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Author Topic: Spirituality and Mathematics  (Read 4633 times)

Juniperberry

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Spirituality and Mathematics
« on: December 16, 2015, 10:46:47 am »
The Arts are commonly associated with spirituality (f'ex just take a gander at the Pop Culture paganism thread), but I'm curious how often people find their spirituality inspired by mathematical concepts and in what ways.
The pace of progress in artificial intelligence (I’m not referring to narrow AI) is incredibly fast. [...] The risk of something seriously dangerous happening is in the five year timeframe. 10 years at most.--Elon Musk

I am in the camp that is concerned about super intelligence," [Bill] Gates wrote. "First the machines will do a lot of jobs for us and not be super intelligent. That should be positive if we manage it well. A few decades after that though the intelligence is strong enough to be a concern. I agree with Elon Musk and some others on this and don\'t understand why some people are not concerned."

Lana288

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Re: Spirituality and Mathematics
« Reply #1 on: December 16, 2015, 01:34:17 pm »
Quote from: Juniperberry;183543
The Arts are commonly associated with spirituality (f'ex just take a gander at the Pop Culture paganism thread), but I'm curious how often people find their spirituality inspired by mathematical concepts and in what ways.

 
One of the coolest things that I ever learned about Ancient Egyptians was that the highest number that they had a symbol for was one million, which (iirc) was also used to represent infinity. The symbol used was that of a general deity, which I thought was *so cool* because it implied that the gods were infinite too, and for some reason seeing a hieroglyph that represented that was really interesting. It was a really fun mind journey, and kind of inspirational.

Yei

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Re: Spirituality and Mathematics
« Reply #2 on: December 16, 2015, 09:31:13 pm »
Quote from: Juniperberry;183543
The Arts are commonly associated with spirituality (f'ex just take a gander at the Pop Culture paganism thread), but I'm curious how often people find their spirituality inspired by mathematical concepts and in what ways.

 
I suspect that math and spirituality are more closely linked than it might first appear. Obviously astronomy and religion/worship are closely related, and one does need good maths to do good astronomy.

Speaking of Mesoamerica, maths was obviously important for the aforementioned astronomy, but computations were also important for the calendars. And since the gods had their own sacred dates I'd say that knowing maths is very important, as it suggests good times for rituals.

Wimsaur

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Re: Spirituality and Mathematics
« Reply #3 on: December 18, 2015, 10:04:02 am »
Quote from: Juniperberry;183543
The Arts are commonly associated with spirituality (f'ex just take a gander at the Pop Culture paganism thread), but I'm curious how often people find their spirituality inspired by mathematical concepts and in what ways.
Mathematics teaches equilibrium. An equation always has two sides that must be balanced.
Various forms of mathematics (arithmetic, algebra, geometry, calculus, etc.) teach different types of equilibrium.

All of its teachings can be relevant to our spirituality.

Consider one of the first lessons you learned of arithmetic:
Any number n times 1 = n.
Further there ate literally infinite equations that = 1.

-Wimsaur.

MeadowRae

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Re: Spirituality and Mathematics
« Reply #4 on: December 19, 2015, 09:19:05 am »
Quote from: Juniperberry;183543
The Arts are commonly associated with spirituality (f'ex just take a gander at the Pop Culture paganism thread), but I'm curious how often people find their spirituality inspired by mathematical concepts and in what ways.

 
It may seem a bit simple, but I remember being spiritually inspired in statistics. It seems that the law of averages always works out, regardless of what or whom you are studying. How is it that a random population fits so nicely on a Bell curve? I was inspired to look at all things on a scale (or grid); to look in terms of polarity and not the dualism I had been taught.
The genderqueer witch your mother warned you about

Kylara

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Re: Spirituality and Mathematics
« Reply #5 on: December 19, 2015, 11:39:41 am »
Quote from: Juniperberry;183543
The Arts are commonly associated with spirituality (f'ex just take a gander at the Pop Culture paganism thread), but I'm curious how often people find their spirituality inspired by mathematical concepts and in what ways.

 
I am a huge math fan (among other things).  For me, math is soothing, I love working out equations.  I think there definitely can be comparisons made to more complex equations representing the way life works.  There are rules, but they aren't always obvious, not everyone understands them, and often at first glance it all just seems a mess, but if you riddle it out, then eventually you end up with a very simple answer.

I was fascinated with the early connections between math and spirituality.  Looking at the progression from the point (the monad, the source, the circle), to the line (the dyad, the Vesica piscus), to the triangle and then the square.  A lot of numerology theory speaks heavily to me of math.

Then there are the platonic solids and the ideas of them as representations of elements.  The golden ratio and Fibonacci sequence, which reflect throughout nature.  And fractals, which sort of remind me of the macrocosm/microcosm.

Sometimes I think that math seeks to explain many of the same things that faith does (and science).  There are many ways of looking at something, and so many times I think that people who think they have very different perspectives are actually often much closer in their thoughts than they realize...they are just using distinctly different vocabulary to explain themselves.
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Altair

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Re: Spirituality and Mathematics
« Reply #6 on: December 19, 2015, 01:54:11 pm »
Quote from: Kylara;183644
I am a huge math fan (among other things).  For me, math is soothing, I love working out equations.  I think there definitely can be comparisons made to more complex equations representing the way life works.  There are rules, but they aren't always obvious, not everyone understands them, and often at first glance it all just seems a mess, but if you riddle it out, then eventually you end up with a very simple answer.

I was fascinated with the early connections between math and spirituality.  Looking at the progression from the point (the monad, the source, the circle), to the line (the dyad, the Vesica piscus), to the triangle and then the square.  A lot of numerology theory speaks heavily to me of math.

Then there are the platonic solids and the ideas of them as representations of elements.  The golden ratio and Fibonacci sequence, which reflect throughout nature.  And fractals, which sort of remind me of the macrocosm/microcosm.


This, known commonly as sacred geometry (one of my favorite topics):
http://ecauldron.com/forum/showwiki.php?title=Sacred+Geometry

I use math both to explore my spirituality and and to symbolize it. It offers me intriguing insights.

For example, the symbol in the signature of my posts is at its heart a circle circumscribing an equilateral triangle. The circle (all encompassing; no beginning, no end; linked to a transcendental number [pi]) represents the Goddess, while the triangle (least encompassing regular polygon for the same radius as the given circle) has three equal faces, each representing one of Her three male aspects. That gives me the yin-yang, alpha-omega symbolism I associate with the Goddess/Triad God relationship, while still describing visually how the Goddess contains her own counterparts.

What's more, each face of the triangle has the same mathematical value as the long axis of a vesica piscis (which is a symbol commonly used to suggest the union of a duality to create something new). In fact, the triangle is constructed by overlapping 3 equal circles at regular intervals around the central Goddess circle; this symbolizes the union of the Goddess with her three male counterparts, a central part of my creation myth. The "offspring" of each union (the symbols around the inside edge of the circle) fall within the resulting vesica piscis--the "something new" emerging from each mating.
« Last Edit: December 19, 2015, 01:56:01 pm by Altair »
The first song sets the wheel in motion / The second is a song of love / The third song tells of Her devotion / The fourth cries joy from the sky above
The fifth song binds our fate to silence / and bids us live each moment well / The sixth unleashes rage and violence / The seventh song has truth to tell
The last song echoes through the ages / to ask its question all night long / And close the circle on these pages / These, the metamythos songs

Kylara

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Re: Spirituality and Mathematics
« Reply #7 on: December 20, 2015, 12:34:22 pm »
Quote from: Altair;183647
This, known commonly as sacred geometry (one of my favorite topics):
http://ecauldron.com/forum/showwiki.php?title=Sacred+Geometry

I use math both to explore my spirituality and and to symbolize it. It offers me intriguing insights.

For example, the symbol in the signature of my posts is at its heart a circle circumscribing an equilateral triangle. The circle (all encompassing; no beginning, no end; linked to a transcendental number [pi]) represents the Goddess, while the triangle (least encompassing regular polygon for the same radius as the given circle) has three equal faces, each representing one of Her three male aspects. That gives me the yin-yang, alpha-omega symbolism I associate with the Goddess/Triad God relationship, while still describing visually how the Goddess contains her own counterparts.

What's more, each face of the triangle has the same mathematical value as the long axis of a vesica piscis (which is a symbol commonly used to suggest the union of a duality to create something new). In fact, the triangle is constructed by overlapping 3 equal circles at regular intervals around the central Goddess circle; this symbolizes the union of the Goddess with her three male counterparts, a central part of my creation myth. The "offspring" of each union (the symbols around the inside edge of the circle) fall within the resulting vesica piscis--the "something new" emerging from each mating.

 
And that is why I love exploring math and spirituality!
Check out my Patreon for more writing and other goodies!

Juniperberry

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Re: Spirituality and Mathematics
« Reply #8 on: December 20, 2015, 03:33:09 pm »
Quote from: Kylara;183665
And that is why I love exploring math and spirituality!

 
I'm enjoying everyone's comments so far!

And I agree with you, Kylara. I also find math relaxing. In fact, the rules and order of math are so reassuring that I'd like to believe that that is how gods also operate; solid and steady and constant.
The pace of progress in artificial intelligence (I’m not referring to narrow AI) is incredibly fast. [...] The risk of something seriously dangerous happening is in the five year timeframe. 10 years at most.--Elon Musk

I am in the camp that is concerned about super intelligence," [Bill] Gates wrote. "First the machines will do a lot of jobs for us and not be super intelligent. That should be positive if we manage it well. A few decades after that though the intelligence is strong enough to be a concern. I agree with Elon Musk and some others on this and don\'t understand why some people are not concerned."

RecycledBenedict

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Re: Spirituality and Mathematics
« Reply #9 on: December 20, 2015, 04:36:56 pm »
Quote from: Juniperberry;183543
The Arts are commonly associated with spirituality (f'ex just take a gander at the Pop Culture paganism thread), but I'm curious how often people find their spirituality inspired by mathematical concepts and in what ways.


From the Graeco-Roman environment there is the book The Theology of Arithmetics, attributed to the 4th century philosopher Iamblichus. If that book really is written by Iamblichus or not, is another question, but it is anyhow from the late Pagan civilisation, and a good example how Neo-Pythagoreanism looked like back then.

Gnowan

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Re: Spirituality and Mathematics
« Reply #10 on: January 22, 2016, 11:11:47 pm »
Quote from: Juniperberry;183543
The Arts are commonly associated with spirituality (f'ex just take a gander at the Pop Culture paganism thread), but I'm curious how often people find their spirituality inspired by mathematical concepts and in what ways.

 
Me.  I'm not going to respond to the question because it's too much for one post.  There's so much....!

~Gnowan

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