• Rise of the ‘New Mathematicians’

    There is a dogmatic movement within Mathematics to get people to abandon their deeply held belief that 2+2=5. These “New Mathematicians” don’t respect everyone’s opinion about Math. Instead, they not only wish to push their own view of math on others, but they actually go out of their way to tell those with differing beliefs that our math is wrong. Worse yet, these “New Mathematicians” are preaching this view in schools and trying to make children as hateful and bigoted as they are about math.

    We can all laugh at this, because it is so ridiculous. Math is what it is. It isn’t “dogmatic,” it is a fact of reality. As a point of fact, 2+2=4 and any other answer is simply wrong. Math teachers educate people about the nature of the mathematic reality of the situation. Math isn’t about opinions or beliefs, it is about proofs and evidence… and so are many other claims that have nothing to do with math.

    As a point of fact, the Bible is fiction. This is not merely my opinion or belief; it is a stone cold fact no different than the fact that 2+2=4. Claiming that religion is false and that gods are imaginary isn’t hateful or bigoted; it is a stone cold fact. There is no valid evidence to support the claims of any religions or deities and there is actually evidence which refutes most religions and many of the claims of their religious adherents.

    I’m not a “New Atheist” any more than I would be called a “New Mathematician” for holding to the view that 2+2=4 and rejecting the opinions and beliefs of those who claim it is equal to five. The premise is the same. Someone is making a claim about the nature of reality and that claim is either true or false. We either have evidence and proofs to support such claims or we don’t. I don’t care is someone has a deeply held belief that 2+2=5, they are still wrong, just as they are wrong when they claim that there is a God who watches over us, answers prayers, and judges us by some ridiculous standard and then goes on to use that judgment to shuffle us either to eternal paradise or to be eternally tortured.

    Facts are stubborn things and they don’t change because we have deeply held beliefs. Reality is what it is. All we can do is come up with a system to figure out the how to accurately discover how reality functions. Signs and revelations from imaginary deities do not give us an accurate understanding of reality. Science and mathematics do. As Stephen Hawking put is, “science will win because it works.”

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    Category: New Atheism

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    Article by: Staks Rosch

    Staks Rosch is a writer for the Skeptic Ink Network & Huffington Post, and is also a freelance writer for Publishers Weekly. Currently he serves as the head of the Philadelphia Coalition of Reason and is a stay-at-home dad.