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The general idea is that God was thought to embody the infinite. So, to understand the infinite, even in the symbolic form of mathematics was to discover God. The concept of number still has some residue of these medieveal ideals to it, as does the concept of being in the existentialists.
The ultimate residue of these mathematical ideals is on display everywhere as the Big Bang.
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Yes.
And of course, there are examples of this hidden-beneath-the-surface reliance on religious ideas found in other branches of science.
Artificial intelligence researchers (to revive a once contentious topic in this neighborhood), until relatively recently, believed it was possible to assemble a synthetic mind, logic handling piece by piece like a child's building toy -- to create a thinking machine all at a go as, we're told in Genesis, God assembled and breathed life into the first woman and man.
An evolutionary or 'learning' approach is now favored but cognitive bootstrap projects consumed many years of effort.
Curiously, early researchers almost completely ignored what is supposed to be the prevailing understanding of how problem solving skills arose -- as part of the evolutionary process -- and leapt straight into the work of performing the god-like act of assembling intelligence.
I suspect the (now exhausted) popularity of this idea was evidence of a religious thought residue subtly influencing research program decisions.
Needless to say, this is difficult to prove but the strong leaning away from an evolutionary approach and towards cognitive creation fantasies that defined the beginning years of AI is very intriguing.
.d.
-- http://monroelab.net/ <<<<<>>>>> groove to my groove