Q&A: God and Mathematics
God and Mathematics
Question
It is accepted by us that God created everything—matter, the laws of nature, and so on—and essentially He could have created everything differently. Did He also determine that 1+1 = 2, or is that beyond Him? In other words, could He have created a world in which 1 + 1 = 3? Or is that simply reality and not connected to Him at all?
Answer
The laws of mathematics are not laws in the same sense that the laws of physics or the laws of the state are laws. They are rules grounded in logical relations between concepts, and therefore no one created them and no one can depart from them. I have discussed this in many places here on the site (search: the laws of logic).
Discussion on Answer
He is. I referred you to search.
Rabbi, why can we accept God’s infinity—something our minds, which think in terms of cause and effect, cannot grasp—yet not be willing to accept that a different logic might exist?
From our point of view, both infinity and a different logic are inconceivable, but that does not mean they are impossible, only that we register them as null, so to speak.
Is there any reason to talk about this? No, it is a meaningless sentence, like asking what the color red smells like. But ruling out the possibility is not the same as null. No? Where am I mistaken?
What does this have to do with cause and effect? We can think about things that are unfamiliar to us. We can, without any problem, think about things without a cause (even though apparently there are no such things, but there is no problem thinking about it). The laws of logic are of a different character. I referred above to searching on the matter.
See, for example, here:
https://www.google.com/url?client=internal-element-cse&cx=f18e4f052adde49eb&q=https://mikyab.net/%25D7%259B%25D7%25AA%25D7%2591%25D7%2599%25D7%259D/%25D7%259E%25D7%2590%25D7%259E%25D7%25A8%25D7%2599%25D7%259D/%25D7%25A2%25D7%259C-%25D7%25AA%25D7%2595%25D7%25A8%25D7%25AA-%25D7%2594%25D7%25A7%25D7%2595%25D7%2595%25D7%25A0%25D7%2598%25D7%2599%25D7%259D-%25D7%2595%25D7%2598%25D7%25A2%25D7%25A0%25D7%2595%25D7%25AA-%25D7%2590%25D7%259E%25D7%2595%25D7%25A0%25D7%2595%25D7%25AA-%25D7%25A1%25D7%25AA%25D7%2599%25D7%25A8%25D7%25AA%25D7%2599/&sa=U&ved=2ahUKEwinruf53tODAxXcTaQEHWieAYoQFnoECAEQAQ&usg=AOvVaw1N0r7zmkl43jjQ3PTWhziY
So God is not actually omnipotent???