ISBN : 9780198703051
To open a newspaper or turn on the television it would appear that science and religion are polar opposites - mutually exclusive bedfellows competing for hearts and minds. There is little indication of the rich interaction between religion and science throughout history, much of which continues today. From ancient to modern times, mathematicians have played a key role in this interaction. This is a book on the relationship between mathematics and religious beliefs. It aims to show that, throughout scientific history, mathematics has been used to make sense of the 'big' questions of life, and that religious beliefs sometimes drove mathematicians to mathematics to help them make sense of the world. Containing contributions from a wide array of scholars in the fields of philosophy, history of science and history of mathematics, this book shows that the intersection between mathematics and theism is rich in both culture and character. Chapters cover a fascinating range of topics including the Sect of the Pythagoreans, Newton's views on the apocalypse, Charles Dodgson's Anglican faith and Godel's proof of the existence of God.
1. Introduction
2. The Pythagoreans: Number and Numerology
3. Divine light
4. Kepler and his Trinitarian Cosmology
5. The Lull before the storm: combinatorics in the Renaissance
6. Mystical Arithmetic in the Renaissance: From Biblical Hermeneutics to a Philosophical Tool
7. Newton, God, and the mathematics of the Two Books
8. Maria Gaetana Agnesi, mathematician of God
9. Capital G for Geometry: Masonic lore and the history of geometry
10. Charles Dodgeson's Work for God
11. P. G. Tait, Balfour Stewart and The Unseen Universe
12. Faith and Flatland
13. Godel's "proof" for the existence of God
