal's enclosure, a zoo official said on Monday.

"The man shouted 'God will save me, if he exists', lowered himself by a rope into the enclosure, took his shoes off and went up to the lions," the official said.

I have way too much time on my hands with no job.

and

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

LOL - I know you're loving all the math stuff.

As for the guy at the zoo... when I read that earlier today all I could think of was... DUDE - God gave you a brain to keep yourself out of stupid situations like that! If you don't want to use it, it's your own fault if you die! (then I thought about giving him a Darwin award - I hope he hadn't been busy turning out little idiot copies of himself *grin*)

Anonymous said...

'God will save me, if he exists'

A bit presumptuous to demand that God interfere with the natural order of things because of the arrogant demands of one person.

Even as an atheist, I have more respect for God than to try to order him about.

Unknown said...

Yes, Teresa, I'm loving the math stuff. *grin*

As far as the lion goes, the lion won. However, I don't think that proves (or disproves) anything other than this guy came from the shallow end of the gene pool. Perhaps those idiots who go and demonstrate at soldier's funerals should test this hypothesis further?