Can't say that I'm completely in the headspace to follow the argument, but wanted to add my 2 cents from a few years ago.

Integers come into existence long before god - as the only presumption required is a difference between one thing and another (or nothing). The integers also create infinite gaps. The primes.

So no - I do not think reals are closer to the divine. They require we import infinity twice to be defined, and I'm undecided on whether our reality has unbounded 'precision' like that - or if 'just' an infinite number of discrete units.

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foobarian 7 days ago | parent | next [-]

I find primes spooky. They seem to be a concept that exists regardless of reality or universe. How does such a incontrovertible structure arise?

ps. Various numerology phenomena have a similar vibe, and no wonder so many people who go off the deep end tend to get trapped by them. Maybe I will be one of them as I become old and senile :-D

	▲	ysofunny 7 days ago \| parent [-]
		> How does such a incontrovertible structure arise? yes, I also enjoy trying to answer this question. what is such an structure even mean? how could it be that simply defining numbers, obersving addition, and generalizing it away into multiplication would yield this natural structure? It all begins with zero. the predecessor of One, the best known number. zero can be assumed by anyone. the surprise is how all zeros are the same zero. (by uniqueness of emptyset; but as I hope you can see, I'm a crank. a nutjob. I'll stop

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IAmBroom 7 days ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Depends on your view of God. If God existed before creation, there were not two things to compare. I'm not even sure "nothing" existed - maybe God was smart enough to avoid creating "null" values.

Caveat: former Catholic; 50+ years of fervent atheism.

	▲	bandie91 7 days ago \| parent [-]
		there is no before and after in God. God is above/around creation. creation includes time. and also God the Son is IN creation.

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prmph 7 days ago | parent | prev [-]

But all numbers are abstractions, there is nothing “real” (pun unintended) about any number, so it seems strange to me to judge certain numbers on whether they map to our physical reality.