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by jessermeyer 1309 days ago
Mathematicians I personally know well are stoutly religious. They describe the world of number and form and structure with the same kind of language the clergy describe God, and so there is some sense in which these are felt as aspects of the same thing.

I also know a number of engineers who are deeply religious, perhaps encouraged by recognizing "design" in nature, seemingly requiring a designer.

In my conversations with these people, their faith, while socially speaking is Christian, the specifics have hardly anything to do with traditional or orthodox theology. It's, as I perceive this, the only acceptable social structure available to them to live out these deep feelings of beauty and harmony in community.
1 comments
leephillips 1309 days ago
I always found Donald Knuth’s professed Christianity somewhat curious. Then I watched a small bit of his interview with Lex Fridman, and happened to catch the part where he speculates that maybe God is a big computer. So, OK.
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jessermeyer 1309 days ago
Knuth had serious doubts in his college days, but ultimately decided it was "OK to believe in something unprovable." Which to me speaks to his humility.
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JackFr 1309 days ago
> where he speculates that maybe God is a big computer.

I cringe at phrases like that. It's empty theologically and technologically. It represents a complete inability in imagining what God could be, and a naive, childish pride in our little creations, these computers. While in his internal driven world view it might make sense, to me it has no more or less truth than "maybe God is a big steam engine"

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leephillips 1309 days ago
Please don’t judge DEK based on my hasty summary; check out the interview for the context. My only point was that the Christianity in the head of someone like Knuth is probably a bit more fluid and creative than whatever’s in the heads of the people who come to your door on Sunday morning to save your soul.
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JackFr 1309 days ago
Yeah - indeed I probably was a little hasty and uncharitable. I have a ton of respect for Knuth both as a computer scientist and as a religious believer. I will try to look up the interview, because I am curious to get the context around the quote.
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scotty79 1309 days ago
> It represents a complete inability in imagining what God could be, and a naive, childish pride in our little creations [...]

Aren't all religious statements just like that?

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