May 7, 2022 05:17 PM
https://bigthink.com/the-well/math-religion-awe/
EXCERPTS: Mathematical pursuits and religious pursuits are alike in many ways and evoke similar feelings and responses in their devotees. [...] Throughout mathematical history, we find plenty of adherents of various faith traditions...
[...] Such commonality is in part due to the explanatory power of both mathematics and religion. Mathematics offers insights about physical phenomena. Religion offers insights about human nature. So it is natural to seek them out for wisdom in their respective domains. Their truths are not always directly apparent, sometimes taking years of study. And their interpretations or applications sometimes need to be challenged.
Both pursuits also reward struggle — a long obedience of following their respective precepts — with the reward of penetrating insights. Years of study in mathematics enable one to visualize the hidden structures of the world in ways that become second nature. Likewise, years of pious devotion enable a healthy moral vision so that one has no hesitation to do the right thing when that vision comes in conflict with one’s selfish nature. There is joy and reward in that growth.
[...] This rhythm of meditation punctuated by the possibility of joyous surprise means that both mathematical experiences and religious experiences can offer places of refuge and hope. [...] The resolution of a puzzle brings joy, and the experience of wrestling with puzzles trains us to hope with each new puzzle that an answer will emerge. The pious can replace “puzzle” by “prayer” in the prior sentence without much change in sentiment...
In both mathematics and in most religions, one comes face-to-face with the reality of immortal objects that we cannot see. Religious people are often mocked for belief and interaction with a non-physical supernatural God. And yet, such mockers have all learned to count, to interact and reason with non-physical Platonist conceptions of whole numbers, and even to apply them to what we call (by contrast) “the real world.”
Mathematics puts us “in touch with immortality in the form of eternal mathematical laws” as the historian of mathematics D. E. Smith once noted. Additionally, many learned scientists have marveled at how this interaction can even take place. Einstein himself asked, “How can it be that mathematics, being after all a product of human thought which is independent of experience, is so admirably appropriate to the objects of reality?” In other words, it should surprise us that Platonic mathematical objects interact with the real world so constructively — but we take this marvel for granted.
In both mathematical and spiritual pursuits, one perceives truths of such transcendent depth that they evoke awe and veneration... (MORE - missing details)
EXCERPTS: Mathematical pursuits and religious pursuits are alike in many ways and evoke similar feelings and responses in their devotees. [...] Throughout mathematical history, we find plenty of adherents of various faith traditions...
[...] Such commonality is in part due to the explanatory power of both mathematics and religion. Mathematics offers insights about physical phenomena. Religion offers insights about human nature. So it is natural to seek them out for wisdom in their respective domains. Their truths are not always directly apparent, sometimes taking years of study. And their interpretations or applications sometimes need to be challenged.
Both pursuits also reward struggle — a long obedience of following their respective precepts — with the reward of penetrating insights. Years of study in mathematics enable one to visualize the hidden structures of the world in ways that become second nature. Likewise, years of pious devotion enable a healthy moral vision so that one has no hesitation to do the right thing when that vision comes in conflict with one’s selfish nature. There is joy and reward in that growth.
[...] This rhythm of meditation punctuated by the possibility of joyous surprise means that both mathematical experiences and religious experiences can offer places of refuge and hope. [...] The resolution of a puzzle brings joy, and the experience of wrestling with puzzles trains us to hope with each new puzzle that an answer will emerge. The pious can replace “puzzle” by “prayer” in the prior sentence without much change in sentiment...
In both mathematics and in most religions, one comes face-to-face with the reality of immortal objects that we cannot see. Religious people are often mocked for belief and interaction with a non-physical supernatural God. And yet, such mockers have all learned to count, to interact and reason with non-physical Platonist conceptions of whole numbers, and even to apply them to what we call (by contrast) “the real world.”
Mathematics puts us “in touch with immortality in the form of eternal mathematical laws” as the historian of mathematics D. E. Smith once noted. Additionally, many learned scientists have marveled at how this interaction can even take place. Einstein himself asked, “How can it be that mathematics, being after all a product of human thought which is independent of experience, is so admirably appropriate to the objects of reality?” In other words, it should surprise us that Platonic mathematical objects interact with the real world so constructively — but we take this marvel for granted.
In both mathematical and spiritual pursuits, one perceives truths of such transcendent depth that they evoke awe and veneration... (MORE - missing details)
