11. The moving line between philosophy, theology and science

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Just seen a talk, at @HayFestival, by the incredibly informing and entertaining Marcus du Sautoy, presenting his ‘What we cannot know’ book (a must read, BTW). Listening to him, I cannot fail to realise the connection between the idea of God and our lack of knowledge in certain areas, only to hear from Marcus that the British Theologian, Herbert McCabe, already stated, centuries ago, that ‘To assert the existence of God is to claim that there is an unanswered question about the Universe’. After reminding us of the perhaps unjustly infamous known/unknown classification by Donald Rumsfeld, another jewel was unearthed, Roger Penrose’s ‘The Emperor’s New Mind’. It is fascinating to see how the problems which were traditionally believed to belong in the realm of philosophy and theology are now coming within the reach of science, as humankind slowly evolves towards God-like traits (more on this claim later) 

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