As a person who has been spending significant time to learn mathematics, I have to admit that I sometimes find the fact uncovered by Godel very upsetting: we never can know that our axiom system is consistent. The consistency of ZFC can only be proved in a larger system, whose consistency is unknown.

That means proofs are not like as I once used to believe: a certificate that a counterexample for a statement can not be found. For example, in spite of the proof of Wiles, it is conceivable that someday someone can come up with integers a,b and c and n>2 such that a^n + b^n = c^n, which would mean that our axiom system happened to be inconsistent.

I would like to learn about the reasons that, in spite of Godel's thoerem, mathematicians (or you) think that proofs are still very valuable. Why do they worry less and less each day about Godel's theorem (edit: or do they)? Did you ever happen to feel similar to what I describe?

I would also appreciate references written for non-experts addressing this question.

As a person who has been spending significant time to learn mathematics, I have to admit that I sometimes find the fact uncovered by Godel very upsetting: we never can know that our axiom system is consistent. The consistency of ZFC can only be proved in a larger system, whose consistency is unknown.

That means proofs are not like as I once used to believe: a certificate that a counterexample for a statement can not be found. For example, in spite of the proof of Wiles, it is conceivable that someday someone can come up with integers a,b and c and n>2 such that a^n + b^n = c^n, which would mean that our axiom system happened to be inconsistent.

I would like to learn about the reasons that, in spite of Godel's thoerem, mathematicians (or you) think that proofs are still very valuable. Why do they worry less and less each day about Godel's theorem (edit: or do they)?

I would also appreciate references written for non-experts addressing this question.

As a person who has been spending significant time to learn mathematics, I have to admit that I sometimes find the fact uncovered by Godel very upsetting: we never can know that our axiom system is consistent. The consistency of ZFC can only be proved in a larger system, whose consistency is unknown.

That means proofs are not like as I once used to believe: a certificate that a counterexample for a statement can not be found. For example, in spite of the proof of Wiles, it is conceivable that someday someone can come up with integers a,b and c and n>2 such that a^n + b^n = c^n, which would mean that our axiom system happened to be inconsistent.

I would like to learn about the reasons that, in spite of Godel's thoerem, mathematicians think that proofs are still very valuable. Why do they worry less and less each day about Godel's theorem (edit: or do they)? Did you ever happen to feel similar to what I describe?

I would also appreciate references written for non-experts addressing this question.

As a person who has been spending significant time to learn mathematics, I have to admit that I sometimes find the fact uncovered by Godel very upsetting: we never can know that our axiom system is consistent. The consistency of ZFC can only be proved in a larger system, whose consistency is unknown.

That means proofs are not like as I once used to believe: a certificate that a counterexample for a statement can not be found. For example, in spite of the proof of Wiles, it is conceivable that someday someone can come up with integers a,b and c and n>2 such that a^n + b^n = c^n, which would mean that our axiom system happened to be inconsistent.

I would like to learn about the reasons that, in spite of Godel's thoerem, mathematicians (or you) think that proofs are still very valuable. Why do they worry less and less each day about Godel's theorem (edit: or do they)? Did you ever happen to feel similar to what I describe?

I would also appreciate references written for non-experts addressing this question.