The Fibonacci Sequence
By Peter Lundell
Science fiction and thriller writers like to spin stories that include secret codes and hidden formulas that reveal mysteries or control the world. What if there was a real code? Maybe one that, dare I suggest, God wrote?
Leonard da Pisano, also known as Fibonacci (son of Bonaccio), the greatest mathematician of the Middle Ages, traveled to Algiers as a young man and brought Arabic numerals back to Europe to replace the cumbersome Roman numeral system. From Arab mathematicians he also learned about sequence of numbers that was first discovered by Indian mathematicians, but Fibonacci developed and disseminated the concepts that now bear his name.
In the Fibonacci sequence a number is the sum of the previous two numbers: 0-1-1-2-3-5-8-13-21-34-55-89-144-etc. This begets the “golden ratio” (approximately 1:1.618), which we see in mathematics, parts of the human body, branching in trees, leaf patterns, the sequence of musical notes that form harmonics, and even economic patterns.
When an arc is drawn between opposite corners, it forms a “golden spiral,” in which the growth factor is related to the golden ratio. This spiral is replicated at every level of the natural world. We see this spiral in seashells, flowers, plants, and every spiral galaxy.
Some say that Fibonacci’s sequence is merely naturally occurring mathematics. But where could such exacting mathematics come from? And its pervasive replication in the natural world is anything but random. This strongly suggests origins in a highly ordered, intentional, creative power. Fibonacci’s sequence appears much like the fingerprint of a creator.
This is arguably as much a matter of faith as it is proof. But ultimately we judge everything we see and know about the natural world on faith as much as on science itself. The question then is what do we have faith in? This is one of many cases where it would take more faith in science to deny God is behind the Fibonacci sequence that it would take faith in God to affirm so.
What’s the upshot in our daily lives, the big “so what”? Simply this: As we recognize God’s fingerprints everywhere around us, we’re more likely to continually connect with him. His fingerprints are everywhere in the natural world. Do you see his telltale signs around you? And if you close your eyes, can you feel him around you?
5/1/01