Mathematics declaring the glory of God

Verbum et Ecclesia

 
 
Field Value
 
Title Mathematics declaring the glory of God
 
Creator Kessler, Volker
 
Subject Mathematics; Theology; Philosophy philosophy of mathematics; general revelation; truth; beauty; infinity; unreasonable effectiveness
Description This article discussed the question ‘Does God speak through the language of mathematics?’ For centuries, mathematicians with different religious backgrounds would have answered this question in the affirmative. Due to changes in mathematics from the 19th century onwards, this question cannot be answered as easily as it used to be. If one regards mathematical concepts as creations of the human mind, it is difficult to argue that mathematical formulae exist in a divine mind. The article argued that there were traces of the divine in mathematics. Six kinds of traces were explained: (1) the existence of indisputable truth, (2) the existence of beauty, (3) the importance of community, (4) rational speaking about infinity, (5) the discovery that speaking about unseen and abstract objects is reasonable and (6) the unreasonable effectiveness of mathematics. In practice, traces (1), (2) and (6) are probably the most convincing.Intradisciplinary and/or interdisciplinary implications: This article is very much interdisciplinary as it combines mathematics and theology, especially the philosophy of mathematics and systematic theology.
 
Publisher AOSIS
 
Contributor
Date 2022-04-19
 
Type info:eu-repo/semantics/article info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion — Interdisciplinary research
Format text/html application/epub+zip text/xml application/pdf
Identifier 10.4102/ve.v43i1.2432
 
Source Verbum et Ecclesia; Vol 43, No 1 (2022); 7 pages 2074-7705 1609-9982
 
Language eng
 
Relation
The following web links (URLs) may trigger a file download or direct you to an alternative webpage to gain access to a publication file format of the published article:

https://verbumetecclesia.org.za/index.php/ve/article/view/2432/5624 https://verbumetecclesia.org.za/index.php/ve/article/view/2432/5625 https://verbumetecclesia.org.za/index.php/ve/article/view/2432/5626 https://verbumetecclesia.org.za/index.php/ve/article/view/2432/5627
 
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Rights Copyright (c) 2022 Volker Kessler https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
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