ABSTRACT
Mathematics and natural science both aim at the truth. Mathematics aims at necessary truths about abstract structures and objects. The essence of the axiomatic method in Mathematics is that one can start with self-evident claims, and proceed by means of Logic alone to less evident ones. Logical proof somehow rearranges the import of the mathematical axioms to reveal surprising, enlightening and profound further results about the mathematical realm being studied. The premises for the deduction are, ultimately, the mathematical axioms, the scientific hypotheses, and the statements of boundary and initial conditions. The Argument from Design for God’s existence is best understood as providing a competing ‘scientific’ explanation of the observed phenomena of design, complexity, adaptatio, that tend to provoke reactions of admiration, wonder, and awe in the observer. Mathematical proofs proceed from axioms that are self-evidently true, via primitively compelling inferential steps, to theorems as their conclusions.
