{"id":969,"date":"2012-03-10T20:16:15","date_gmt":"2012-03-10T10:16:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/asktheatheist.com\/?p=969"},"modified":"2012-03-16T14:16:54","modified_gmt":"2012-03-16T04:16:54","slug":"god-in-the-numbers-the-devils-in-the-details","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/asktheatheist.com\/?p=969","title":{"rendered":"God in the numbers? The devil’s in the details."},"content":{"rendered":"

Question from Neil:<\/strong>
\nAs a ill-educated atheist how do I best explain the Golden Ratio and Fibonacci sequence being nothing to do with a god?
\n
\nAnswer by SmartLX<\/a>:<\/strong>
\nThe same way Darwin explained that the diversity of life need have nothing to do with a god: by showing the Ratio’s natural origins.
\n
\nFor those unfamiliar with the terms, here’s the basic math: take two 1’s as the start of a sequence and make each new number in that sequence the sum of the previous two:
\n(1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, 34, 55, 89, 144…)
\nThat’s the Fibonacci sequence<\/a>, named after the first European to document it.
\n
\nThe interesting thing about it is that the ratio between any two adjacent numbers in it (after the first few) tends toward about 1:1.618, which is called the Golden Ratio<\/a>. What’s interesting about that number is that ratios close to the Golden Ratio appear regularly in nature: it’s about the ratio between the different segments of your fingers, for example. Some believers see these natural occurrences as a kind of signature by the Creator – a sign of the created order of living beings.
\n
\nThe problem with this idea is the fact of how simple it is to create a sequence that features the Ratio: I started with two equal numbers (they don’t have to be 1), and started adding. Nature can do this too, particularly genetic instructions: “build this part using these two other parts as a reference”. The omnipresent Ratio is an observation we make afterwards; rather than an inbuilt standard, it’s an emergent property of a simple, common, repeated process. No god is necessary, or even of use.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Question from Neil: As a ill-educated atheist how do I best explain the Golden Ratio and Fibonacci sequence being nothing to do with a god? Answer by SmartLX: The same way Darwin explained that the diversity of life need have nothing to do with a god: by showing the Ratio’s natural origins. For those unfamiliar … Continue reading “God in the numbers? The devil’s in the details.”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[6],"tags":[154,338,337,339],"class_list":["post-969","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-text","tag-evidence","tag-fibonacci","tag-golden-ratio","tag-phi"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pB6tr-fD","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/asktheatheist.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/969","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/asktheatheist.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/asktheatheist.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/asktheatheist.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/asktheatheist.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=969"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/asktheatheist.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/969\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":996,"href":"https:\/\/asktheatheist.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/969\/revisions\/996"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/asktheatheist.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=969"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/asktheatheist.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=969"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/asktheatheist.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=969"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}