Friday, June 18, 2021

More on Godel

 I just read the Wikipedia article which is more respectful of Godel than Depuydt is.  I was interested in this description of Godel's belief in religion: 

Gödel was a theist in the Christian tradition.[38] He believed that God was personal, and called his philosophy "rationalistic, idealistic, optimistic, and theological".[39]

Gödel believed firmly in an afterlife, saying, "Of course this supposes that there are many relationships which today's science and received wisdom haven't any inkling of. But I am convinced of this [the afterlife], independently of any theology." It is "possible today to perceive, by pure reasoning" that it "is entirely consistent with known facts." "If the world is rationally constructed and has meaning, then there must be such a thing [as an afterlife]."[40]

In an unmailed answer to a questionnaire, Gödel described his religion as "baptized Lutheran (but not member of any religious congregation). My belief is theistic, not pantheistic, following Leibniz rather than Spinoza."[41] Of religion(s) in general, he said: "Religions are, for the most part, bad—but religion is not".[42] According to his wife Adele, "Gödel, although he did not go to church, was religious and read the Bible in bed every Sunday morning",[43] while of Islam, he said, "I like Islam: it is a consistent [or consequential] idea of religion and open-minded."[44]

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