Mathematical Modeling for Theologians

In Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind, Yuval Noah Harari argues that religion has been a driving force behind both humanity’s highest achievements and deepest failures, whether God exists or not. I’ve long agreed with that position – even before my conversion to Christianity, I found theology and philosophy fascinating. I recently shared an article titled: "From Heat to the Heart: Investigating the Love Behind the Law from Science to Scripture"https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.17162739 In it, I made the case that love – a universally recognized yet stubbornly difficult-to-define concept – is the foundation of all law, whether legal, scientific, or theological. One of the joys of writing it was attempting to explain the Boltzmann Transport Equation for a humanities audience. Building on that, I’ve been sketching a course idea: “Mathematical Modeling for Theologians.” The goal is to use tools from mathematics and physics as a framework for dialogue in theology – exploring interfaith exchange, ethical reasoning, and the pursuit of reconciliation. Given the polarizations of our current moment, I think love and understanding are more urgent than ever. I’ve opened this up as a collaborative experiment. If you’d like to contribute, feel free to add journal articles, slides, images, or your own notes into the shared folder. Anything placed there will be treated as public-use (with attribution). https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1WUN5DlKZw1gCSV0thMEe1jZKotyj_cyX?usp=drive_link And if you’d like to connect: I’d love to share a cup of coffee (virtually or in person). For more serious dialogue, I prefer text-based conversation, as I’m autistic and need extra time to process.