#ontological proof

- by Priya Ramesh Desai

I am a geek. I’ve never been good at math but I love the theories and formula. Numbers seem like a universal language to me. In a tipsy topsy world mathematic equations seem comforting in their reliability and isn’t that what the ultimate idea of a God is? I think it was Hafiz or Rabia that said “Anything that comforts is God”.

I ran into mathematician, Kurt Gödel’s theorems years ago.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/G%C3%B6del%27s_ontological_proof

Gödel's ontological proof is a formal argument by the mathematician Kurt Gödel (1906–1978) for the existence of God. The argument is in a line of development that goes back to Anselm of Canterbury (1033–1109). St. Anselm's ontological argument, in its most succinct form, is as follows: "God, by definition, is that for which no greater can be conceived. God exists in the understanding. If God exists in the understanding, we could imagine Him to be greater by existing in reality. Therefore, God must exist." A more elaborate version was given by Gottfried Leibniz (1646–1716); this is the version that Gödel studied and attempted to clarify with his ontological argument.

Gödel left a fourteen-point outline of his philosophical beliefs in his papers.[1] Points relevant to the ontological proof include

4. There are other worlds and rational beings of a different and higher kind.

5. The world in which we live is not the only one in which we shall live or have lived.

13. There is a scientific (exact) philosophy and theology, which deals with concepts of the highest abstractness; and this is also most highly fruitful for science.

14. Religions are, for the most part, bad—but religion is not.

In an odd way, it comforted me and inspired this poem:

—

The God Theorem

my Beloved speaks to me in

one-point-six-one-eights , 7-7-1-3s and 8’s.

Do you think that is crazy?

Maybe

madness is just another language of God

as is Math.

i used to search for my Beloved

by gazing the stars for a map to His dwelling.

i used to beg my Beloved for miracles

some divine documentable sign to prove

that He exists.

i found instead there is no proof that He is not.

i tried to find Him using simple Geometry and PreCal

and e-em-cee-squares and string theories of n-10s.

Then, my Beloved called to me one night in a mantra

of exponents.

Now, tell me the highest number.

And name the last digit of Pi.

Count the increments you find between zero-point-zero and one.

And divide any number until there is naught.

X=God.