are some disciplines where that stereotype is true. What I’ve
been told is that in math and engineering and the sciences,
I’ve heard that the numbers are quite similar to the general
population. Of course there’s plenty of people that think
religion is the root of many problems, and they’re probably
right, so I’ve definitely encountered disparaging comments
about religion, but it’s because I’m around faculty and it’s not
anything special about being faculty. I have never especially
felt that I’ve been discriminated against or looked down upon.
So I’ve been fortunate in that regard. I’m certainly not the type
of person to go around and evangelize to people, but I don’t
hide it. I don’t know what fraction of faculty in my department
know that I’m Christian, or even care. But there’s quite a few
Christian faculty at Brown and a lot of us know each other.
EJ: Is there a reason why you’ve been drawn to math?
MH: I think I’m good at it, and it’s fun to do something
you’re good at. And after you do it for a long time, you
begin to appreciate it and see the beauty in it. It’s not
like I started math when I was five and had this dream of
being a professor. I’ve always kind of done what’s been
interesting to me and it’s worked out. I think it helps out
that I’m interested in something where there’s a market
for that, so it’s made it easier to land in this position
without enormous amounts of planning and strategy.
EJ: Do you think your study of math has
changed your view on the world?
MH: I think that one thing that math really forces you to do
is to think clearly about things, to think clearly about your
assumptions. I value that training in that way of thinking,
and so that, of course, influences my worldview. I think the
other thing about being a mathematician is that mathematics
is one of the few places where you can prove something
with a very high degree of certainty, and basically in many
cases the only uncertainty you have left is the collective
logic of you and your peers. You’ve written down this proof
and you and your peers have been through it a thousand
times and there’s a tiny chance you’ve all been misled about
some step. But pretty much it’s true and you see it borne
out of many different areas. That level of knowledge is not
really available in any other place that I’ve encountered.
You recognize that in life, you can hold beliefs with varying
degrees of certainty, and it doesn’t have to be so black
or white or set in stone, and so I think that’s helpful in
matters of faith because at least for me, I’m never gonna
have the mathematical certainty about theological sayings
or statements of faith that I can have about something
that I’m proving, and immediately as a mathematician you
recognize that and you deal with that and never worry
about that. Whereas a lot of people worry about that, and
they see people that feel like they know something about
Christianity with incredible certainty and feel that they don’t
have that degree of certainty and think, “Is my faith lacking?”
or maybe, “I need to get that degree of certainty before I
can get somewhere,” and that can be a big hindrance.
I was raised a Christian and always went to church, but it
wasn’t a huge part of who I was until later in grad school.
At least not a huge part of where I spent my time. I think
I was waiting for faith. I would see people who had great
faith and would be compelled to act in certain ways and
I was waiting to feel it with that degree of certainty.
And I realized two things: that that degree of certainty is never
going to occur for me and that our brains are plastic and you’re
not completely in control of who you are. But you’re in a little
bit of control, so you have some influence in the way you view
things and the things you read or care about, and I decided
that if I wanted Christianity to be an important part of my life,
I had to make that happen—I couldn’t wait for it. It’s one of
those things where you have to leap and a net will appear.
And I found that to be true, I found that even though there’s
a lot of philosophy and theology in Christianity, at the end
of the day it’s all about relationships. Relationships between
you and God and between you and other people. Those
relationships are things you experience rather than things you
reason about, so as I’ve decided to make Christianity a part of
my life, I began to interpret things in light of that. I really can
see God at work and I can interpret the weird coincidences in
life. You know me sending the email right on that day, sure, it
could’ve been a crazy coincidence, but I want to interpret it
as a calling, and then that interpretation becomes something
really important to me. It means that working in a prison is
something I’m gonna do even though it might not seem like
a good use for my career or my time or things like that.
If I wanted Christianity to be an important
part of my life, I had to make that happen.
EJ: What do you think about the
intersection of faith and science?
MH: For me, questions about the existence of God were
not scientific questions. Science is about the regularities of
the world, and God is a personality and by definition is not
repeatable. Or maybe science is studying the