I was encouraged to write this article or more specifically, any sort of literary work—by my friends involved in this publication. Of course, when I expressed my interest, I was casually asked, “What are you concentrating in?”, in the hopes that some English or philosophy major might posit some unique insight to our faith. To their surprise, I answered, “Applied Math,” and it is with this perspective I wish to highlight some of the tenets of Christianity. Christianity captures my mind with great interest. What is it about mathematics that fascinates me, as well?
Firstly, what makes math so universally true? Unlike the other sciences, mathematics builds upon basic axioms and constructs everything thereafter with rigorous proof and logic. Secondly, mathematics seems to be both independent from and interrelated with the world. Math can be studied and derived for its own sake; it also can be applied to many real-world phenomena, such as describing the movement of thrown objects by a parabola. We take it for granted that the numbers we learned as children can be taken to new levels, describing the world not just as “one, two, three”, but also in terms of differential equations, statistical analysis, and more.
I personally find it amazing that math can be found everywhere. There are the all-too-often cited examples of the Golden Ratio, seen in the shell of the nautilus and purportedly in ancient architecture and classical music. By randomly throwing sticks in a defined area, we can also approximate the irrational number pi, the ratio between a circle’s circumference to its diameter. In my belief and experience, mathematics is aesthetic and beautiful. One of my favorite equations is Euler’s identity, which combines three fundamental constants familiar to most students: ei? + 1 = 0. Of this identity, mathematician Benjamin Peirce said, “It is absolutely paradoxical; we cannot understand it, and we don’t know what it means, but we have proved it, and therefore we know it must be the truth.” This is what I have to say about that identity, and perhaps about mathematics in general: it’s mindblowingly mystifying, greater than any one mathematician, and impossible for our minds to fully grasp, but it’s absolutely incredible—it must be true. And how much more awe-inspiring it is to know that this mathematical lens is only a glimpse, a mere sliver, of how glorious, immense, inconceivable, and undeniably true our God is. He governed His creation with the laws of mathematics, giving us a framework by which we can attempt to see Him, and by the wonder of His creation, we catch a mere glimpse of His raw, awesome might. As Isaiah 40:26 says, “Lift your eyes and look to the heavens: who created all these? He who brings out the starry host one by one, and calls them each by name. Because of His great power and mighty strength, not one of them is missing.” Isn’t it a wonder how every minute detail of our surrounding world has been shaped by the Creator’s hand? How everything, great and small, points to the wonderful God who has made all things possible, through His very being?
Romans 1:19-20 says, “…since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse.” Something I find mystical and wondrous about mathematics is the absolute, unchangeable