Loving Math without risking idolatry

Loving Math without risking idolatry

As part of my continuing series on faith and reason, and improving skills in both areas, I’d like to offer more about a topic I’ve previously discussed. Previously I’ve written about mathematics specifically in the context of debunking the occult practice of numerology, and helping people to detox from both the occult and obsessive compulsive disorder of “counting.” Now I want to offer a quick “top down” or “bottom up” (either way, a foundational basis) for understanding God’s stance toward mathematics.

Everyone who is at all spiritual feels the mystical glory of God and his universe in certain settings. Often this setting is in the great outdoors, such as in the wilderness, mountains, seashore or just in one’s own garden or woodlands. Many people, however, feel that wonder in a different way. For example, the late great surgeon Dr. DeBakey said he was gripped with awe at God’s creation the first time he saw an actual human heart during surgery.

Likewise, there are many people who feel awe and a mystical draw when they study mathematics. This is very common and completely understandable. People are especially fascinated with numbers that seem foundational to the universe, such as Pi. They have both a sense of awe but also a sense of “peeking” inside “the secrets” of the universe, measuring and understanding its “inner workings.” And this is the slippery slope that poorly formed faith and reason can lead one upon, even to deliberate or completely unconscious idolatry. This is what I want to explain.

First of all, there really is no such thing as “mathematics” as far as material reality. God did not “create mathematics.” Wow, what could I mean by that? God created the universe (all of it, including “other universes” that some people like to fantasize are hidden from view. They aren’t there but that’s a subject for another blog posting). “What You See Is What You Get.” The reason people fantasize and claim to have calculated “other universes” is that they refuse to accept a physical reality of God’s influence, and so compensate for that “energy,” for lack of a better term, by making up the concept of invisible dimension and hidden universes. That’s an erroneous conceit that refuses to accept that there is a physical reality, motion and movement where the universe “intersects” (for lack of a better term) God’s realm.

So anyway, back to my explanation about God’s view of “mathematics.” God created the entire universe, which is by definition all of reality, comprised of matter, energy and time. God created the universe using three measurements: not enough, just right, and too much. It really is as simple as that: there is no mathematics, just that one measurement based on need and appropriateness. Once God created matter, energy and time, so that for things to exist and events to happen, there had to be “just the right” quantity of all of the three at any given time, God pretty much lets “the chips fall where they may” because natural law, which God created, takes over from there. Mathematics is simply the language that humans use to understand “not enough,” “just right” and “too much.”

Let’s start with the obvious everyday example, which is your car’s gas tank. Your car does not need 10.583393939344444 gallons to work. It needs “enough gas” in your tank to get you to where you want to go, or to the next filling station. Mathematics helps YOU to measure “just right” and avoid “not enough” or “too much.” For example, if your tank only holds 12 gallons of gas, spraying an extra 2 gallons all over the paint finish does not extend the driving range of your car. So “14 gallons” can be easily understood as “too much” for your car to hold at a given time. You may need 14 gallons to get to your planned destination, so you have to plan a gas refill stop at “just the right time” to get at least the additional two gallons. So there is absolutely no significance to those numbers except as a way for humans to measure and comprehend in any given situation “not enough, “just right” and “too much.”

That is why you get strange and mysterious numbers such as PI. It’s not that God started out with that number, “Hmm, what a cool number. That will drive them crazy and make me look really mysterious. Yeppers, I’m going to use that number to make circles with.” Nooooo… what God did was create the concept of a circle, or rather, God creates the physical reality of matter, time and energy that can produce a circle, and the formula that humans “discover,” such as the calculation PI, simply are a way for humans using the numeric system of their choice to measure “what was enough linear distance” in order to create a circle. The fact that it comes out to PI “every time” simply means that the universe does function using measurable quantities of observable things over constancy of time. Some mysterious force is not behind the scenes changing the physical reality of a geometric circle shape, so sometimes PI “comes out to be” 3.1415 etc and other times it is 8.888111, just to use some “numerologically significant” numbers for a giggle and to give occult readers a thrill. LOL.

But back to being serious. All of life, both sentient and inert, can be understood as being simple “not enough,” “just right,” and “too much.” For example, geologists and astronomers understand many of the principles whereby interstellar clouds and gas condensed to form stars and planets. No one needed to know any mathematics for that to happen. If is sufficient to know that when enough dust and matter condenses with enough pressure and enough energy, over enough time, and without an interrupting event, such as an exploding star (hence the quantity of time and distance is sufficient), that things will clump together and form a planet or a star. As illuminating case studies and to learn more about the physical forces and needs, sure, scientists measure using mathematics the raw data so they can better understand the quantities of, yes, you guessed it, “not enough,” “just right,” and “too much.” You don’t sit down to dinner (unless you are dieting and calorie counting, or diabetic) and measure all your food and eat only a “magic number” worth of it. You eat what is “good enough” (calories and nutrition) and “enough” in quantity that it fulfills your needs. For example, if you are going to be working all day and unable to have three meals, you might pack it in during the one meal you do have. There’s no magic number about that. “Oh wow, I’m going to be working all day so I better eat the holy number of seven pancakes instead of my usual holy number of three pancakes.” Er, um, nooooo…. You are eating and “calculating” using “mathematics” what you know you need to eat based on experience to be “enough” aka “just right” in order to get you through your day, in this example.

So why do numbers appear to be “mystical” in the Bible? Again, God creates and oversees events that are “not enough, “Just right,” or “too much.” Humans apply numbers to them by counting, in order to explain to others more precisely what they have seen. That is one extremely obvious and simple reason. When St. John saw the beast, he wanted to describe it in as useful a way as possible, so being precise, he counts what is on the beast (the horns and so forth). This is especially true when the quantity is unusual. For example, when a mystical goat or ram is seen, the Prophets rarely pause to add, “And it had the usual two horns.” Humans tend to count when something is of extraordinary importance to convey to others AND it is out of the ordinary.

The second reason the Bible authors would emphasize holy or extraordinary number is that they unconsciously realize (as modern humans have forgotten) that it is a way to measure how much something is imitating God, or not. So it is not the fact that seven is observed to be a holy number in heaven so much as seven of whatever quantity of item is being counted is “just the right amount” for its purpose. So the beast having “seven” of something does not mean anything so far as the number seven. It means it is mocking or imitating a quantity of what God found good and pleasing and therefore “just right” somewhere else. If you erased all human ability to count and perform mathematics, it would not change one iota the events and meanings of things experienced and recorded in the Bible. It’s not like if the number seven never existed that all things in sevens would never have happened. I mean, duh. It just means that humans could never have achieved a descriptive tool and device (and eventually an engineering capability) that would rely on people being exact about what they observed about the material world.

Because people get all irrational about prophecy, let’s back away from the beast example, but keep it heavenly and prophetic to remain interesting. Revelation 4:4: “Surrounding the throne I saw twenty-four other thrones on which twenty-four elders sat, dressed in white garments and with gold crowns on their heads.” OK, so St. John saw twenty four elders each with his own throne. That’s great! He is able to precisely convey to his readers exactly what he saw. Notice what he did not write. He did not say, for example, “And God told me it’s like this all the time, and that those same 24 are always sitting there for all eternity.” He did not say, “There are always 24 thrones with 24 elders because 24 is a really important number.” He did not say, “And those are the most honored people in heaven, and so it’s like musical chairs, and there are only 24 chairs for the most honored elders.” Um, no to all of that; St. John wisely just records what he saw and what he heard. He knew he was not authorized or given knowledge to speculate, and you will notice that St. John does not interpret any of the furnishings or events of heaven. So obviously you would ask, why where there twenty four elders on twenty four thrones? Because that was “just enough” for whatever God’s purpose was at THAT moment to have St. John present. “Enough” elders were there at that time doing what they do and being whoever they are for that purpose, that message, that tableau, and that vision of a part of the reality of heaven for St. John to be invited to observe. For all you know, “right after St. John left,” 124,333 thrones with elders on each could have been moved in! God is not bound by concepts that humans invent in order to communicate with each other. God did not “place 24 thrones for 24 elders” around his throne, God lets happen the events and participants that suits his will for the needs at the time.

See, St. John lived the longest of all the Apostles, he was the one “who Jesus loved,” he became the son of the Blessed Virgin Mary in order to care for her during her lifetime, and he was the only one not martyred. St. John knew about as much about Jesus and God as anyone who ever lived. St. John did not need to be “given a literal tour” of heaven in order to bolster his faith. St. John only needed to see what was necessary to convey the messages, prophecy and warnings that God desired him to see. So obviously there are more than 24 of the highest and most honored elders In heaven, but God did not have to show St. John that or give him a tour to show him “where the other elders were at” or if indeed “there are only 24 seated by the throne for all eternity.” Maybe yes and maybe no, would be the answer, but it’s not likely to guess that God throughout eternity can be measured so simplistically in his actions. Therefore it was sufficient that St. John observe that 24 elders each with a throne were there, because it was a message that the elders, who are in significant quantity, accompany God in heaven. That is really all one needs to know. The fact that St. John counted the quantity was not because the quantity mattered, but in order to convey to everyone else who was not there, obviously, what he saw as accurately as possible.

So there is nothing wrong with feeling awe and satisfaction about certain numbers. If you ask me what I feel when I think about the event of the elders, I feel satisfaction and fullness because being a country girl, I think of 24 as being two dozen eggs, which represents an abundance. That does not mean that this is the “significance” of the 24 elders. It is a way to share with you that a human reaction to certain numbers is inevitable and completely understandable, and it tends to be related to the enculturation of our upbringing and surroundings. To old fashioned families, a dozen eggs was “an abundance,” while two dozen would be just a plentitude. So I like the number 24, just as I like all numbers, because I have sane and positive associations with all numbers and measurements.

For younger readers let me make an aside, as I enjoy doing about “the good old days,” just because it helps understand the broad range of experience humans have available to them, and how perceptions can be different but positive. I lived for a few months with my grandparents in Berlin, and they were in a semi-rural setting and had chickens, a vegetable garden, and fruit and nut trees. I would go in the morning to check if the chickens laid eggs, and it was always a thrill if one or two were there, or on the very rare occasion three. That was the usual way of families who had a few chickens. Imagine how many chickens they would need to have a dozen eggs at one time! So this is why America in the 1950’s and later was viewed as so incredibly prosperous and blessed. People could easily go into a store and buy a dozen eggs at a time. So “one dozen” grew to be a number that connotes fullness and even some excess. A dozen affordable eggs is “more than enough.” A “baker’s dozen,” which is the quantity thirteen, was even better because it means merchant generosity. The baker would sell to the customer a dozen pieces of bread or rolls, for example, and then throw an extra one in free. So a baker’s dozen is a “great” and entirely positive number, and what is that quantity? Thirteen!

See, people who become detached from farm life, small town reality, and the goodness of simple pleasure have too much time and neurosis on their hands, and so they make up things like magic numbers and numerology. I’ve made the point previously that there is no such thing as an “unlucky” or “bad” quantity of a good thing, and there is no such thing as a “lucky” or “good” quantity of a bad thing. One car crash is enough to kill or maim. So the number "one" is bad? In that case, rather, "one car crash" was "too much."

I mean, numerologists are literally unhinged from the well balanced perception of life. That’s why a very common mental disorder is OCD accompanied by compulsive counting. Farmers who hoped to find one or two eggs laid each morning for breakfast for themselves and their families were not mentally wired to obsessively count or view any quantity as anything other than “not enough,” “just right,” or “too much.” Too much meant you could sell the extra eggs to the neighbors! Anyway, humans have really messed up their wiring and I thought my younger adult readers would relate to the egg laying example since it’s also insight into why I have a “Little Mary Sunshine” attitude toward quantities. I love “Just right” or even more, “abundance,” of good human needs being met. That’s my wiring. I posted about how 3000 mango trees were planted in Qatar and yielded 30 or so cartons of fruit, and I glowed with pleasure and mentally preened as if I had grown them myself, ha. That is because it is not the “magic number” but the “Oh wow, what a great harvest and there’s plenty for everybody” vibe.

So to recap: God does not bless or withhold blessing from “numbers.” God does not manage the universe according to numbers. Humans invented numbers and mathematics so that they could manage the survival necessity of measuring “not enough,” “just right,” and “too much.” Humans are entitled to have pleasure and awe over the mysteries that numbers reveal, and yes, even the fun of number games and puzzles. But humans must be very careful not to be idolatrous and imbue their own simple creation with a magical significance, and certainly not as a mechanism by which to sin and do “identity theft” of God’s will and purpose. Too many people do this nowadays and I condemn it in the strongest terms. Other than that, have a nice day!