God by Numbers

[Elphaba]

The unspoken part is that, as a group, atheists suck at math just as badly if not worse.

Perhaps.

But atheists can diagram a sentence better than a Mormon any day.

"Rigorous Proof": The Book of Mormon

Elphaba

[Newcomer4831]

(d/dx)Faith = Hope

(d/dx)Hope = Charity

(d/dx)Charity = Faith

See? Just like trig.

This is a good joke, but I should have said derivation rather than derivative. Where does heaven come from? Where does God come from?

This is completely non sequitur. How does "loving math" violate "feeding people"? Since the multiplication of loaves and fishes was clearly done within God's framework, no math precepts were violated.

I'm making a case for the law of conservation of matter/mass. If you have a 1 loaf of bread and few fish, you cannot divide that among a group where the output does not equal the input. Where does he get the extra matter?

[Captain_Curmudgeon]

There is scripture that commands us to not rationlize the gospel.:)

Of course. Whole numbers were invented by God, rational numbers by men -- Babylonians and Greeks chiefly. Stick with integers. The Hebrews did. They thought pi was three. (Babylonians had a good rational approximation, Greeks proved it was irrational.) Edited April 11, 2009 by Captain_Curmudgeon

[Traveler]

Of course. Whole numbers were invented by God, rational numbers by men -- Babylonians and Greeks chiefly. Stick with integers. The Hebrews did. They thought pi was three. (Babylonians had a good rational approximation, Greeks proved it was irrational.)

I am most impressed with the ancient Egyptians. Their mathematics allowed them to calculate harmonic wave lengths of colors 6,000 years ago. Something we could not do duplicate in modern times 150 years ago. And they did it and the solution to the square root of one without irrational number theory.

The Traveler

[MarginOfError]

I am most impressed with the ancient Egyptians. Their mathematics allowed them to calculate harmonic wave lengths of colors 6,000 years ago. Something we could not do duplicate in modern times 150 years ago. And they did it and the solution to the square root of one without irrational number theory.

The Traveler

So it appears that while atheists and christians are terrible at math, the pagans are quite incredible!

[Vort]

I am most impressed with the ancient Egyptians...And they did it and the solution to the square root of one without irrational number theory.

The Traveler

A RATIONAL solution to the square root of one? Is that even possible??

I had no idea the ancient Egyptians were so utterly brilliant!

[AnthonyB]

Isaac Newton was in no means poor at maths and despite his obnoxious personal nature, he seemed to have a surplus of religious beliefs.

The square root of 1 is 1. I think you meant the square root of -1, which is the irrational number i (or j if your an engineer).

Please do share the "rational" egyptian answer to the square root of -1.

Edited April 17, 2009 by AnthonyB

[Moksha]

I suspect that atheism does come from writing words on your calculator either in the upright position or held upside down.

Wait ... A ... Minute ... !

Think I may have been confusing atheism with geekiness, however I am certain that churning out quadratic equations is a form of masochism. It's probably in the Wikipedia.

[Vort]

I suspect that atheism does come from writing words on your calculator either in the upright position or held upside down.

Wait ... A ... Minute ... !

Think I may have been confusing atheism with geekiness, however I am certain that churning out quadratic equations is a form of masochism. It's probably in the Wikipedia.

Reminds me of some calculator game/story back in the '70s when handheld calculators were first becoming popular. Something about 71077345, which is sorta readable when rendered on a seven-segment LED display and turned upside-down. I don't remember the story or the calculations involved, but I'm sure you could make something up.