While most kids his age are memorizing their times tables, 9-year-old William Maillis is studying astrophysics at college. His goal? To “prove that God does exist.”
Maillis is the youngest of three kids, and his father is an Orthodox priest. His parents realized he was special when he started identifying numbers when he was just 6 months old and talking in complete sentences at 7 months. He was able to do addition at 21 months; multiplication, reading and writing at 2 years; algebra, sign language, and reading Greek at age 4; geometry at 5; and trigonometry at age 7.
After finishing third grade, his parents had him simultaneously attend both 4th grade and high school. And this fall, he enrolled in college courses.
His parents see their child’s abilities as a gift from God to be used for good.
“I just want him to appreciate the gift he has, which I think he does,” his father said. “I tell him, ‘God gave you a gift. The worst thing would be to reject that gift and not use it for the betterment of the world.'”
Say a prayer for little William Maillis!
[See also: This Agnostic Scientist Converted After Witnessing a Miracle at Lourdes]
[See also: A Night of Fire: The Mystical Vision that Converted Scientist Blaise Pascal]