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Quote by John Polkinghorne

Work

One World: The Interaction of Science and Theology

This book delves into the relationship between scientific inquiry and religious beliefs, examining how both fields contribute to our understanding of the world. more

Author

John Polkinghorne
John Polkinghorne

John Polkinghorne, born on October 16, 1930, is a renowned theoretical physicist and an active religious philosopher. He made significant contributions to quantum field theory and cosmology, and later turned to the study of religious philosophy, exploring the relationship between science and religion. more

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“Intellectually, perspective [drawing] is a breakthrough, because here, for the first time, the physical space we live in is being depicted as ifit were an abstract, mathematical space. A less obvious innovation due to perspective is that here, for the first time, people are actually drawing pictures of infinities.”

“The lock-step approach of algebra, geometry, and then more algebra (but rarely any statistics) is still dominant in U. S. schools, but hardly anywhere else. This fragmented approach yields effective mathematics education not for the many but for the few primarily those who are independently motivated and who will learn under any conditions.”

“As one reads mathematics, one needs to have an active mind, asking questions, forming mental connections between the current topic and other ideas from other contexts, so as to develop a sense of the structure, not just familiarity with a particular tour through the structure.”

“The calculus was the first achievement of modern mathematics and it is difficult to overestimate its importance. I think it defines more unequivocally than anything else the inception of modern mathematics; and the system of mathematical analysis, which is its logical development, still constitutes the greatest technical advance in exact thinking.”