On Thursday night, December 8th more than sixty people braved the elements (rain) to attend a lecture on “A Spiritual Side to Mathematics?” presented by congregant, Pat McKeague. Pat taught mathematics at Lompoc High School, Cuesta College and Cal Poly State University and has authored and published several textbooks focused on the community college student. Currently he is the owner of the XYZ textbook publishing company.
Although mathematics is the experience of defining the physical world and spirituality is the experience of defining the non-physical, Pat demonstrated how the two intersect to support our experience of both. Mathematics helps us to understand the patterns and logic in nature and thus enhances our spiritual wisdom.
By starting with a simple sequence of numbers Pat illustrated the way in which an understanding of mathematics can determine the way in which we view the universe. If this sounds pedantic and scholarly it is, but Pat’s presentation was also simplistic and understandable to the lay person. By engaging the audience in the discovery of numeric sequences we all felt that “aha” moment when we “got” it. Pat’s obvious love of the subject is so infectious we all left knowing we would never look at the world in the same way again.