mathematical proofs

"One neither could nor should expect religious texts to be rational. When Spinoza denounced the folly of trying to demonstrate the authority of scriptures with mathematical proofs, he might have been thinking of Maimonides, the twelfth-century Jewish philosopher, or perhaps Descartes, or perhaps also his friend, Dr. Lodewijk Meijer, whose rationalist interpretation of the Bible had gotten him into hot water with Calvinist authorities. For the authority of the scriptures depended on the authority of the prophets. And that authority was impervious to rational discourse."

~~ from Spinoza: Freedom's Messiah by Ian Buruma