James Nickel is the author of “Mathematics: Is God Silent?” He was born and raised on a farm in Dinuba, California. He earned his bachelor’s degree in mathematics and his master’s degree in education. He spent most of the late 70’s and 80’s teaching mathematics at a high school in Australia and Hawaii. During those years he not only taught mathematics, but he also spent a lot of time researching it. Aside from teaching, he was a mathematical analyst for the United States Navy.
Through all of his teaching, research, and analysis Nickel would always come across people who were skeptical that Christianity and Mathematics coexist. He also realized that most people he met had a bad impression of mathematics because they did not understand it at its core. As he said in his preface, “In school, our teachers probably taught us just the pure mechanics of the subject. To most, the “chicken scratches” on the blackboard meant nothing more than just that – chicken scratches.” This lack of understanding and appreciation for mathematics motivated Nickel to write a book that would show that God is not silent in mathematics. He wrote “Mathematics: Is God Silent?” to show that…
This means that God has given man the ability to think and acquire knowledge, specifically about mathematics. Nickel states, “Although the mind of man is tremendously complex and powerful in its abilities, it can end up being his Achilles heel (151).” The Non-Christian person views mathematics as an un-ending puzzle to be solved, and to many men this is daunting. To the Christian though, this un-ending puzzle is seen as beautiful instead of daunting because they know the creator who formed the puzzle. According to Nickel, “Man’s pursuit of mathematics is to be an act of worship to God, the only autonomous one (13).” In other words, when the Christian man studies math he should do so in order to understand the mind of God and glorify Him through…
