September 13, 2011
What is the language we use to speak to God? Some of us use prayer. Others song, or music, or art. Some rely on actions to speak for them. Others simply avoid the conversation. Both Herman Wouk and Masha Gessen, using very different approaches, suggest that the language in which we communicate with God might not be Hebrew or English, or art, or song, but quite possibly mathematics. Mathematics is a language of symbols, variables, and concepts, each so well-defined and pure that if we humans want to talk with God, the language of math might just give us our best chance.
In his ninety-fifth year, HermanWouk is still deciphering his own profound conversation with God.Wouk, aman who davens every day, speaks with God in the language of the Torah. YetWouk has had a lifelong fascination withmathematics and the sciences that communicate usingmathematics. His book is a philosophical stroll through pivotal scientific achievements of the 20th century as well as recollections of conversations shared with some of its most famous physicists: Richard Feynman,Murray Gell-Man, Freeman Dyson, and Steven Weinberg.Wouk’s smooth,masterful writing covers weighty questions, such as what is our purpose in the world and how do both religion and science informthat purpose, as if they were casual chat over a cup of coffee. EvenWouk’s title is inspired by a deceptively simple question fromRichard Feynman, who askedWouk if he knew Calculus.Wouk replied he did not. In response Feynmen advised, “You had better learn it. It’s the language God speaks.”
Although we will never know mathematician Grigory Perelman’s thoughts on God, it’s not a stretch to assume that his God speaks the language of mathematics. Using extensive interviews with Perelman’s teachers and colleagues, Masha Gessen explores Perelman’s story from his childhood as a mathematics prodigy in the Soviet Union through his time at universities in the United States and his return to Russia where he spent seven years developing the solution to one of the great mathematical problems of the century, the Poincairé conjecture. Following the release of Perelman’s seminal work in 2002, he cloistered himself ever more from the world, eventually speaking to no one outside of his family. Gessen skillfully documents the toll that the complications of reality, including the anti-Semitic policies of the Soviet Union, exerted on a man whose mind only tolerates perfect rigor. With careful insight, she explores Perelman’s ultimate retreat into a world composed entirely of mathematical ideals; a world where, perhaps, talking with God is finally achieved.
In his ninety-fifth year, HermanWouk is still deciphering his own profound conversation with God.Wouk, aman who davens every day, speaks with God in the language of the Torah. YetWouk has had a lifelong fascination withmathematics and the sciences that communicate usingmathematics. His book is a philosophical stroll through pivotal scientific achievements of the 20th century as well as recollections of conversations shared with some of its most famous physicists: Richard Feynman,Murray Gell-Man, Freeman Dyson, and Steven Weinberg.Wouk’s smooth,masterful writing covers weighty questions, such as what is our purpose in the world and how do both religion and science informthat purpose, as if they were casual chat over a cup of coffee. EvenWouk’s title is inspired by a deceptively simple question fromRichard Feynman, who askedWouk if he knew Calculus.Wouk replied he did not. In response Feynmen advised, “You had better learn it. It’s the language God speaks.”
Although we will never know mathematician Grigory Perelman’s thoughts on God, it’s not a stretch to assume that his God speaks the language of mathematics. Using extensive interviews with Perelman’s teachers and colleagues, Masha Gessen explores Perelman’s story from his childhood as a mathematics prodigy in the Soviet Union through his time at universities in the United States and his return to Russia where he spent seven years developing the solution to one of the great mathematical problems of the century, the Poincairé conjecture. Following the release of Perelman’s seminal work in 2002, he cloistered himself ever more from the world, eventually speaking to no one outside of his family. Gessen skillfully documents the toll that the complications of reality, including the anti-Semitic policies of the Soviet Union, exerted on a man whose mind only tolerates perfect rigor. With careful insight, she explores Perelman’s ultimate retreat into a world composed entirely of mathematical ideals; a world where, perhaps, talking with God is finally achieved.
