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December 15, 2014 – Segment 3
From ancient times to the present, scientists and philosophers have marveled at how such a seemingly abstract discipline as mathematics could so perfectly explain the natural world. More than that — mathematics has often made predictions, for example, about subatomic particles or cosmic phenomena that were unknown at the time, but later were proven to be true. Is mathematics ultimately invented or discovered? If, as Einstein insisted, mathematics is a product of human thought that is independent of experience, how can it so accurately describe and even predict the world around us?
These are the questions posed by Mario Livio, an internationally known astrophysicist who works at the Hubble Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, in his latest book Is God a Mathematician? He joins Marc in studio to discuss mathematics, the fabric of reality, God, and how it all may be working together.
