God, Math, and Believing In A Higher Power

     I know some of  the class will not read this post, as I put the dreaded M word in the title. I'm not really sure why it is that people who really love Literature tend to despise Math, but it seems to be a trend. I actually enjoy Math; I have made it from Pre-algebra to Survey of Calc at MSU  (a moment of silence while everyone gasps and clutches their hearts).
     Really, there is a lot of Math in Literature. Think about the Bible; there are numbers everywhere in it. There is an entire book called Numbers. Stick with me for a few minutes and I will show you why Math+Bible=Really Cool Stuff. Yes, here "cool stuff" is a technical term. I swear I will not ask you to compute anything and as a bonus, I will add cool pictures at the end.
     According to the Bible, as you know, in the beginning God was talking to himself a lot (Genesis). If you look in the New Testament in the Gospel According to Saint John you will find the first line is, "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God" (John 1:1-2). If you have not read it but it looks familiar, check out the cover of your Bible. So, there was the word and there was God, and He starts talking away and as He talks he creates things. What language do you suppose He was speaking? Do you think maybe it could have been something everyone could understand? I was thinking about this when I remembered something I learned a while back.....
     Be brave; this is where the Math comes in. I have heard people say many times (usually in the Math department) that God speaks Math. I know, you are thinking "Big deal; people say a lot of things"; at least that is what I thought at the time. Last year, I watched a documentary about fractals. It seems that a Mathematician named Mandelbrot (November 20 1924-October 14 2010 source: wiki) discovered something new. He found a way to explain many things in nature and a way to measure what had been seen as nearly impossible. This man started the study of fractal geometry.
    Fractal geometry explains, among many other things, patterns in nature. From watching Fractals: Hunting the Hidden Dimension I learned that even trees have exacting patterns. This also seems to apply to entire forests. Other applications are in measuring coastlines (who knew there was such a problem), and in medicine. The human body is full of fractals! This is huge for medicine, scientists are working with mathematicians to discover and hopefully someday fix the patterns in the human body. For example, a tumor has a fractal structure, but a cancerous one is a mess, like a big ball of yarn after a cat fight. I won't get into all the details of the math, but really if you watch the documentary I think you might be pleasantly surprised. I guarantee you will never look at a tree the same way again.
    What does this have to do with the Bible? Everything! These fractals are actually being used by some to show that there was a creator. The believe is that this absolute pattern shows a designer. If there is a creator god, then he was designing with math. Sounds good to me, usually people who build important things tend to plan and measure a lot. There is a lot of math to it. When I build something I hardly measure, it usually falls apart, and I have someone else do it. Yes, I like doing math, just not applying it; I'll work on that another day. So, maybe God did not speak Math, but he must have used a lot of it. Math is actually just a language that explains how things work. (Don't ask about the Language of Math class; it was the only one I could not understand).The evidence of the same pattern in everything does seem interesting. Like maybe there could be a creator.
      This thought makes me feel a bit better. Reading the Bible, I cannot say I agree with everything. I really thought the New Testament would make me feel more accepting of the Christian religion; it has not. Considering all the controversy that goes on with organized religions I am not sure I want to gamble my soul,assuming I have one, on any of them. I do enjoy the Bible, and I think it has a lot to tell us. What great literature does not? But for an actual lawful guide to life; maybe not so much. However, I still think believing in something bigger than oneself is a very comforting and healthy thing. So, here is my evidence of a creator. I'm not sure of all the stories that go with it,  I think I would have to take more math for that...
      As promised, here are some fractal pictures. What you were expecting equations? (scroll down)