by Orestes J. Gonzalez

Created on: September 06, 2008   Last Updated: April 25, 2011

The unreasonable effectiveness of mathematics in the natural sciences is an astonishing phenomenon that almost no one fails to recognize. (1) But regarding the harmony of faith and reason in the search for truth, does mathematics play any role at all? Here are some insightful observations on mathematics and the interplay between faith and reason in the search for truth.

In an encounter with the youth of Rome in Saint Peter Square, Pope Benedict XVI was asked to explain how the deposit of revelation and scientific theory can converge in the search for truth. In his answer, the Roman Pontiff invited the students to reflect first on the nature of mathematics.

Benedict XVI described mathematical tools as an invention of the human intellect. As such, he said, mathematical tools are key to understanding nature because nature is truly structured in a mathematical way.

We can work with nature, we can put nature at our service, and we can use nature, thanks to this invention of human intelligence. Mathematics gives us access to nature and allows us to see that the structure of the universe and the inventions of the human mind coincide in an incredible way.

In the world, there is man, the human being, an intelligent being, and there is also an intelligible material universe. That these two intelligibilities coincide is seen most clearly in the effectiveness of mathematics for scientific research.

At a higher level, the intelligibility of the acting person conceives the mathematical tools to work with and, at a lower level, the intelligibility of reality provides confirmation and support for mathematical conceptualization.

These two intelligibilities are identical, the Pope affirms, in the sense that the ability to speculate proper to the human intellect is matched by the intelligibility of the real world. This coincidence he identifies as a great enigma and a great challenge because in the final analysis this coincidence paves the way to ascend to an even superior level, the level of metaphysics, where the conclusion is that a supreme Intelligence links them both.

Our ability to speculate could not discover the intelligent structure of nature were there not an identical antecedent project for both.

Yet, even though the reliable and intelligent structure of the material world is a wise presupposition to start with, this conception of the world is not free from challenges. There is the alternative of the theories of chaos.

The theories of chaos, the Pope affirms,

• 1
• 2
• 3
• Next Page >>