Science, maths and God

Sitting on the floor nestled cosily between a wall and a couch might seem a curious place to have a deep and meaningful conversation with a mathematician. Yet that’s what occurred in 1976. I was only 22 years old, an undergraduate student of biology, earth science, psychology and chemistry at university. For some unaccountable reason most of my friends were mathematicians and computer programmers. I’d been invited to a party at the home of one of the mathematics staff. Being quite shy, I had ended up behind the couch with a fellow shy person, the aforementioned mathematics professor. What wonder-full abstractions we discussed I don’t recall now. However it led to my chat-buddy going quiet for a moment and then saying, with a reverent expression: “You can’t study Pure Mathematics for very long before you come to the inescapable conclusion that there must be a God.”

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