> Most of us believe that 3+4 must equal 7 becasue that is what was taught years and years ago,
> and therefore if the answer is not 7, it is wrong and therefore an illogical statement. As I said
> before though, this al depends on how the question is veiwed. Think of it like this:
> I walk 3 steps West and then walked 4 steps North. How many steps away from the starting
> location am I? Well, in this case, I walk 3 steps and then another 4 steps, but I am indeed
> 5 steps away from the start location, therefore 3+4 can equal 5.

Not unconditionally, it can't.

The statement 3 + 4 = 5 says that you're adding three of a thing to four of the same thing to get five of the same thing. This is not true.

What you're doing is adding three of a thing (steps west) to four of a *different* thing (steps north) to get five of yet another different thing (steps in a sort of north-west direction). You have to specify that you're adding different things, or the statement isn't true.

3 + 4 = 5 is not the same statement as |3i + 4j| = 5


> Personally, I must say that I do not consider myself to be a truely religious person. I don't go
> to church, I don't pray, I don't read the Bible. Strangely enought though, I believe that there is,
> perhaps, an omnipotent being out there, however I do not believe that He dictates everything.

In my case, I don't believe that there's a God. I sometimes think I'd like to; it must be a very comforting thing to believe. But I've never seen anything that says to me, "God exists".

I can only hope that if God does exist, he understands my reasons for not believing in him, and isn't too offended.

> In the end though, when I leave this mortal coil, I believe that it will not be God that will judge
> me, but rather myself who will look back at my own life and decide my final resting place.

An interesting idea, that.

(It occurred to me, once, that an efficient way to sort out reward and punishment in the afterlife would be to send *everybody* to heaven; the wicked would be punished by an eternity of the growing realisation that they don't deserve the nice treatment they're getting. Feel free to pick holes in this idea if you want.)

> Until that time though, I believe that the most important thing is to keep an open mind to the
> world.

Yes, definitely.

"A mind is like a parachute - it only works when it's open."

Paul