I belong to a group which was started by women in the 1920s. The purpose of the group is continuing education. Each month the group meets and one member presents a research paper. After four years in the group, my number is up. Today is my day to present a paper. I love math and theology, so my topic is about both. It’s a teeny tiny history of the number Zero and its unlikely partner Infinity. Western mathematicians, the Greeks, in particular, rejected both concepts.
For almost 2000 years, Christians, along with the Greeks accepted Aristotle’s understanding of the cosmos. The Earth was the center of the universe and all of the other heavenly bodies revolved around it in a finite number of nicely spaced spheres. The last sphere was very dark blue with stars. And that described the entire universe, the whole deal. There wasn’t anything else except God. God rotated the outermost sphere and each sphere in turn rotated the next one in. There was no space, no void outside of the last sphere. So the notion of a void (a zero) or infinite space was very scary and even heretical.
Mathematics could not progress until zero became a number and the concept of infinity embraced.When Calculus acknowledged the relationship between the two seemingly distant ideas, scientific, industrial, and technological innovation took off.
I sometimes wonder why we Christians are often afraid of the evidence of science. If the universe is crafted by God in a beautiful scientific way, what do we have to fear? “Behold, God is my salvation, I will trust and not be afraid.” (Isaiah 12:2 NKJV)
