The famous encylopedist Denis Diderot was once invited to visit the Russian Court by the empress, Catherine the Great. To the embarrassment of his host and the rest of the court, he promptly launched into an animated defense of atheism.

Not wanting to silence her guest directly, Catherine made a CUNNING plan. Diderot was informed that a learned mathematician had discovered an algebraical demonstration of the existence of God and would present it before the Court, if he wished to hear it. Diderot naturally consented.

The mathematician Leonhard Euler duly appeared and gravely declared: "Monsieur, (a + bn)/n = x, therefore God exists!"

The result? Diderot, entirely unschooled in algebra, was speechless, and laughter erupted around the room; Diderot, greatly embarassed, asked for permission to return to France; and Catherine gratefully bid him adieu.


Euler, Leonhard (1707-1783) brilliant Swiss mathematician noted for his key contributions to the fields of calculus, algebra, geometry, and number theory (including complex numbers and logarithms), and for his introduction of much of the notation used in mathematics (including 'e', the base of natural logarithms, known as Euler's number)