{"id":29970,"date":"2016-01-13T22:52:11","date_gmt":"2016-01-14T05:52:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/?p=29970"},"modified":"2016-01-13T22:52:11","modified_gmt":"2016-01-14T05:52:11","slug":"proof-in-religion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2016\/01\/proof-in-religion.html","title":{"rendered":"Proof in religion?"},"content":{"rendered":"<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC \"-\/\/W3C\/\/DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional\/\/EN\" \"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/TR\/REC-html40\/loose.dtd\">\n<html><head><meta http-equiv=\"content-type\" content=\"text\/html; charset=utf-8\"><meta http-equiv=\"content-type\" content=\"text\/html; charset=utf-8\"><\/head><body><p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_29971\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-29971\" style=\"width: 593px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/186\/2016\/01\/Phuong_trinh_Fermat-Fermat_equation.jpg\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-29971\" src=\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/186\/2016\/01\/Phuong_trinh_Fermat-Fermat_equation.jpg\" alt=\"The object of Andrew Wiles's proof.\" width=\"593\" height=\"215\"><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-29971\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Fermat\u2019s equation<br>(Wikimedia Commons)<br>Fermat\u2019s conjecture, which dates to 1637, was that the equation has no solution with a value for \u201cn\u201d of any positive integer greater than 2. However, the first successful proof of his conjecture was produced only in 1994, by Andrew Wiles.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p style=\"color: rgb(34, 34, 34); text-align: left;\"><strong><span style=\"color: #993300;\">Proof is only applicable to very rarefied areas of philosophy and mathematics. . . . \u00a0For the most part we are driven to acting on good evidence, without the luxury of proof. \u00a0There is good evidence of the link between cause and effect. \u00a0There is good evidence that the sun will rise tomorrow. \u00a0There 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. \u00a0And there is good reason to believe in God. \u00a0Very good reason. \u00a0Not conclusive proof, but very good reason just the same. . . . \u00a0I believe it is much harder to reject the existence of a supreme being than accept it.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"color: rgb(34, 34, 34); text-align: right;\"><span style=\"color: #993300;\">Michael Green, in\u00a0<em>Faith for the Non-Religious<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: right;\"><span style=\"color: #993300;\"><em>\u00a0<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u00a0 \u00a0 Proof is only applicable to very rarefied areas of philosophy and mathematics. . . . \u00a0For the most part we are driven to acting on good evidence, without the luxury of proof. \u00a0There is good evidence of the link between cause and effect. \u00a0There is good evidence that the sun will rise tomorrow. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1019,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-29970","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v21.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Proof in religion?<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"&nbsp; &nbsp; Proof is only applicable to very rarefied areas of philosophy and mathematics. . . . \u00a0For the most part we are driven to acting on good\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2016\/01\/proof-in-religion.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Proof in religion?\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"&nbsp; &nbsp; Proof is only applicable to very rarefied areas of philosophy and mathematics. . . . \u00a0For the most part we are driven to acting on good\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2016\/01\/proof-in-religion.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Sic et Non\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2016-01-14T05:52:11+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/wp.production.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/files\/2016\/01\/Phuong_trinh_Fermat-Fermat_equation.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Dan Peterson\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Dan Peterson\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2016\/01\/proof-in-religion.html\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2016\/01\/proof-in-religion.html\",\"name\":\"Proof in religion?\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2016-01-14T05:52:11+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2016-01-14T05:52:11+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/#\/schema\/person\/77113e9b09701bd1599fa272c4f65045\"},\"description\":\"&nbsp; 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