Kerby Anderson

Perhaps you have seen an Internet meme that connects mathematics to the universe. It begins with a quote by Eugene Wigner, a Nobel-prize winning physicist who was considered one of the sharpest minds in quantum theory.

He observed that “the unreasonable effectiveness of mathematics in the natural sciences is something bordering on the mysterious.” Humans invented math to count, trade, and organize logic. Yet the universe obeys equations with “terrifying precision.”

Humans didn’t invent math to explain the universe, yet it not only explains it but predicts it as well. Math predicted antimatter before it was ever seen. Einstein’s equations described black holes and gravitational waves decades before anyone could measure them. The equations came first. Reality followed.

If math was merely a tool that humans invented, why does it also explain the universe that secular scientists believe is merely running on blind chance? That is not what we would expect. One physicist explained it like this: “It’s like inventing a house key . . . then discovering it opens a door on another planet.”

Secular scientists may even find it dangerous because it asks a question science isn’t built to answer: Why does the universe speak a language it never learned? Perhaps math isn’t just a tool. Perhaps it is the operating system of reality.

We aren’t just studying the universe. We are reading something that was written. And that suggests that there was a Creator who created. We are reading what He has written.

It’s not really that mysterious. It’s only logical. Design implies a Designer. A mathematical language of the universe implies an Author.