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Computer Science and Christianity: A Modeling Approach

Computer Science and Christianity: A Modeling Approach. Gene B. Chase 29 March 2001. “Thank you for not using 666 in your papers”. Three Approaches to Integration. Incarnational Approach: Who am I? Incompleteness Approach: What do I not know? Imago Dei: What do I know?.

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Computer Science and Christianity: A Modeling Approach

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  1. Computer Science andChristianity:A Modeling Approach Gene B. Chase 29 March 2001

  2. “Thank you for not using 666 in your papers”

  3. Three Approaches to Integration • Incarnational Approach: Who am I? • Incompleteness Approach: What do I not know? • Imago Dei: What do I know? Modeling Approach

  4. I. Incarnational: Who am I? • Lynn Arthur Steen. “The Science of Patterns.” Science, 240, 29 April 1988, pp. 611-616. • “I am a scientist, and I am a Christian. The integration takes place in me, not in the subject matter.”

  5. Apply this to Computer Science? • In the CS workplace, I will model virtue. • In worship I will praise God for the beauty that I see in CS.

  6. Lutheran View • St. Olaf College • Dr. Richard Hughes, President of California Lutheran University: “The Lutheran vision never seeks to superimpose the kingdom of God onto the world . . . Lutherans seek to bring the world and the kingdom of God into dialogue.”

  7. Lutheran View • At Lutheran Valparaiso University one department chair said: “Show us what Lutheran economics is and we'll see if we can find a Lutheran economist who can teach it.”

  8. Advantage & Disadvantage • Advantage: It addresses the “so what” question. • Disadvantage: It doesn’t seem to be pursuing integration, just letting it happen.

  9. II. Incompleteness: What don’t we know? • Gödel’s Incompleteness Theorem (1931): For any mathematical system S strong enough to do addition and multiplication of integers, the consistency of that system, Con(S), cannot be proven within the system.

  10. Gödel Numbering • g(x)=2, g(y)=3, g(()=5, g())=7, g(+)=11, g(*)=13, g(0)=17, g(1)=19, g(2)=23, ... • g(x*(y+21))= • 2g(x)3g(*)5g(()7g(y)11g(+)13g(2)17g(1) • g(statements)= • 2g(st1)3g(st2)5g(st3)7g(st4)11g(st5)3g(st6)

  11. Incompleteness Results • J. R. Lucas: Gödel’s Incompleteness Theorem suggests that humanity is not the measure of its own meaning. • Chase: “Skolem’s Paradox and the Predestination/Free-Will Discussion” • Chase: “What Does a Computer Program Mean?”

  12. Incompleteness in CS • Alan Turing (1937). The Halting Problem: No computer program U can be written which receives as input a program P and its input I, and returns true if P halts on input I, but returns false if P loops infinitely on input I. • Kurt Gödel (1956). P=NP?

  13. Is P=NP? • P=solved in polynomial time. • NP=checked for correctness in polynomial time. • Optimists: P=NP, or maybe PNP. • Pessimists: P=NP can’t be known. • Ecc. 3:11: God “has also set eternity in the hearts of men; yet they cannot fathom what God has done from beginning to end.” • 4 - 10000 = 4

  14. Advantage & Disadvantage • Advantage: A sense of humility, awe, and mystery before a great God. • Disadvantage: This view has a “god of the gaps” feel to it.

  15. Calvinist View • Creation mandate: To “subdue the earth” (Gen. 1:28) • The Fall affected our ability to reason, not just our ability to be moral.

  16. III. Imago Dei:What do we know? • Parables. • Donald MacKay. The Clockwork Image, IV Press 1974. A marquee of flashing lights: • Physics explanation. • Information-processing explanation.

  17. III. Imago Dei:What do we know?

  18. Complementarity • Information-processing complements Physics • Waves complement particles • “Complementarity as a Christian Philosophy of Mathematics”

  19. Deciding on a Career

  20. Roger Penrose Mathematics Physics Mind

  21. Big Ideas of CS • Abstraction • Hierarchy • Virtuality • Global versus local • Parallelism • Time/space tradeoff • ...

  22. Sofware Soul Analogies in CS Don’t confuse the map with the territory.

  23. Parables as Analogies General General Deductive Inductive Specific Specific Transductive

  24. Father / Mother Friend Husband Master / Employer Judge Shepherd Vineyard Owner Social RelationshipsAbout God in Jesus’ Parables

  25. C. S. Lewis • The metaphor is backwards: It is not God who is like our earthly fathers; it is our earthly fathers who should strive to be like Father. • Similarly, CS is not the reality and our faith the metaphor; our relationship with God is the reality and CS can only provide metaphors.

  26. Advantage & Disadvantage • Advantage: We are at home in the universe. • Disadvantage: Multiple perspectives can too easily lead to relativism.

  27. Anabaptist View • Love more important than doctrine (John 13:36) • “We see a poor relfection in a mirror” (I Cor. 13:12)

  28. Anglican View religious Revelation Tradition objective subjective Reason Experience (Experiment) scientific

  29. Bibliography of Faith-Learning Articles • and Books by Dr. Chase • Arranged in Reverse-Chronological Order • [1] Faith-Discipline Musings http://www.messiah.edu/acdept/depthome/mathsci/courses/sensem/manifesto.htm . • Web posting of March 15 about Intellectual Property.

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