Wednesday, April 10, 2013

Thursday, April 04, 2013

Euclid's proof of deity


Euclid gave what to me seems to be a pretty persuasive proof of the existence of God. We are created in God's image, two things are equal to that image, therefore they are fundamentally equivalent.

The recent movie about Lincoln shows how this same idea gave the great man faith that political polarities can be united.

Take this extract from the Huffington Post on this subject:



During our discussion, Kushner offered insight on Lincoln's affinity for Euclidian Geometry, particularly on its usefulness in avoiding political gridlock. Kushner remarked, "Lincoln was fascinated by mathematics and geometry, and often used it to resolve political differences." In one of the most poignant moments of the film, Lincoln recites Euclid's first common notion by stating "It is self-evident that things that are equal to the same thing are equal to each other." (clip shown below)
Video clip courtesy Movieclip.com
Euclid's first common notion gave Lincoln the ability to visualize two unlike ideas and allow parties to converge on a claim that would eventually become "self-evident." Lincoln's point was that truth claims become self-evident through the dialectic, or the combined process of resolving the tension between two ideas through discussion.