Order and Chaos
Creation and the Number Two
August 26th, 2014
Sean Zilberdrut
As I was reading through the creation stories told by various cultures, I began to notice that certain quantities were assigned to the creation of the world. For example, in the creation story of Odin and Ymir, it says, "Instead, long before the earth was made, Niflheim was made, and in it a spring gave rise to twelve rivers." The number twelve is a very specific number, where did they get it from? Or how about the Genesis story, of how it took G-d seven days to complete the creation of the world - hence our seven day week. One number struck out among them all and that was the number two. This is a very powerful number as it describes the most basic symmetries in our lives, such as man and woman. It also suggests opposites; of light and dark, water and fire, land and sea, and so on.
What's funny about the number two, is that it seems so much larger than the number one even though the distance between them is one. Its exactly doubled the amount. Think about the difference from one to two and then think about the distance from ninety-nine and one hundred. Both would result in a difference of one, but which distance seems larger? From the Radiolab podcast, "Numbers," it mentioned the ability of babies to recognized differences in quantities. It's remarkable in that quantities seem to be inherent in humans from birth. For example, the scientists behind this study of babies observed increased brain activity when the number of ducks on a screen turned from eight to sixteen. Furthermore, babies have a unique sense in the distance between numbers, such as the distance from one to two seems so much greater than the distance from eight to nine (Radiolab "Numbers"). It is actually described as a logarithmic sequence in how babies observe these differences. Translate this to the creation stories and the power of the number two is revealed.
Take the Genesis story. In the beginning of the creation of the world, "G-d created the heavens and the earth." Here is the first instance of the number two. These also have deep and opposite meanings. Physically, the heavens could mean the sky and the earth is the ground. Add another level to this meaning and the earth could signify our physical world that we dwell in with our bodies and the heavens are the world that G-d inhabits. There are actually two worlds at play here and a very large distance between them. Many people struggle with the existence of a creator, which is illustrated by the distance between the spiritual world and the physical world.
Continuing with the story, G-d said, "Let there be light." Light came forth and now we have light and darkness. Another couple of opposites. Not only is there light and dark, but there is morning and evening associated with these entities. There is a separation between the two; a great distance after which much of our art, literature, culture and religions are based off of.
How does this play into our narrative of order and chaos? Before creation occurred, there was nothing, just a void in which nothing existed; it is something that we as humans cannot conceive. Many of these stories attempt to describe this nothingness, such as the story from the Kono peoples of Guinea saying, "In the beginning there was nothing: neither matter nor light existed." A number we could associate with this is zero, it is void of any value. One might think that a universe devoid of anything may be a very orderly place, since there really isn't anything to order. However, think of what happens when you divide zero by zero. This is an interesting phenomena in mathematics where two distinct extremes collide. If you divide zero by any number other than zero, the result would be zero. On the other hand, if you divide a number by zero, then the result is infinite. Here, both cases could be true, resulting in an indeterminate answer. Huh?! This means that the lack of anything could be a very chaotic place. The fact that we can seek out the mathematics in the universe that we see today means that the place that these gods created is a very orderly place. Not only that, the order that we see from the math of the universe allows us to create devices of our own imagination!
What's funny about the number two, is that it seems so much larger than the number one even though the distance between them is one. Its exactly doubled the amount. Think about the difference from one to two and then think about the distance from ninety-nine and one hundred. Both would result in a difference of one, but which distance seems larger? From the Radiolab podcast, "Numbers," it mentioned the ability of babies to recognized differences in quantities. It's remarkable in that quantities seem to be inherent in humans from birth. For example, the scientists behind this study of babies observed increased brain activity when the number of ducks on a screen turned from eight to sixteen. Furthermore, babies have a unique sense in the distance between numbers, such as the distance from one to two seems so much greater than the distance from eight to nine (Radiolab "Numbers"). It is actually described as a logarithmic sequence in how babies observe these differences. Translate this to the creation stories and the power of the number two is revealed.
Take the Genesis story. In the beginning of the creation of the world, "G-d created the heavens and the earth." Here is the first instance of the number two. These also have deep and opposite meanings. Physically, the heavens could mean the sky and the earth is the ground. Add another level to this meaning and the earth could signify our physical world that we dwell in with our bodies and the heavens are the world that G-d inhabits. There are actually two worlds at play here and a very large distance between them. Many people struggle with the existence of a creator, which is illustrated by the distance between the spiritual world and the physical world.
Continuing with the story, G-d said, "Let there be light." Light came forth and now we have light and darkness. Another couple of opposites. Not only is there light and dark, but there is morning and evening associated with these entities. There is a separation between the two; a great distance after which much of our art, literature, culture and religions are based off of.
How does this play into our narrative of order and chaos? Before creation occurred, there was nothing, just a void in which nothing existed; it is something that we as humans cannot conceive. Many of these stories attempt to describe this nothingness, such as the story from the Kono peoples of Guinea saying, "In the beginning there was nothing: neither matter nor light existed." A number we could associate with this is zero, it is void of any value. One might think that a universe devoid of anything may be a very orderly place, since there really isn't anything to order. However, think of what happens when you divide zero by zero. This is an interesting phenomena in mathematics where two distinct extremes collide. If you divide zero by any number other than zero, the result would be zero. On the other hand, if you divide a number by zero, then the result is infinite. Here, both cases could be true, resulting in an indeterminate answer. Huh?! This means that the lack of anything could be a very chaotic place. The fact that we can seek out the mathematics in the universe that we see today means that the place that these gods created is a very orderly place. Not only that, the order that we see from the math of the universe allows us to create devices of our own imagination!
