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Science Historian Deciphers Plato's Code

Posted by kdawson on from the rewriting-the-foundations-of-western-civ dept.

Reader eldavojohn tips the news of a researcher in the UK, Jay Kennedy, who has uncovered a hidden code in the writings of Plato. From the University of Manchester press release: "[Dr. Kennedy said] 'I have shown rigorously that the books do contain codes and symbols and that unraveling them reveals the hidden philosophy of Plato. This is a true discovery, not simply reinterpretation.' ... The hidden codes show that Plato anticipated the Scientific Revolution 2,000 years before Isaac Newton, discovering its most important idea — the book of nature is written in the language of mathematics. ... Plato did not design his secret patterns purely for pleasure — it was for his own safety. Plato's ideas were a dangerous threat to Greek religion. He said that mathematical laws and not the gods controlled the universe. Plato's own teacher [Socrates] had been executed for heresy. Secrecy was normal in ancient times, especially for esoteric and religious knowledge, but for Plato it was a matter of life and death." Here is the paper (PDF), which was published in the journal Apeiron: A Journal of Ancient Philosophy and Science.

3 of 402 comments (clear)

  1. Maths is less slippery by Atari400 · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    but more unprovable https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/G%C3%B6del's_incompleteness_theorems

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    IBM doesn't play chess with the Universe.
  2. Re:Dan Brown just came. by inode_buddha · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    Did you get any on you?

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    C|N>K
  3. Re:Riiiiight by Grishnakh · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    It's not impossible; nothing is.

    However, it's quite far-fetched. I don't think I need to go into any lengthy discussion about why it's much more far-fetched than the idea of alien astronauts.

    What I want to know is why so many people will quickly dismiss the writings of von Daniken as "crackpot" or whatever, but they never say anything about all the people who believe these religions. If you're going to go to the trouble of calling out von Daniken as a nutcase, then you need to be at least 3 times as strong in your criticism of all the believers in the worlds' religions, because their beliefs are far more unlikely than von Daniken's.

    Personally, I think Ezekiel was either drunk or lying, but I'm a little tired of people trashing "crackpot" theories, but then being perfectly OK with mainstream religious beliefs which are far more far-fetched than any "crackpot" theory, or at least never saying a word against them.