Nachtwolf

While I agree with everything else in your post (having written it myself earlier in the thread), this does not follow. This is similar to the atheist's argument which says "Thomas Aquinas' arguments in favor of God are false. Therefore, God does not exist." Just because Aquinas' arguments were spurious does not mean there is no God; by the same token, the fact that Phi^2 = Phi+1 is just a consequence of the definition of Phi doesn't mean that "there's nothing mystical about it." As a matter of fact, there are defenite curiosities related to Phi, and the most noteworthy of these is the underlying relationship between Phi and human aesthetics.

For instance, our wallets are designed to accomodate credit cards shaped like golden rectangles. Several famous buildings, including the Parthenon and Notre Dame cathedral, were designed based on Phi. And as you may be aware, our music is Phi-based; the musical scale is based on a Fibonacci progression. The question is, why do human beings find this so universally apealing?

Before dismissing this as merely a spurious product of human culture, consider this article:


Neanderthal Flute

For randomness to produce such an object as was actually found, to match a possible do-re-mi-fa flute, the probability would be only about 1 chance in 7 million.


In other words, the best information at my disposal tells me that the Neanderthals were playing Phi-based music. This is not a consequence of the way Phi is defined, and while it is far indeed from proving God's existence, it definitely provides us with a mystery.


--Mark