Equations of Worship
November 17, 2007 11:27 pmby Aaron Radke
Worship is beholding truth and finding it wonderful.
Physics had a profound influence on my understanding of worship. I sought the solid order of equations to escape the unstable ground of emotion. The world could be described in beautiful equations apart from frenzied emotion. Yet, in upheaval, worship grabbed me from behind. All of a sudden, I realized I could not explain why I rose in my seat in riveting wonder as derivations unfurled. Beyond the equations, I was stupefied by the capacity for wonder. We were made for wonder. Worship is beholding truth and finding it wonderful. Blindness and desecration is truth with disinterest.
Beauty is simple and at the same time massively entangled. The following are a sample of equations that exceedingly match this criteria.
From mathematics, Euler’s equation:
Eq[euler]simply relates fundamental constants by fundamental operations.
From physics, Einstein’s equation for energy:
Eq[emc2]combines seemingly unrelated fundamentals of nature.
From engineering, the description of dynamic states:
 | |
| Eq[states] |
succinctly describes any physical system.
Riding on the Tails of Infinity
2:02 pmby Aaron Radke
Infinity inextricably surrounds our finite experiences. We ought to be taught by the infinite tails that lie at our finite doorstep.
A linguistic friend once pulled this amazing piece of infinitude out of his pocket. By impromptu, he said, “Rye bread, salami and cheese from Denmark tastes great on sidewalk cafe’s under umbrellas.” He continued to remark that no one has ever said this finite set of 14 words before and no one ever else will. In that moment the finite was flirting with the infinite. Every sentence flirts; even this little one.
Examples, of this romance between the finite and infinite surround us. Fingerprints and snow flakes are mind boggling unique. A few notes in a western music scale have provided years of inexhaustible creativity. Often, ecstatic experiences come when time disappears. Finite time dissolves, in deep engaging conversation, an enjoyable thrilling ride or a grasped pure idea. The familiar Gaussian bell curve has infinite tails. In a giant upheaval, Leibniz and Newton sparked calculus into existence by observing infinitude in the instantaneous.
It is difficult to deny the perpetual longing for infinity. I remember as a young child being mesmerized in the simple mobius strip. What is the reason of this wonder? Why am I alarmed at a strand of gray hair? Why is an older woman often surprised at her aging body?
C.S Lewis surmised,
We are so little reconciled to time that we are even astonished at it. “How he’s grown!” we exclaim, “How time flies!” as though the universal form of our experience were again and again a novelty. It is as strange as if a fish were repeatedly surprised at the wetness of water. And that would be strange indeed; unless of course the fish were destined to become, one day, a land animal.
([Lewi64psalms])“if we find in ourselves a desire that no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that we were made for another world.
([Lewi??])
The mathematical genius Pascal wrote,
For after all what is man in nature? A nothing in relation to infinity, all in relation to nothing, a central point between nothing and all and infinitely far from understanding either. The ends of things and their beginnings are impregnably concealed from him in an impenetrable secret. He is equally incapable of seeing the nothingness out of which he was drawn and the infinite in which he is engulfed.
([Pasc1670Pensees] #72)
The infinite blows our minds. We need to daily go here for worship. Souls are refreshed by wonder. If heaven is a continual further up and further in [Alco04heaven], our minds will spend forever perfectly exploring and forever worshiping with wonder.
Rational Creatures of Worship
April 30, 2007 11:12 amby Aaron Radke
I spent the morning at the edge of a valley river bank. I felt like Annie [Dill74Pilgrim]. I was merely enjoying the bright sun and babbling rapids when I was given a free penny. A fish fluttered in the water right in front of my face. A carp, of some sort, freely frolicked in the shallow water. I wondered about its strange dance only to find it and three others were chasing down minnows. I think they were all unaware of me. The sun, the rapids, the big fish, and the little fish all declared the glory of God. Then, no longer a bystander, I began to feel a weight of my own unique creature-ness during this correspondence at the bank. I too, as a rational observing creature, was part of this divine interaction and was dutifully able to consciously declare the glory of God. Worship.
God is glorified not only by His glory’s being seen, but by its being rejoiced in. When those that see it delight in it, God is more glorified than if they only see it. His glory is then received by the whole soul, both by the understanding and by the heart. God made the world that He might communicate, and the creature receive, His glory; and that it might [be] received both by the mind and heart. He that testifies his idea of God’s glory [doesn’t] glorify God so much as he that testifies also his approbation of it and his delight in it.
(Jonathan Edwards [Edwa1764theend, Pipe98theend])
Mathematics and the Embodied Mind for Awe
April 20, 2007 9:52 pmby Aaron Radke
“Where mathematics comes from” [Lako00mathematics] is a perfect example of brilliant authors who take awe, but have no proper place to consummate that awe. The only logical conclusion is sought in ourselves.
The authors overflow with awe, longing to share and express wonder beyond mere proofs and into the beautiful meaning behind equations. The wonder is incredible. The clear explanations of mathematics connected with the linguistic conceptual metaphor is awe inspiring. Through this book these authors paint a clear picture of fundamental awe behind mathematics.
How are we able to speak of beauty and awe and glory come from when it is rooted in ourselves? Awe and beauty is beholding the big outside. We do not travel to Niagara falls to be filled with awe that we constructed, but rather to be lost in the expanse.
Here are two questions to keep in mind when reading this book.
What is the source of awe, and what is the purpose and meaning of awe itself?
Here is a pivotal paragraph from this book:
Mathematics as we know it is human mathematics, a product of the human mind. Where does mathematics come from? It comes from us! We create it, but it is not arbitrary–not a mere historically contingent social construction. What makes mathematics non-arbitrary is that it uses the basic conceptual mechanisms of the embodied human mind as it has evolved in the real world. Mathematics is a product of the neural capacities of our brains, the nature of our bodies, our evolution our environment and our long social and cultural history.
( [Lako00mathematics])
Contrast this quote with one from John Piper:
Most people don’t go the Grand Canyon to enhance their self-esteem because there is an echo of the image of God on our souls that we were made to enjoy making much of God forever, not made to be made much of forever..
We were made to enjoy mirroring the glory of God, and when people go to the Grand Canyon there is something that happens in the human soul standing on the edge of that expanse that draws them out of themselves and in a moment, there is a precious gift of self-forgetfulness in which they swell with wonder.
That’s why they’re made and they all need positive echoes of it and they go to big crazy movies and they buy big books to put on their coffee tables with pictures of mountains and rivers because they know that their joy really comes from outside themselves and not by standing in front of a mirror. You were not created to find joy in a mirror no matter what you see there.
([Pipe03missions])
Neurons of Worship
April 17, 2007 3:37 pmby Aaron Radke
The IBM Blue Brain Project is providing stunning research in cognitive intelligence. With a massive super computer parts of the neocortex are modeled and simulated. The neocortex makes up the largest portion of the human brain. Here, complex patterns are stored and conceptual thoughts are connected.
Jeff Hawkins started Numeta, a company promoting software patterned on the hierarchal storage and processing power of a collection of neurons in the neocortex.
Both Numeta and IBM are revealing fascinating features of our brains. Information is stored by continually presenting it with material. Overtime, the hierarchal pattern of neurons in the neocortex is trained to store essential features of interest. Repeating a wide variety of material provides a highly accentuated set of neurons that contain common essential patterns while deciphering from non important aspects. As an adult of varied experiences, an ornate victorian sofa and a bland wood stool both light up neurons associated with sitting.
Two conclusions are:
- A wide range of experiences from many vantage points should be explored
- Care is required regarding what is fed to the brain; it shapes how the world is seen
At first, these conclusions appear to be diametrically opposed to each other. Choosing a limited set of experiences goes against experiencing all. A combined understanding comes from the concept of value.
Neurons are a distinct opportunity to encode value. Spending time on a topic or activity records value in neurons. Worship is a display of value. All of life is a display of value. All of life is worship.
Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.
(Philipians4:8)For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit. To set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace. For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God’s law; indeed, it cannot.
(Romans8:5-7)
