Creationist Russ Miller’s Glory of God Mathematics

Christians worship the triune God, manifested as the Father, Son & Holy Spirit. Scoffers claim we’re worshipping 3 Gods (1+1+1=3) however, the Bible says the heavens declare the glory of God & His triune character is reflected in His creation’s space, matter & time. Not surprisingly, each of these 3 also exhibits a triune character. Space consists of height-width & depth. Matter is solid-liquid & gas. Time is past-present & future. The correct math confirms (1) Father x (1) Son x (1) Spirit=One God & you can put your trust in His Word, word for word & cover to cover.

It is no secret that Christians will do whatever they can to give their beliefs a grounding in reality. Perhaps most notable are the works of young-Earth creationists who selectively choose what they consider to be “good” science so that they can say science agrees with what they believe the Bible to say about reality.

But then there are some — like (coincidentally) young-Earth creationist Russ Miller of Creation, Evolution & Science Ministries — who think that they can lend credence to their beliefs by imagining connections between beliefs & reality, while simultaneously demonstrating how ignorant they are of reality.

Let’s look at Mr. Miller’s homily, bit by bit.

He begins, Christians worship the triune God, manifested as the Father, Son & Holy Spirit. Scoffers claim we’re worshipping 3 Gods (1+1+1=3)… While not all Christians will agree that God is triune in nature, most will agree that God is manifested as the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit at varying points in the biblical narrative. However, using math isn’t the way to do it — 1 (Father) + 1 (Son) + 1 (Holy Spirit) = 1 (God)? No, that doesn’t make sense, at all.

If you want a good trinitarian metaphor, use an equilateral triangle, a triangle wherein all of the sides are of equal length. Each side would then represent either the Father, the Son, or the Holy Spirit — neither side would be the same as any of the other sides, despite being equal in importance. Each can be manifest separately as the triangle is turned, and all three together play an equal part in the whole, the triangle representing God.

Mr. Miller began talking about theology, something which arguably anyone can seem to be an expert on due to there being no way to validate any claims made regarding the spiritual. He continues, however, the Bible says the heavens declare the glory of God & His triune character is reflected in His creation’s space, matter & time.

Here Mr. Miller declares that the universe (“creation”) is made up of three distinct things:

  • space
  • matter
  • time

Anyone notice what’s missing? I’ll give you a hint: without it, Mr. Miller’s universe would be extremely static. Give up? Energy. Even the Bible says, “Let there be light”!

Also, time should probably be listed along with space, as spacetime. While listing time separately isn’t necessarily problematic, in many mathematical and physical models of the universe, time is regarded as a fourth dimension of space.

Moving forward, Mr. Miller explains, Not surprisingly, each of these 3 also exhibits a triune character. Space consists of height-width & depth.

No. Spacetime consists of height, width, depth, and time. Along with potentially several to over a dozen more, depending upon which physics models ultimately win out over time.

Moving on, Mr. Miller says that Matter is solid-liquid & gas. Yes, I know that’s what so many elementary school text books say (or at least mine did). Yes, I realize that in our day to day lives, most of us only pay attention to solids, liquids, and gases. But even that list is short one prominent state which affects our lives every day: plasma. The sun up in the sky? If you were to look at it, you’d be looking at a whole lot of plasma.

But even that list of four is too basic to be considered accurate, and while I could be accused of being too pedantic, shouldn’t attention to detail be given when talking about God? If he is real and is all he’s cracked up to be, then shouldn’t every effort be made to only speak truth regarding him, rather than misreprsenting the reality which it is believes declares his glory? There are, in reality, around a dozen states of matter, or more if you include the sub-states.

I can’t argue with Mr. Miller’s Time is past-present & future statement; however, I do know the truth about time isn’t so simple, and it’s entirely possible to slow one’s travel into the future so that you age much more slowly, simply by accelerating oneself to relativistic speeds, speeds which approach the speed of light.

And now, we’ve reached Mr. Miller’s conclusion, The correct math confirms (1) Father x (1) Son x (1) Spirit=One God & you can put your trust in His Word, word for word & cover to cover.

I’m not sure how it’s happened, but we’re now multiplying the 1s together, rather than adding, and yeah, mathematically speaking 1×1×1=1.

But the mathematics at play in any of the above aren’t as simple as what Mr. Miller wants it to be. There are units at work. For example:

1 dimension of spacetime (width) + 1 dimension of spacetime (height) + 1 dimension of spacetime (length) + 1 dimension of spacetime (time) = 4 dimensions of spacetime = 1 spacetime

Likewise, the biblical math might look like this:

1 person of the godhead (Father) + 1 person of the godhead (Son) + 1 person of the godhead (Holy Spirit) = 3 persons of the godhead = 1 God

And while that arithmetic makes a little more sense, I hope you can now see that creation doesn’t declare God’s glory, at least not in the way that Mr. Miller would like it to.

Featured image: Courtesy NASA/JPL-Caltech

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