They complain that they shouldn’t be compared to the Taliban in Afghanistan, but then creationists do what the Taliban do.
Watch out. Creationists appear to be targeting mathematics, in addition to their misaimed criticisms of biology. You remember the “God centered” math courses at Castle Hills First Baptist School, in San Antonio.
So, when I came across this post, at Joe Carter’s Home for Wayward Evangelicals, I thought it time to sound an alarm. See “Mathematics and Religiously-based Explanations.”
Did Leibniz’s religion seriously affect his mathematics? Is it time to call in the men in white, with the nets?
Mark at Pseudo-Polymath adds to the discussion — it’s difficult to tell if he’s writing in parody or not.
Millard Fillmore's Bathtub 
Mike, credit it to Tess Carrithers, then aged 8; now a senior at Rice University. It was a great poster she made in Sunday school. Out of the mouths of babes, and all that.
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Ed,
Where is “Someone needs to tell them Jesus died to take away their sins, not their brains.” from? If it is yours (hence the “©”), may I use it?
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The Swift Report: Math for Believers: ‘Deometry’ is Hot Subject …
Aug 30, 2005 … The hottest trend in high-school math these days is deometry, the study of how the Creator created points, lines, angles, shapes and proofs. …
http://swiftreport.blogs.com/news/2005/08/math_for_believ.html –
The Swift Report: Bush: Students Should Learn About Creationism …
The Odessa school system is also considering replacing its current high school math curriculum with a new approach that emphasizes God’s role in the study …
http://swiftreport.blogs.com/news/2005/08/bush_students_s.html
The Swift Report: Foes of Evolution Set Sights on New Target: Gravity
“Mr. DeGregorio also questions why the parents have chosen to single out Newton’s law of gravity for their efforts, noting that the 17th century mathematical formulation has largely been replaced by Albert Einstein’s theory of relativity. “I don’t want to say that these people are idiots but they obviously don’t know a whole hell of a lot about physics.”
Next up: the theory of relativism
For her part, Mrs. Dittie says that she’s all too familiar with Einstein’s theory—and that her curriculum improvement group is already contemplating launching a charge against the German physicist.
“At least he acknowledged that all he’d come up with was a theory,” says Dittie. “But the last thing we need to expose our kids to is a theory of relativism. They’re already being told that there’s no right or wrong. If you want to learn about Einstein, fine. I just don’t want my tax dollars going to pay for it.” ”
http://swiftreport.blogs.com/news/2005/05/foes_of_evoluti.html
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Ed,
I’m assuming by linking the particular post you did (as opposed the recent considerations of aliens and mathematics) that you are referring to my allusion to surreal mathematics a term coined by Donald Knuth in describing a set theoretic algorithmic way suggested by John Conway to construct numbers.
So, no it wasn’t satire, and aside from the fact that Mr Knuth is Lutheran (and the book surreal mathematics uses stone tablets dropped from on high as a literary device) it wasn’t satire. Donald Knuth is an iconic figure in the development of computer science and John Conway is has similar stature in the Methematics community at large.
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[…] Are creationists taking on mathematics? Millard Fillmore’s bathtub thinks that this might be so: They complain that they shouldn’t be compared to the Taliban in Afghanistan, but then creationists do what the Taliban do. […]
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