The question of the existence of God has preoccupied philosophers and theologians for dozens of centuries. Suddenly, a few months ago, two European mathematicians, using a computer and the related theorem of the Austrian mathematician Kurt Gödel, managed to mathematically prove the existence of God!
Shortly before his death, the great Austrian mathematician Kurt Gödel published a mathematical proof for the existence of God on which he had been working for 30 years. The proof is based on the modern axiomatic foundation of mathematics, which in turn is a continuation of ancient mathematical tradition and Euclid’s geometry. In this way the foundation starts with formulating axioms, i.e. statements which are not proven but seem obvious. Then, with the help of axioms and mathematical logic, we can prove theorems and build an entire theory. Gödel tried to “prove” the existence of God as a theorem starting from a set of five axioms that seem “obvious” as part of Mathematical Logic.
From the beginning, the “proof” had two weak points. First, are these axioms really obvious, and secondly, are they compatible with each other so that they do not have hidden inconsistencies? There is not much to do about the first one, since the axioms in mathematics may seem “reasonable” but are also arbitrary, so if these axioms are true, they imply the existence of God. However, the second point has been investigated for over 40 years because it is necessary to prove that these five axioms do not contain hidden inconsistencies and thus are self-consistent.
Two European mathematics, Christoph Benzmüller from Germany and Bruno Woltzenlogel Paleo from Austria, managed to represent Gödel’s axioms with mathematical symbols. Then, with the help of special software that operates with terms of logic on computer, they established that the axioms do not contain hidden inconsistencies and confirmed the proof of the theorem.
It should be noted that, apart from the purely mathematical part, the basis of Gödel’s ontological proof was not completely new since it was similar to the argument of the English theologian and philosopher of the 11th century, Anselm of Canterbury, which in turn is based on the “reductio ad absurdum” of the ancient Greek philosophers and mathematicians.
The premise of Anselm’s ontological argument was the following:
1. God is the supreme being.
2. The idea of God exists in our minds.
3. A being that exists both in our minds and in reality is greater than a being that exists only in our minds.
4. If God existed only in our minds, then we could conceive the idea of a higher being which exists in reality. 5. But we cannot imagine a being greater than God.
6. Therefore, God actually exists.
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