Grounded in God - Plus a rant about the perfect numbers in mathematics

What does it mean to be grounded in God? There are a lot of Christian-isms that we, as Christians use often. Phrases like: salvation, the cross, crucifixion, and others. How do we explain them to non-Christians? Today, we will look at the phrase "Grounded in God".

Being grounded is another way of saying having faith in something. For example, we all have faith in chairs. We sit in them, and they don't break (*crash!* well, most of the time). We have faith the sun will rise each morning. Really, faith is a simple concept of believing in something, be it a person, deity, or constant event. Grounded is also a way of saying we have a deeper (think tree roots) belief in something. We know, each day, that we will be taken care of, that we have someone else looking out for us, that we have a place to come back to. It is possible, for instance, to be grounded in a place, city, or even a spouse. In short, where/who can you go to to find rest, and re-assurance? As kids, this is often represented in our parents, or guardian. As young adults, it can become a friendship, or relationship. For Christians, it is God. We know that God will watch over us, that in good times and bad, we can always come back to God for comfort, rest, and re-assurance.

Which leads us to some questions. As a mathematician, is there a formal proof that God is there? After all, I wouldn't sit in a chair that was broken, or an empty space the rabbits were trying to convince me was a chair. I believe there is an overwhelming amount of proof that God not only exists, but is perfect. But before delving into the math, here are two great examples. First, take a walk outside. Find some nature and immerse yourself in it. Trees, birds, flowers. Is it really possible that all this was created randomly? Why do trees' leaves change color? Why are there millions of different plant and animal life? If it were all natural selection, wouldn't there eventually only be one species left? But if your nature walk, (lovely regardless) doesn't convince you, let's look at some numbers:

First, we have PI, or 3.14159265358... you get the idea. How on earth could natural selection create such a number, and furthermore, where did we even find it? Archimedes was working on finding this number in use to estimate the circumference of a circle, and later, to find the area of a circle. Circle's exist in nature, roughly. Trees are round, rocks are round. But nowhere in nature does there exist a perfect circle, have you ever noticed that? Even in our technology world, the best 5k TV's and monitors cannot create a perfect circle, because if you zoom in enough, it's all just small square black pixels creating a jagged line that looks like a circle to the naked eye. Yet I ask you to picture a perfect circle in you mind's eye, and you can picture one. :) We can use the numbers of a perfect circle in mathematics to engineer tires, machine parts and more. Natural selection is about things evolving in nature. Where then, do we get the idea of a perfect circle? For that matter, how can we imagine anything as being perfect, if perfection is unattainable? Squares, spheres, we can create super-exact shapes using modern technology, but not ever perfect. In our Olympic games, the entire sport is about coming as close perfection as we can.

Even time. Our clock system is arguably the most perfect man-made invention ever. The USNO Navy Master Clock (which uses 45 synchronized atomic clocks) is used to help keep the larger part of the world synchronized, but even it isn't perfect. We lose a full second about every 27 million years. That's accurate enough for us, but not technically perfect.

Where then, did we get the idea of perfection? Certainly not from nature. I believe we could only have gotten that idea from someone who is perfect. Someone who created us. I also believe, if we in fact, did evolve from apes, we could not comprehend the idea of perfection. We would only be interested in "close enough" whatever it took to get the job done. We might still have had tools, and skyscrapers, and the like, but our math would be totally different. Our concept of "perfect" would be replaced with "better than before".

And for math problems, and exact measurements, and perfect shapes, "better than before" just isn't good enough. Mathematics deals with absolutes, exact numbers, and perfect numbers. It's really a way to appreciate and worship God when you think about it. 3+2=5, yesterday, now and forever. Unless you add modular arithmetic to the equation, but I digress.

Anyway, hope this little article gives you something to think about. Time for some apple Pi methinks. :) Because what is more perfect for a late fall snack than a slice of apple pie and some ice cream?

~SheepDog~