Is God a mathematical equation?

[Sugarcoated]

Someone I listen to on the internet, had a NDE and said she got the thought, or rather it seemed to told to her, God is a mathematical equation. I'm horrible at math, so I don't quite get the concept, but it fascinates me nonetheless.

[selmo7]

1. Yuup God is a mathematical equation -

sometimes 2+2=4
and other times 2+2=5

Both are God equations :-)

John Nash might have more enlightened equations than I have - game theory where everyone wins. Maybe that is a God mathematical equation. I'd look to Nash and other real mathemeticians. I really DO believe that God IS a mathematical equation, one with extraordinary multitudinous manifestations/outcomes.

(edited for typos)

[TexasProgresive]

12. Rent the movie "PI"

The story has nothing to do with PI but the Mathematical name of God.

[MemphisTiger]

24. That move messed me up.

[Flabbergasted]

2. What's an NDE?

I think God could appear to be an mathematical equation. I don't think God is a math equation. Most or all religions say God is Love.

I'd like to know the equation though.

[selmo7]

4. NDE -

Near Death Experience -

[rawtribe]

3. god = 0

:evilgrin:

[Sugarcoated]

5. I dunno

Maybe a he can be love and a mathematical equation at the same time.

[immoderate]

31. Maybe love is a mathematical equation.

As good an explanation as any I've heard.:shrug:

--IMM

[NAO]

19. Not even zero. god = "the empty set", or god= i, the square root of -1

see my post below for elaboration on the "God = i" equation.

[Hissyspit]

6. God is a CONCEPT...

By which we MEASURE our pain.

[Sugarcoated]

7. maybe

love is a mathematical equation.

[PinkTiger]

8. This is WAY too deep for me, but I'll try.....

I think the concept of God may be something that can be expressed in mathematical terms. This would explain the laws of physics and the universe quite well, and also explain why there are such patterns and effects of matter on other matter. The illogical human brain, though, has a tough time grasping these concepts. I know mine does. We tend to look for patterns when none is there, and that is because we are genetically engineered to seek out patterns. So there must be something to this.

I know that God is NOT a white haired man with a long beard who knows everything we do. I don't think there is any entity who does this. We are, unfortunately, all alone in this together.

LOL

[NoQuarter]

10. That would be......

.....God is NOT a white haired white man....

[Arianrhod]

9. Spinoza and Einstein both believed

that God is the sum total of the laws of physics.

[Hissyspit]

13. German 17th-century philosopher Leibniz:

The world is a math problem, basically. Literally basically.
He and Spinoza were similar, but I think Leibniz was specifically trained as a mathematician.

[Arianrhod]

14. Yeah, he was. n/t

[CatholicEdHead]

16. It really is as you have physics to account for all things

some things are proven, some are still scientific theories, and some are yet to be discovered. Yet the sum total of all those equations equals the world (actually the entire universe that came from the Big Bang).

[hunter]

27. Newton and Leibniz were both mad, and calculus was a heresy

I think they were both motivated by religion and their personal inability to see God, but they were sort of afraid to tell others what they were thinking, and why they were thinking it. That their calculus worked they regarded as a divine proof, but they couldn't just tell anyone exactly why without discounting all the common "miracles" that everyone else could "see."

I mean, if you didn't see the Christian God of the Christian Bible in the Customary Christian ways, then sadly, you were probably going to hell. But if you simply say, this math is another proof of God, then maybe people will accept that, especially if the math seems to have practical application.

Charles Darwin faced a similar problem. He didn't jump off the HMS Beagle as soon as he got back to Britain and start yelling, "Eureka! Our ancestors were apes!" even though he knew it to be true long before he published his Origin of Species.. And then, even in Origin, he was very guarded about his conclusion.

[Fredda Weinberg]

11. I reached a similar conclusion

But it took three years of math and physics.

There are field equations, which determine the fate of certain particles within it. In that sense, all material objects can be described by the interaction of our sub-atomic energy/mass (at that level, there's no practical distinction) with the biggest field equation of 'em all - but I prefer to call it life itself, since it is indifferent.

[soothsayer]

15. Dammit, I'm no good at math! Does that make me evil?

[Sugarcoated]

17. I looked into this further

and it's she was actually "told" God is a pobability theory, which is a mathematical equation.

[NAO]

18. Yes. "God = The Square Root of -1"

The square root of -1, is of course i - which is an "imaginary number".

For those who are rusty on math, here's a definition. It does seems to fit God perfectly:

Imaginary Number - An imaginary number is a complex number that has zero real part. An imaginary number can therefore be written as a real number multiplied by the "imaginary unit" i (equal to the square root of -1 ). For emphasis, imaginary numbers are sometimes referred to as purely imaginary numbers.

Yep, "purely imaginary", that is an exact mathematical description of God.

Internet Infidels - The Secular Web
http://www.infidels.org

[hunter]

20. Maybe you are looking for Euler's Formula?

You can always google "euler's formula."

On the sublink of my first hit I saw this:

"These proofs do not require Euler's formula so there is no danger of circular reasoning."

:rofl:

Math humor. You gotta love it.

[Sugarcoated]

21. The other message board I frequent, this subject is

being discussed, and someone was speculating the mathematics of fractals in relation to the 'God is a mathematical equation theory'. Here's his take:

At first I thought that it would be impossible for a fractal system to become conscious, but in the model that I wrote further up this thread, I mentioned that the fractals could meet and combine into more complex systems.

In this way a fractal pattern could be conscious and every time the pattern absorbs another fractal, it learns and adapts itself to accept the new information.

If you put such a system in an environment where it is bombarded by new random information, which when processed a certain way; painted a picture of an ordered system, the fractal would perceive and be able to make conclusions about its environment.

It is a weird idea, but we could all be fractal systems, adapting and learning from an apparently linear yet random universe.

Without the linear universe a fractal system could achieve consciousness and would be able to learn by adapting information in the form of other fractal systems, but this process would be unimaginably slow. Within our linear and compressed universe, we are able to grow, learn and adapt at a much higher rate.

Perhaps GOD as an immense fractal system evolved at an immensely slow rate; eventually reaching the level of omnipotence and then devised the universe as a way of bearing offspring in a much quicker and more efficient way.

[MemphisTiger]

22. Maybe He's the answer to the Riemann Hypothesis

Just a thought

[Bill McBlueState]

23. this reminds me of the "God as a dimension" thread

We can take anything we want and attach the word "god" to it. But what does that really mean?

What does it mean to say "God is an equation"? Which equation is God, and which are just plain ole' equations? How can we tell? Can the equation be solved analytically? More importantly, is an equation to be worshipped, the way one worships traditional gods?

Until someone can articulate what it means to apply the name "god" to a particular equation, this comes across as angels dancing on the head of a pin.

[ozone_man]

25. God is a transcendental equation

for which there is no closed form solution, but numerical methods have approximated the solution by the value 1.618 (Phi), also known as the divine ratio, obtained from the ratio of successive terms in the Fibonacci series 0,1,1,2,3,5,8,13,21,34,55, ...

Further divinity is shown by taking the reciprocal 1/1.618 = 0.618 (phi), equally divine. And notice that Phi - phi = 1, another divine relationship. But the most divine indication is that the square of
(Phi squared - phi squared) = 5, another divine number.

OK, just kidding. But much of nature incorporates the divine or golden ratio in her structures, including the ratio of human bone proportions, pinecone and sunflower seed arrangement, broccoli and cauliflower branching, seashells, ... Nature’s work, not God’s.

http://goldennumber.net/

[hunter]

26. The mystery of phi and the divinity of five...

:rofl:

It's even funnier when you don't mungle the math.

Pi is another fun number to play with

Carl Sagan included a mystery of pi in his book Contact. Oddly enough, in the real world, this mystery of pi actually turned out to be a mystery of 5, but this was discovered only after Sagan had written the book.)

A formula for calculating any digit of pi, without keeping track of previous digits:



http://www.sciencenews.org/pages/sn_arc98/2_28_98/mathland.htm

But like religion, or physics, if you play too long at mathematics you will go mad; down the rabbit hole and through the looking glass.

Read to the last line of the article below, and then get back to me about your faith in "reason" and "logic."

http://www.sciencenews.org/pages/sn_arc98/2_21_98/mathland.htm

It's all in life's practice, atheists included.

[ozone_man]

28. What's mungled?

Also 7 is divine, since Phi ^ 4 + phi ^ 4 = 7

Are you a believer now?

That doesn't mean that anarchy reigns in mathematics, only that mathematical laws of a different kind might apply in certain situations. In such cases, statistical laws hold sway and probabilities describe the answers that come out of equations.

Seems logical and reasonable to me. :)

[hunter]

29. I could always, as Captain Piccard commanded, "Make it so."

If my recollections of your postings here on DU were correct, ozone_man, I didn't believe you to be a student of mathematical mysticism. I simply assumed you would recognize the madness...

If I am incorrect about this, please forgive me for maligning your Faith, and let the floodgates of Catholic Guilt open within my own heart.

Please do inform me if I should need to confess, I want to make this right.

But if you are by chance, a believer in "statistical laws," well that's Bullshit.

[ozone_man]

30. No, just having fun

with the topic of God as an equation. But I've always enjoyed mathematics and puzzles, but mostly I just use it daily in practical applications of science and engineering. Still, I find mathematical mysticism intriguing, but I leave it at that. What's more interesting to me is order found in nature, such as the Fibonacci series example or appreciating nature's fractal beauty, the pattern of waves on a lake, or ripples in the sand beneath the water. Order out of chaos.