People often don't realize, but there is really only ONE mathematical function in the universe. and that function is none other than ADDITION. Addition is the source function (or building block function) for all other functions.
Subtraction? Addition of negative numbers
Example: 4 - 3 = 4 + (-3) = 1
Multiplication? Iterative Addition.
Example: 4x3 = 3 + 3 + 3 + 3 OR 4 + 4 + 4
Division? Iterative Addition of negative numbers.
Example: How many times can you -3 to 12 ? Answer: 4
and so forth...
Everything essentially boils down to to this function.
And yet, when scientists try to explain why the Universe exists they wants us to believe that
0 + 0 = 1.
They implore us to accept that something comes out of nothing. Of course you can point to a myriad of complex functions that explain HOW the universe works, but that in no way explains WHY it is here at all.
Science actually follows an ancient faulty method of thinking that was found in Egyptian Mythology. In the Egyptian story of creation, Ra , the Sun god, comes out of the Nile because Ra says, "I knew my own name!". This is the same faulty view used by scientists today that believe the Universe pulls itself out of nothing because the equations tell it do so. But like any person who looks at the story of Ra, one cannot call themselves forth unless they first exists to call themselves forth. The same goes with the scientific view. The equations that govern the universe (and "create" it), cannot exist if the universe that they govern, does not first exist. It's much like having automobile traffic laws BEFORE there are automobiles. It is also important to understand that having equations that describe how a universe works does not answer the more pressing question of WHY it works this way. This is the "slight of hand" that most physicists do when discussing the beginning of the universe. They say they will can explain why we are here but in the end of their thesis they have only explained how the universe functions and how it may have reached its current state of existence
Genesis actually makes more logical sense. It says,
God + 0 = Universe.
Here the equation can actually be balanced and make some numerical sense (if numbers is your thing). The laws are created to govern the universe at the same time as the universe is created. Of course many will then ask, "Where does GOD come from?" to which the Christian can only reply, "From Eternity". This is where none of us humans can possibly understand at any level. We cannot fathom a world without time. Even in movies like "Interstellar" which tries to bend our understanding of time, we cannot grasp its powerful hold on our lives. God is outside that realm and no set of events can hold him or contain him.
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Showing posts with label Mathematics. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Mathematics. Show all posts
Monday, November 5, 2018
Wednesday, March 12, 2014
Why MATH is important
We all remember sitting in elementary and high school math as the teacher strains to find a purpose for us to learn things like:
- The Pythagorean theorem
- The Quadratic equation
- Logarithms
- Imaginary numbers
- Sines, Cosines, Tangents
- Geometric rules and axioms
- etc.. etc.. etc..

A while back I even heard that schools were giving into this response by providing students with a dumb-ed down version called "Every Day Math" in which math was taught with the idea that it must have a use in every day life to keep their interest. To me this is just wrong headed for much of math has no real day-to-day usage (I dare you to find an everyday use for the imaginary number 'i') and even if it did most kids would argue that they can use their calculator on their smart phone to do most of the work anyway.
Building a better brain
Math's importance isn't in how we apply it directly every day. Instead, math's purpose is to simply enable teachers to teach basic logic to children and therefore, "build a better brain". There is simply no other method given to man to do this other than math. (the brain is the one organ in the body that has the power to fix itself)
To illustrate this, consider going to a professional football game. As you watch the lineman
(offense and defense) come out of their locker rooms. Ask yourself this: "How did they get that big?". Of course part of the answer is genetics/DNA, but a large part of it is that they spent many hours in the weight-room lifting increasingly heavier and heavier weights. Would they have ever told their high school coach, "Coach I don't want to weight-lift. It's boring and hard, my arms hurt when I am done and other guys can bench so much more than me. Can't we just play football instead? I have no desire to become a professional weight-lifter. Why do you make me do this?" Of course not. Every athlete knows the importance of lifting weights to build strong health muscles (even runners weight-lift a little). Next consider this, when you see the football players come out on the field, do they carry dumbbells and barbells out on the field with them? Are they doing curls and over-head-presses while they are standing on the sidelines? Does the use of these barbells play ANY role in helping the team win the game by showing how much they can lift ? Not a bit. Yet, without a doubt, those weights helped make them a better football player. Sure they could build muscles by pushing each other around the field during practice or doing other kinds of exercise such as: pushups, swimming, biking, heck even dance for that matter. But none of those activities comes near to weightlifting for building large strong muscles.
The same goes for math. Most math (especially higher level math) has no direct use in day to day life just like those barbells have no direct use in the game of football. But math plays an integral role in helping us think logically and rationally as opposed to emotionally. Math is the weight-room of the logical mind in which humans must struggle to make new logical connections. Let's look at the similarities:
For weightlifting to be effective the person must:
- Workout multiple days per week
- Do repetitive sets of a weight (not just 1 lift)
- Must use different kinds of weights to work out different groups of muscles.
- Start with smaller weights in the beginning and increase the size of the weights over time to challenge the body to grow
For math to be effective the student must:
- Attend class multiple days per week
- Do repetitive assignments doing the same type of problem over and over again
- Must learn different areas of math (basic,number theory,fractions,geometry,word problems..)
- Start with lower level (basic) math and move up through algebra, geometry, trig and calculus to challenge the brain to develop better logic/thinking skills.
And just like there may be other ways to build muscle (swimming, biking, hiking, dancing etc..), so also other subjects such as history, literature, music, art can help the brain grow and develop, but none of those methods comes close to transforming the brain in logical reasoning than math.
IT'S THE MOST EFFECTIVE METHOD!
Consider the first time you learned 1+1=2 ... POW! your brain made a new connection that wasn't there before. It didn't happen by accident. It was taught to you. You then went on to learn 1+2 = 3 ... POW! another connection was made and to solidify that connection you needed to do repetitive homework in which you added 1+1=2 10 times and then did the same for 1+2 then 1+3 ... Later your teacher showed you that 2 + 2 + 2 +2 = 8 and you can come to the same answer faster by doing 2 x 4 = 8 (or 4 x 2) and now your brain was learning how to "group" and do math faster with a new function called multiplication. Your teacher may have even conducted in-class verbal drills in which the whole class repeated after the teach a whole table of multiplication saying: "1 times 1 is 1", "1 times 2 is 2", all the way up to "10 times 10 is 100".
Boring?
Probably.
But necessary.

Efficient way to try out ideas

Solve day to day problems in our jobs

Create a society of "free thinkers"
Finally, beyond earning a living, math makes for a better world and better citizens by enabling them to "think for themselves" rather than others to do the thinking for them. A society cannot be free unless all of its citizens are first able to think for themselves and make their own decisions.
Take for example the following question:
"Is healthcare a right(A) or a privilege(B) ?"
Right now your brain is calculating the answer to that social problem. You may have considered "B" but that sounds like you are an elitist and don't care about the poor. But "A" has implications of me needing to provide it to others for "free" which you know is not entirely possible. But A is less elitist than B and may lead to less arguing or name-calling. etc etc etc. But the REAL answer to the question is "C" -- none of the above. "Wait a minute!" you say, "You didn't give C as an option. You just made that up!". But in reality, I didn't. It was there all the time. To illustrate this let's change the question to something less controversial :
"What is your favorite animal: cats (A) or dogs (B) ?"
Here is a Venn-diagram illustrating the choice.
Notice the "yellow" area? That represents everything that is NOT "cats" or "dogs". In mathematics its referred to as the "universe" and constitutes everything outside of the 2 choices. It's always there in every circumstance. Yet many never see it. Questions posed about things like healthcare are meant to corner people into making only one choice. In this case A. This is the choice the questioner wants you to make so they can manipulate you into thinking like them rather than think for yourself and choose "C" as your answer (such as, "It's a PRODUCT you either want or you don't want. It's up to the individual. Maybe they think they don't need it. Maybe they want to take care of themselves"). Math, therefore, helps create a world of "free thinkers" who don't allow themselves to be boxed in by others and their view of the world.
These are the reasons every child (and adult) needs to learn math regardless of their future employment. For by doing so, we can remain a free, efficient and rationally thinking society that can find the answers to the everyday problems it faces.
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