This morning, languishing about and not wanting to get out of bed, I caught a short interview on NPR with Donald Knuth.

Knuth is legendary in the realm of information science/computer programming. Knuth himself developed the typesetting language TeX, primarily to typeset his continually-in-progress The Art of Computer Programming. He is guru above all gurus. Here is the short description/bio of Knuth from the interview page:

Donald Knuth is legendary in the computer science world for writing a series of must-have reference books called The Art of Computer Programming. Part cookbook, part textbook, part encyclopedia, these books are also considered by many to be technical and personal works of art.

One interesting part of the interview (towards the end) was when the interviewer asks if Knuth believes in God. Knuth does, and says he devotes a fair amount of time to thinking about such things. Interestingly, Knuth laments the possibility of there being a proof of God. He says that if such a thing ever occurred, he'd end up memorizing the proof and then wouldn't have any cause to think about it again. Not that he doesn't want to consider such things, but if it was empirically certain it wouldn't require the depth of thought and consideration that we are to give it. Because there's a mystery, it demands attention and consideration.

I'd never considered that perspective, but it makes a lot of sense. Of course, we're talking about Donald Knuth here, so it has to make sense.

Update: Programmers/Techies who are believers may find Knuth's book Things a Computer Scientist Rarely Talks About an interesting diversion from the normal Comp. Sci. reading list. Here's part of the book blurb:

[Knuth's] starting point is the 3:16 project, an application of mathematical "random sampling" to the books of the Bible. The first lectures tell the story of the project's conception and execution, exploring its many dimensions of language translation, aesthetics, and theological history. Along the way, Knuth explains the many insights he gained from such interdisciplinary work. These theological musings culminate in a surprising final lecture tackling the ideas of infinity, free will, and some of the other big questions that lie at the juncture of theology and computation.

I've not read the book, I just came across a reference when searching for more info on Knuth and Christianity.