Math is Actually Useful For Once
My mother mentioned a rather interesting idea that she read in a philosophy book once, and I thought I'd pass it on. It's really quite cool, if you think about it.
Before I tell you, I want you to try to see if you can name the trickiest concept to get your head around that you've heard recently, that someone claimed was true. Think about it. Got it? Okay. Chances are it's not what I'm thinking of, but that's okay.
All right. You all remember geometry, right? Angles and proofs and conditional statements with false contrapositives and all that. (If any of you are actually in geometry, then congratulations, if you haven't learned this stuff, you're going to.) So let's have a little geometry lesson here.
Take a triangle. I'd draw one for you, but unfortunately this isn't one of those uber-cool computerized touch-screen blackboards, so I can't. Tough luck. So you've got this triangle, and you're going to start looking for some characteristics that this triangle has and that no other shape does.
Hmm. Well, it's got three corners. Vertices, if you want to be technical. All right. That's cool. Jot that down: three vertices. And what else? Oh, well, whaddayaknow, those vertices make angles. Three vertices, three angles. And look! Those angles are made up of three lines! Three vertices, three angles, three lines.
So those are three characteristics that a triangle has. Now, think about this: Each of those characteristics has its own identity. Vertices are different from angles, angles are different from sides, etc.. They're very separate properties. Someone would have to be silly to say that having three corners is the same as having three lines.
And yet, you will never find a shape that has only one of those characteristics and not the other two. There simply is no shape with three angles that doesn't have three sides. While they have unique identities, they must be united. Even though each characteristic---the quality of having three vertices, the quality of having three angles, and the quality of having three sides---is separate, they only exist together. That's how you get a triangle. You can't have three triangles where one is made up of three vertices and another is made up of three angles and another is made up of three sides. Those qualities only ever exist together in one shape, which is made up of vertices, angles, and sides.
Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
One God who exists in three unique, individual Persons.
That's what I was thinking of when I thought of a concept that is really excruciatingly difficult to wrap one's mind around. It doesn't seem to follow logic. I mean, for us humans, it's absolutely bizarre. We've certainly never experienced such a being. For us, a being is one person in one body. You can only have one who per what. But with God, to quote J. Budzizewski (whose name I always manage to misspell), it's "one What in three Whos."
How on earth are we supposed to understand that? I mean "how on earth" literally. How can we, as finite, close-minded human beings, living on this planet that God has designed for us, possibly be expected to comprehend such a vast, incredible concept?
Maybe---just maybe---that was one of the reasons that God invented math.
Think about that next time you're faced with a load of math homework.
~Yfalle Eruvyweth
Before I tell you, I want you to try to see if you can name the trickiest concept to get your head around that you've heard recently, that someone claimed was true. Think about it. Got it? Okay. Chances are it's not what I'm thinking of, but that's okay.
All right. You all remember geometry, right? Angles and proofs and conditional statements with false contrapositives and all that. (If any of you are actually in geometry, then congratulations, if you haven't learned this stuff, you're going to.) So let's have a little geometry lesson here.
Take a triangle. I'd draw one for you, but unfortunately this isn't one of those uber-cool computerized touch-screen blackboards, so I can't. Tough luck. So you've got this triangle, and you're going to start looking for some characteristics that this triangle has and that no other shape does.
Hmm. Well, it's got three corners. Vertices, if you want to be technical. All right. That's cool. Jot that down: three vertices. And what else? Oh, well, whaddayaknow, those vertices make angles. Three vertices, three angles. And look! Those angles are made up of three lines! Three vertices, three angles, three lines.
So those are three characteristics that a triangle has. Now, think about this: Each of those characteristics has its own identity. Vertices are different from angles, angles are different from sides, etc.. They're very separate properties. Someone would have to be silly to say that having three corners is the same as having three lines.
And yet, you will never find a shape that has only one of those characteristics and not the other two. There simply is no shape with three angles that doesn't have three sides. While they have unique identities, they must be united. Even though each characteristic---the quality of having three vertices, the quality of having three angles, and the quality of having three sides---is separate, they only exist together. That's how you get a triangle. You can't have three triangles where one is made up of three vertices and another is made up of three angles and another is made up of three sides. Those qualities only ever exist together in one shape, which is made up of vertices, angles, and sides.
Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
One God who exists in three unique, individual Persons.
That's what I was thinking of when I thought of a concept that is really excruciatingly difficult to wrap one's mind around. It doesn't seem to follow logic. I mean, for us humans, it's absolutely bizarre. We've certainly never experienced such a being. For us, a being is one person in one body. You can only have one who per what. But with God, to quote J. Budzizewski (whose name I always manage to misspell), it's "one What in three Whos."
How on earth are we supposed to understand that? I mean "how on earth" literally. How can we, as finite, close-minded human beings, living on this planet that God has designed for us, possibly be expected to comprehend such a vast, incredible concept?
Maybe---just maybe---that was one of the reasons that God invented math.
Think about that next time you're faced with a load of math homework.
~Yfalle Eruvyweth
posted by Yfalle | 1:42 PM
6 Comments:
Very good post! Math is one of those things... sort of like an ocean, if you look close enough. There is so much to know about it that no one person will never know all about it. And everyone is drawn to the ocean because it is so big and vast and beautiful. I don't know that I would say math is beautiful... anyways! They are both beautiful in their own unique, different way!
That was—for the most part—quite interesting considering it was a relation between God and math.
The funny thing is that you could probably tie more things than less to God in this world.
Math for me, however, is something I greatly detest. So I got very little from that post itself, simply because I didn't care for the math portion of it. Fret not, for I did get the point of the post.
When you get to Linear Algebra, you decide to call it quits. I have so little appreciation for math. The good thing is that I am done with math forever at the end of this year.
If only it were the same for science. Bleed you nasty thing that I detest even more than math.
Okay, this has become a rant in itself.
Take care,
Andrew
Of course. Math, being created by God for God's own glory, cannot help pointing to God Himself. =D
Hmm..I'd never thought about that.
I've already been tackling proofs, but I haven't gotten to contrapositives as far as I know yet.
Interesting thoughts! I've linked.
That's a good point. You've just made triangles more discombobulating to me (as I am taking Geometry right now... proofs... ack!) but still, an excellent point! I had just been thinking about math points to God in every way, and reading this has helped to confirm that in my mind...
I'll remember it while struggling through my geometry homework. :)
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