Science and Faith: Where you can break everything down to chemicals

What is faith? why do u believe in something- what is true, what can be true, is truth relative?
No, this book does not answer any of these questions, but it does take u on a journey- a journey which is about revelations;and this journey is made more beautiful by using mathematics as a tool.
The author has questioned certain paradigms believed to be true by using the simplicity of Eucladian Mathematics.He tries to establish a line of thought which says that just like mathematical theorems are based on axioms which are inevitably true, religion and faith in god, infact faith in anything is also based on the simple axiom that everything was created by someone!

Though astounded one might be by this reasoning, the beauty lies in the simplicity of it - that everything ultimately is based on  one starting point, and that starting point can be different for different people.
The most delightful aspect about this book was that how intricately the authors have woven a piece of fiction, around non-fiction. The book takes you back in time - when mathematics was evolving; (not that it isnt now) but the likes of Einstein and Ramanjunam were still formutaling theories and refuting various hypotheses, but even back to the time of the Greek mathematicians and philosophers. And amidst all this, the authors have also highlighted the dilemma faced by Gen Y today(passion or money), and have also been successful in bringing out the contrast between the clear-headed and the confused.

The book follows the life of an Indian mathematician and tries to draw parallels between maths and faith and life, in general. While the story and the characters are fictional, the intriguing mathematical proofs are as real as you and I are. The famous Pythagorean theorem, the Euclidean geometry find a place in this book. What occupies the most part of the book is infinity. I had never thought of infinity in terms of an infinity being bigger or smaller than another infinity. The book taught me a lot about infinity and maths in general, which I didn’t know. Was I sleeping through my math class when my teacher covered these?

When I picked up this book, I never expected it to be a page-tuner. For the readers who have forgotten basic math, the authors have thankfully included an introduction to all basic concepts wherever necessary. Anybody having any inclination towards mathematics will love this book. The proofs are beautiful. Even for those who hated maths in school, that non-mathematical part of the book will be interesting. Characters, story, style of writing don’t matter, atleast didn’t matter to me. The very question of ‘Can you prove or disprove mathematically that God exists?’ is intriguing enough for anybody to pick up the book, what say?

Does the book answer that question? Well, that is for you to find out. It might not give you a page of equations which leads to the proof, but it does answer in some way. Only if you think so. You will know what I mean when you read the book.

This is a charming way to become introduced to formalism in mathematics, as the authors have very cleverly inserted a lot of math theory into a light narrative around a Stanford University student's life.

Past some simple and pleasing proofs (pythagoras, no-greatest-prime-number, etc.) The book dives into Georg Cantor's work in set theory and his continuum hypothesis, the discovery of non-Euclidean geometry, and how these discoveries challenged our understanding of mathematical proofs based on axiomatic theory.

Things never get too complicated, so if you're interested in getting a taste for these mathematical ideas, I think this is probably the best place to start.

I was disappointed that Kurt Godel wasn't mentioned until the final 2 pages of the book. He probably made the most significant contributions in this field, and he was certainly relevant, and perhaps entirely conclusive, this narrative. and I think the authors probably had to cut him out because they couldn't find enough time to fit him into the story.

The best parts of the novel focus on Bauji and the reasons for his incarceration and on what Ravi learns about infinity in his math course. I really enjoyed this novel because of what I, as a liberal arts person, was able to learn about mathematics. Prior to reading this novel, I had read about Georg Cantor and his continuum hypothesis, but I never really understood the importance of Cantor's contributions to mathematics despite spending some time researching the issue on line. Amazingly, this work of fiction brought to life and made understandable to me, for the first time, Cantor's Aleph numbers in his set theory as well as his continuum hypothesis.

This novel was a true delight not because of its narrative quality but because I came to understand fully something truly new and interesting. I now see why and how there are different types of infinities and why and how some infinities are actually larger than others. And I came to appreciate what a true genius Cantor really was.