God is the best explanation of the applicability of mathematics to the physical world. Philosophers and scientists have puzzled over what physicist Eugene Wigner called “the unreasonable effectiveness of mathematics.” How is it that a theorist like Peter Higgs (Nobel Prize laureate for his work on the mass of subatomic particles) can sit down at his desk and by poring over mathematical equations predict the existence of a fundamental particle, which 30 years later, after investing millions of dollars and thousands of man hours, experimentalists are finally able to detect? Mathematics is the language of nature. But how is this to be explained?
If mathematical objects are abstract entities causally isolated from the universe, then the applicability of mathematics to the physical world is, in the words of the philosopher of mathematics Mary Leng, “a happy coincidence.” On the other hand, if mathematical objects are just useful fictions, then how is it that nature is written in the language of these fictions? The naturalist has no explanation for the uncanny applicability of mathematics to the physical world. By contrast, the theist has a ready explanation. When God created the universe, he designed it on the mathematical structure which he had in mind.
We can summarize this argument as follows:
- If God did not exist, the applicability of mathematics would be a happy coincidence.
- The applicability of mathematics is not a happy coincidence.
- Therefore, God exists.
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