I recently wrote about the value of math, and I specifically noted, "Geometry is a great discipline for later proving various truths of the Biblical worldview." I'd like to expound a bit on this assertion.

Is the Bible true or not? That's the first, key step without which there is no proceeding. I'd say this is an act of faith, but it really needn't be--but I'll come back to this in a bit. For those of us in apologetics, we do indeed believe, assert, and defend the Bible as truth. The discipline gained from geometry is a tool for such logical defense. If you do not believe the Bible to be true, then the discipline of geometry may be a life-saving one.

If the Bible is taken to be true, then the very nature of reality should affirm, confirm, and otherwise support what the Bible says. If the Bible is true, and if reality and the Bible contradict, then one or two things must be true: our interpretation of reality is incorrect or our interpretation of the Bible is incorrect. Here is where so many believers utterly fail. Even if their Biblical understanding is correct (which isn't as common as it should be), they too often swallow the God-hating worldview of reality, and--here's where it really goes wrong--never try to resolve the obvious contradiction in their beliefs. This is known as cognitive dissonance and anyone even remotely aware of its existence in themselves should be ashamed of their failure to resolve it. Such contradictions, when allowed to persist, open the door for great evil to take root in our souls, believer or not. Nevertheless, this is not my primary point here, so I'll return to geometry.

If the Bible is true, and if reality confirms it, we should be able to use our observations of reality to prove the truths within Scripture. The skills to do this can be very effectively gleaned from the discipline we learn in geometry. In all fairness, the details of geometry--angles, shapes, etc.--are not terribly helpful in proving the truth of God's Word. However, the method used in geometry, the logical construction of a proof, is invaluable. This can be done informally, as in a conversation or a blog, or it can be quite formally as great apologists of the past have done. (C.S.Lewis' Mere Christianity comes to mind.)

Even if a skeptic does not believe the Bible is true, his observations of reality can be used to show the truth of Scriptures anyway. By demonstrating such superior understanding of reality, we apologists may help skeptics begin to question their faulty worldviews such that they might someday come to know the Lord and accept His Word as true. In fact, the disciplines learned from the study of geometry can be used to effectively battle all false worldviews, demonstrating their fallibility and their necessary, ultimate demise as viable philosophies, while the same skills can show the Biblical worldview as the only true one.

Geometry is not just a math class but a mental discipline, a training of the mind to think logically, to build coherent arguments, and to ultimately prove the truths of Scriptures. When you're struggling with the proof of the congruency of alternate, interior angles of a transversal of parallel lines (Alternate Interior Angles Theorem), remember that you're really learning the mental skills to defend the Word of God against those countless detractors and skeptics. Using these skills, you may be responsible for helping many of these skeptics find their personal salvation in the Savior, God's Son, Jesus.