What does math have to do with theology? According to Dr. Talithia Williams, a math professor and science communicator, quite a lot.
In just under three minutes, Williams explains how mathematics connects the natural world with deeper ideas of order and purpose. Math, she says, helps us make sense of everything from the migration of fish to the patterns we see in nature, uncovering the structure of our universe.
Dr. Williams believes math is more than just numbers—it’s a universal language that offers insights into our existence. This intersection of math, nature, and culture reveals something deep and profound about our lives and the purpose behind them.
Talithia Williams: Mathematics allows us to take all of the complexity of the universe and wrap it up neatly into an equation or a system of equations that we can then understand and model. So it's easy to see why people would think of God as a mathematician. The thoughtfulness, the creativity, and the beauty shows up in the field when you see how math is related to nature and the things that we see around us.
The migration of fish follows a mathematical model. The way that birds swarm in the sky can be modeled mathematically. If you think about the way that we represent numbers and the way that we're able to manipulate equations and systems, it is the true universal language that we all speak, we all understand, and we can all use to communicate with each other.
This theological connection gives us a basis to think about, you know, the intentionality with which the world around us was created. That intentionality must have originated somewhere, just like nothing around us is random. There's a beautiful mathematical model that we can use to represent it. It's also the case then that we didn't occur by a happenstance, and the world didn't form by happenstance. And so there must also be some beautiful entity that created the order that we see.
Mathematics really gives us the language whereby we're able to even make that connection, and see the beauty of the order and the rationality that we observe in the universe. And so when we're able to look at a system in nature and see that there's order and purpose, it then makes you think, well then, there's gotta be an order and a purpose for me. There's gotta be some reason that I am here. And so I think that's able to give us meaning and can bring meaning to our lives when we realize that yes, in fact we are special. There's something special about our presence in this moment.
