“Is Science compatible with a belief in God”
Mathematics is the study of patterns. In math, we have axioms. These rules, they define the operations possible. From them, we derive all we have the theories, corollaries — the results useful for modeling the world around us.
In high school, we learn to use these results. Take geometry for example. Three angles of a triangle add up to 180, this was a rule we learn. Using this rule we can find different angles of triangles, square, hexagon, and so on.
This was a rule we learn, and this rule or observation was backed by rigorous proof. And at the very very heart of it, lies the axioms of geometry, more specifically, Euclidean geometry.
These axioms are the explain what is possible within the Euclidean geometry space. From there we derive the rules and observations, relevant and applicable to the whole of the geometric space.
But we do not have to look far to see that the geometric space we are familiar with is not one of its kind. When we define a space with its own axioms, it comes with its different observations, and theories.
The geometry we are used to it has a requirement. The requirement that the plane is flat. If we do our geometry with some sort of surface curvature, we branch into non-Euclidean geometry such as hyperbolic geometry (i googled this, I hope I am using it right).
And what is the point of all this? The point I hope to make is that, mathematics, it is arbitrary, and whether something is right or wrong, that depends on the axioms — rules defined and thought up by us.
Math, in essence, is all imaginary. The results, however concrete, however real, are all products of our imaginations, of rules we made up, derived from lines, drawn in the sand.
Now that’s my interpretation of what math is about. But what about science? What about physics, the science touted to be the ultimate study of Nature. Why then is it so deeply connected to Mathematics, and how does it link to the belief in God?
Progression in physics follows roughly a few stages. Some observations were made, some relations are drawn. And mathematicians, they are the one who comes in, look at all these patterns and draw parallels to the different fields in math they have studied.
The mathematical models then become the model of the Universe. They become a way we can effectively and accurately predict the workings of the environment around us.
But if that is true, and that physics laws actually do follow the mathematical axioms that we arbitrary define. Therein lies the question, who defines these rules, who decides the axioms of the Universe.
If we really delve into the Math behind it, sometimes it really all boils down to one arbitrary number. A little bit off, and life might not have started, Earth might not look like what it is today. Who knows, maybe Earth wouldn’t have formed in the first place.
When faced with the arbitrariness and randomness of such a “God” number, one cannot help but wonder if there really is a power beyond our understanding. An entity who bestowed this magic number upon us.
And it is exactly in this sort moment where one can fully appreciate the vastness of the world, and phantom the possibility of a power beyond us, the one we know as God.
