(Wikimedia Commons)
Fermat’s conjecture, which dates to 1637, was that the equation has no solution with a value for “n” of any positive integer greater than 2. However, the first successful proof of his conjecture was produced only in 1994, by Andrew Wiles.
Proof is only applicable to very rarefied areas of philosophy and mathematics. . . . For the most part we are driven to acting on good evidence, without the luxury of proof. There is good evidence of the link between cause and effect. There is good evidence that the sun will rise tomorrow. There is good reason to believe my mother loves me and is not just fattening me up for the moment when she will pop arsenic into my tea. And there is good reason to believe in God. Very good reason. Not conclusive proof, but very good reason just the same. . . . I believe it is much harder to reject the existence of a supreme being than accept it.
Michael Green, in Faith for the Non-Religious
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