Discussion of 5 Major Discoveries

Yesterday I posted a new essay on my companion website www.jacob2012.com/essays/5discoveries regarding 5 important things that were discovered over the last 120 years. Here they are again:
1) Cantor’s Definition of Infinity in the 1890s
2) Plank’s Discovery of Quantum in 1900
3) Einstein’s Theory of Relativity in 1905
4) Hubble’s Discovery of Galaxies in 1923
5) Aspect’s Experiments Demonstrating that Reality is Non-local in 1982

(This list is not meant to be definitive. They’re the important discoveries that fit within the scope of the point I am making. You may have other significant intellectual improvements besides the ones listed. Please feel free to send me a comment with your important discoveries and why you consider them significant.)

I list these 6 discoveries since they have led to a deeper understanding of Reality. Each has had a major impact and expanded the frontiers of our understanding of the really big, really small, and everything in between.

For example, let’s look at #1 Cantor’s Definition of Infinity. Mathematics is an ancient subject. Gauss considered mathematics “the Queen of the Sciences” (1). There have always been at least 2 main branches of math – one for daily use and one strictly theoretical (called Pure Mathematics). Daily math grew in complexity in relation to how business transactions grew more complicated. Pure math has witnessed some titans: Euclid, Pythagoras, and Archimedes in ancient times to Newton, Leibniz, Descartes, Gauss, Euler, and others too numerous to mention (plus I don’t wish for this to become a lesson in math history).

The subject of infinity was always beyond description and comprehension. Maybe infinity didn’t even exist. Have you ever seen one? With all humor aside, Georg Cantor devoted his life to providing rigorous definitions to the concepts of sets, transfinite numbers, cardinal numbers, and the distinction between countable and uncountable infinity. By 1900, his work established the study of infinity as a branch of mathematics.

From a metaphysical viewpoint, Cantor’s work is significant because it finally allowed mankind to discuss infinity with reliable terminology. Cantor provided definitions of the new terms he used to describe infinite quantities and mathematical proofs of the concepts. It should be noted that Cantor was a deeply religious Lutheran (2). I will be using Cantor’s work in future discussion in the hope of updating our definition and understanding of the only Infinite Being, God.


References
(1) The Quotation Page (2007) Retrieved from http://www.quotationspage.com/quote/30184.html
(2) Hedman, B. (1993) Cantor’s Concept of Infinity: Implications of Infinity for Contingence. Retrieved from http://www.asa3.org/asa/PSCF/1993/PSCF3-93Hedman.html