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“We discover the properties of mathematical objects such as triangles. We don’t invent them. This is a crucial point. If we invented the properties of triangles, they would be temporal, contingent entities, subject to incompleteness and inconsistency, and all of our manmade fallacies and errors. In fact, the properties of triangles are the same whether human beings exist or not, and, moreover, these properties are eternally true. Nothing is more astounding than the idea of eternal truths because such truths prove conclusively that mathematics has existed forever, that it’s uncreated and uncaused. Nothing gave rise to mathematics because, in order to do so, it would have to be older than mathematics, and nothing can be older than eternity. Of only one thing can we be sure: eternal things are mathematical things, and not any other kind of thing. “God” would be eternal only if he were mathematical!” — Mike Hockney