When we’re doing math, or even thinking about it, what generally comes to mind (at least, what comes to my mind) is a set of logical rules which won’t be broken, the rules which describe the orderly way in which God governs the world. There’s definitely truth to that: God certainly moves the cosmos in such a way that we as logical beings can make sense of it, through math and through other means. But as useful as math is in describing the physical universe, it’s just not enough. Of course, as Christians, we know from the Word of God that this is the case. What’s really interesting, though, is that math itself tells us math is insufficient.
The German mathematician and philosopher Kurt Gödel was the man responsible for discovering this fact about mathematics. He became famous for a number of mathematical accomplishments, but probably his most well-known discoveries are his two “incompleteness theorems.” Simply stated, Gödel was able to mathematically prove that for any normal system in mathematics, there will always be true statements which you have to assume, but which you can never prove. For instance, we might never know for sure that prime numbers continue to pop up in pairs, or that every even number more than 2 is the sum of two prime numbers, even if they are actually true. In other words, math tells us that it can only reason about the world so far.
There is an unfathomable amount of evidence in creation that there is a Creator, from the immovable vastness of space to the fragile, microscopic beauty of a living cell. Who would have thought that the very thing which seems the most logically airtight—the unbiased art of math—would also point so clearly to the founder of logic itself? Of course, even if math is incomplete, it’s still an incredibly beautiful way to look at the world and wonder. That’s because we know God is the one who spoke this logical world into existence. But we can’t trust it unconditionally.
At the end of the day, math is a tool. We can use it to deduce true things about the world; we can even use inductive reasoning to conclude certain things about our Creator (for instance, that He likes to make things orderly). But human reason, even math, often fails, and is nothing in comparison with the Word of God. God’s Word is what we have to hold to for truth, because it is the only means by which Jesus comes to us. And we can only believe that Gospel truth by the Holy Spirit. Thank God for the truth of His Word; we would be utterly lost without it!
In Christ,
Mr. Hahn
