VII. Apologetics

The Golden Ratio

Seashell from mediatheek.thinkquest.nl

Our Progression is not Arbitrary!

The Golden Ratio is one to an irrational number (1 :

) that seems to appear so commonly in nature that logically it cannot be coincidental. Studies in The Golden Ratio, dubbed phi (

), have shown that it creates the "perfect" ratio in many things because when this ratio is used it causes humans to subconsciously think that this thing, compared to others, is the most appealing. In geometry, supposedly the best looking rectangle is the one with 1 :

side ratio. In art, Da Vinci's work uncannily incorporated

often into his work such as the size of the Mona Lisa's canvas and the proportions of her face. In architecture, the Greeks built the Parthenon which incorporated

into the infrastructure of the building. And lastly, and most interestingly, some seashells, among other things, spiral using the Golden Ratio. Because of

's commonality in nature, it has caused many people to believe that evolution progresses with some sort of intelligent design (not THAT kind of intelligent design!). This is also used as proof of knowledge of God because it shows that our evolution was not entirely arbitrary.

Phi () has been equated to approximately: 1.618... Remember! Phi is irrational, therefore the number just keeps going and going.

The History of Phi

The Great Pyramids of Giza employ both pi and phi in its construction proving that the Ancient Egyptians knew of both pi and phi long before it was formally studied by the Greek mathematician and designer of the Parthenon, Phidias. Greeks such as Plato and Euclid mentioned the Golden Ratio in their work. It was not until about 1200AD when Leonardo Fibonacci devised a series of numbers that when divided into each other eventually leveled out to

. This is called the Fibonacci Series and is used to create peculiar proportionate spirals like those found in certain seashells. In the 1500s it was deemed the "Divine Proportion." Finally, in the 1900s, this divine proportion was given a name, phi. Also to note is the phi sign is the combination of 0 (nothing) and 1 (unity), creating what goldennumber.net calls "Nothing split by Unity is Phi, the constant of creation."

My Take on it All

I think the Golden Ratio is proof enough that nature is not completely random. It works around a system that is definitely more complex than one irrational number, but I think the fact that you can find one or two or several recurring numbers (that are irrational at that!) it is fascinating and proof enough that nature works with a system that although you may not usually associate math and nature together, they do work together. Math is usually associated with science and nature is usually associated with religion. Perhaps these numbers that are common between the two is proof that there are constants within science and religion that agree? Or maybe I'm stretching that too far.

Sources

Mr. Narain's Golden Ratio Website
Mathworld: Golden Ratio
The Parthenon and the Pyramids
More Random Trivia About Phi

The colors on this page were chosen by using a Phi relationship between three colors using a+b=c on a gradient color scale. The program utilized was called PhiBar.

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