How Religion and Math Essentially Describe the Same Reality

Leopold Kronecker said, “God made the integers; all else is the work of man.” This idea doesn’t represent reality but it does represent man’s understanding of reality. Man’s knowledge has barely scratched the surface of God’s reality.

I would like to show how God’s laws and mathematical principles describe the same thing. The natural numbers are 1,2,3,4…  There is nothing natural about a number less than zero because more of nothing is still nothing. However, we call all the positive and negative numbers integers. Integers are the result of addition, subtraction and multiplication functions but when we divide, we don’t always get an integer. That is when the term rational number is used. A rational number is a number that can be made by dividing two integers. Rational numbers are all along the number line. However, in between, some of them are irrational. These are numbers that can’t be written as a fraction. They have an unrepeating sequence of digits after the decimal point that continue infinitely.

God operates in a reality that is perfectly compatible with infinity. In his laws he explains that justice and mercy both exist. I propose that justice is like a rational number. In addition, mercy is like an irrational number that has infinite potential.

“Mathematicians say that the rational numbers are dense. It is difficult to believe that there is space in between the rational for any real numbers.” (mathigon.org) In reality, there are an infinity of real numbers and very few natural numbers or rational numbers.

So why would God expect justice if it is as rare as a rational number?

Consider Alma 42:13, “Therefore, according to justice, the plan of redemption could not be brought about, only on conditions of repentance of men in this probationary state, yea, this preparatory state; for except it were for these conditions, mercy could not take effect except it should destroy the work of justice. Now the work of justice could not be destroyed; if so, God would cease to be God.”

Repentance can be compared to a function that produces an irrational result. Mercy only exists in between the rational aspects of justice. Justice, or rational numbers, cannot be destroyed. Everyone who breaks the laws of god, deserving the title sinner, has performed a function with a perfectly rational result. God cannot destroy the results but he can explain how mercy can be applied. It is called the “infinite” atonement.

Consider Alma 42:15, “And now, the plan of mercy could not be brought about except an atonement should be made; therefore God himself atoneth for the sins of the world, to bring about the plan of mercy, to appease the demands of justice, that God might be a perfect, just God, and a merciful God also.” 

God himself makes up the difference between irrational and perfection which he alone is capable of doing.

Isaiah warned in the Old Testament, “None calleth for justice, nor any pleadeth for truth: they trust in vanity, and speak lies; they conceive mischief, and bring forth iniquity.” (Isa 59:4) This speaks to man’s understanding of reality. Man thinks that justice and mercy are old wives tales, but they are the reality explained in a way humans understand. They represent laws that are eternal and will go into effect at some time if not immediately. The fact that we cannot see has no bearing on what is true. “Therefore is judgment far from us, neither doth justice overtake us: we wait for light, but behold obscurity; for brightness, but we walk in darkness. We grope for the wall like the blind, and we grope as if we had no eyes: we stumble at noonday as in the night; we are in desolate places as dead men.” (Isa 59:9-10)

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The Great High Priest

What does the blood of a goat, water, scarlet wool and a branch of hyssop have to do with each other?

These items were used by the priest in ancient Israel in a religious ceremony that cleansed the people. This ceremony took place in the tabernacle divided by a veil. The veil divided the tabernacle in half with the front portion being used daily by the priest to serve God. The back portion, called the Holiest or Holy of Holies, was entered by the priest only once a year on the Day of Atonement when he ritually cleansed the people.

All these rituals and practices focused the people on the importance of being cleansed by the priest. The living goat provided a vicarious sacrifice, the hyssop reminded the people of when the destroying angel passed over their homes because they had followed Moses’ counsel and painted the blood of their sacrificial animal on the doorposts. You can read about the wool here.

Then in 34 AD Jesus Christ, the Great High Priest, lived on Earth and passed through the veil of death into Heaven. He didn’t just die like a mere mortal. He was a divine being who lived a sinless life and offered his own blood as a symbol of his willingness to bear the just consequences of all the sins and infirmities of the people. In this way he paid the price justice demands and he offers mercy to us on his own terms. (He is a mediator) He shows us how to approach God and makes it possible for us to actually cross the veil and enter the Holiest places of Heaven.

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The Unique Gift of Jesus Christ

Think about the last time you gave someone a car. If you have never given a gift like this, imagine giving someone you love a car. Did that person have words to express how thankful they were? Did they even know what to say? It’s very difficult to express sincerely an emotion that is deep and powerful.

When I ponder the Savior, Jesus Christ, who came to Earth so that he could take upon himself the pains, the sicknesses, the death, the infirmities and the sins of his people — I don’t have words to express what that means to me. I have felt exquisite pain so intense that I thought I would rather die. He felt that pain multiplied by millions and he chose not to die. He only “gave up the ghost” or in other words died, when he had finished his work.

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My Thoughts on “Moral Combat: How Sex Divided American Christians”

I recently listened to a Think interview (10 Jan 2018) where the author of Moral Combat: How Sex Divided American Christians and Fractured American Politics discussed her new book on the history of the sexual revolution in America. In the interview, R Marie Griffith, explained that Protestants and Catholics were both generally opposed to birth control until a Catholic priest took a stand and then Protestants were galvanized to support birth control just because it was opposed by Catholics.

In many ways, the debate in the public square over sexuality and social justice continues to galvanize people. I have observed how same sex marriage has not been an issue people put out of their minds. Instead they take sides and defend their position with very little common decency. There appears to be no middle ground in today’s debate.

If as Marie Griffith has written, that the sexual revolution fractured American Christianity in the 1920’s, than it is amazing that, in contrast, these social changes are unifying American Mormons. Our position on permissible sexual activity limited to heterosexual marriages and chastity before marriage has not changed. In fact, members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints have strengthened their resolve to defend the position that sexuality is a divinely authorized privilege by which the unborn spirit children of a Heavenly Father are welcomed into this Earthly mortal life. All varieties of sexual deviancy which included adultery, prostitution, pornography, sexual abuse and perversion are unauthorized uses of the physical body and we will be held accountable for our actions in a post-mortem interview with our Father God.