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Nancy Pearcey @NancyRPearcey - You might not think there is a Christian view of mathematics, but there is.
Certainly everyone will agree that 5+7=12. But when you ask how to justify mathematical knowledge, people split into several competing camps.
The ancient Greeks, standing at the dawn of Western history, are famous for having discovered Euclidean geometry. But they did not believe the material world itself exhibited a precise mathematical order, because they regarded matter as independently existing, recalcitrant stuff that would never completely “obey” mathematical rules. So they kept mathematics locked up in an abstract Platonic “heaven.”
By contrast, most of the early modern scientists were Christians; they believed that matter was not preexisting but had come from the hand of God. Thus it had no power to resist His will but would “obey” the rules He had laid down—with mathematical precision. Historian R. G. Collingwood writes, “The possibility of an applied mathematics is an expression, in terms of natural science, of the Christian belief that nature is the creation of an omnipotent God.”
My father was a mathematics professor, and I would remind him of Collingwood’s words. “The very existence of your field,” I would tell him, “is a product of the Christian worldview.”
Today, however, most philosophers no longer even regard mathematics as a body of truths. The dominant philosophy of mathematics treats it as a social construction, like the game of baseball. “Three strikes and you’re out” is an arbitrary rule. It’s not true or false; it’s just the way we choose to play the game. By the same token, mathematical rules are regarded as just the way we play the game.
Even American schoolchildren are now taught this postmodern view of math. A popular middle school curriculum says students should learn that “mathematics is man-made, that it is arbitrary, and good solutions are arrived at by consensus among those who are considered expert.” Man-made? Arbitrary? Clearly, our public schools have waded deeply into the murkywaters of postmodernism.
Moreover, if math is arbitrary, then there are no wrong answers, just different perspectives. In Minnesota, teachers are instructed to be tolerant of “multiple mathematical worldviews.” In New Mexico, I met a young man who had recently graduated from high school, where a mathematics teacher had labeled him a “bigot” for thinking it was important to get the right answer. As long as students worked together in a group and achieved social consensus, the teacher insisted, the outcome was acceptable.
This means that even the simplest, most universal form of knowledge—mathematics—is subject to sometimes radically differing worldview interpretations."
(from Total Truth)
https://x.com/NancyRPearcey/status/1949266456878669836
Nancy Pelosi @SpeakerPelosi - Donald Trump’s decision to deny permission for President Lai to visit New York sends a dangerous signal: that the United States can be bullied by Beijing into silence on Taiwan.
This is a victory for Xi — and let us hope it is not indicative of a dangerous change in U.S. policy.
https://x.com/SpeakerPelosi/status/1949978882360139948
Nancy Pelosi Stock Tracker @PelosiTracker_ - Marjorie Taylor Greene is on a stock picking roll
On 4/7, she bought the dip in AMD $AMD after Trump's tariff liberation tanked the stock
She's now +120% since & it's one her largest positions in her portfolio
https://x.com/PelosiTracker_/status/1949874158051217846
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