JR'S Free Thought Pages
No Gods ~ No Masters
~ No Bullshit
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JR'S Free Thought Pages |
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Mathematics, God, the Universe and Authoritarianism Living in a FUBAR World By JR, December 2024/January 1, 2025 The 1969 one hit wonder by Zager and Evans with the tile In the Year 2525 (Exordium & Terminus) needs to be updated to 2025 for reasons that ought to be quite obvious. The song begins with:
In the year 2525
In the year 3535 NEW * In The Year 2525 - Zager & Evans {Stereo} 1969 “Spirituality” is an opaque and malleable term that can basically mean whatever floats your boat, that is, whatever one’s heart desires, be it music, art, philosophy, mathematics, enjoying a sunset, playing tennis or listening to the bloviating raving rants and lies of a fascist maniac like Donald Trump. Why must it be restricted to worshipping a mean-spirited psychopathic invisible Ivan the Terrible in the sky? - JR “Obey in everything those who are your earthly masters, not by way of eye-service as people pleasers, but with sincerity of heart, fearing the Lord” - Colossians 3:22
The above passage is merely one of many from the Bible that is typical of Christianity’s conservatism, hierarchy, intolerance and not unlike capitalism, its unrelenting exploitation, deceit, hypocrisy, indoctrination marketing banalities, deadening trivialities, propaganda, promotion of stupidity and ignorance and of course its stifling authoritarianism. In opposition to science, mathematics and Enlightenment values, religious faith and respect for those in authority and the foundations of tradition, conservatism and rigidity of thought has instilled such unwavering legitimacy that countless young men, many of them married with children, were willing to be sent to kill, be mutilated and be killed themselves in remote corners of the world in wars fought for colonial, dynastic and imperialist interests of the capitalist state. Always ask cui bono? War exists because someone profits from it, specifically those elites and capitalists such as weapons manufacturers, financiers, banking mafia, profiteers, war mongering political ass kissers and in the past theocrats and monarchs. In times of war as well as of peace there has always been nationalism and patriotic hypocrisy, greed, bigotry, intolerance, persecution and oppression from wealthy elites, oligarchs and capitalist plutocrats and of course their fortunate sons. Moreover, when once we were entitled to our own opinions but not our own facts, today propagating digital diatribes and money talks and bullshit walks dominant culture conceitedly circulate self-justifying” alternative facts” without the hassle of being criticized, challenged or refuted. The Internet, though not the sole cause of this anti-intellectualism and self imposed stupidity, does exacerbate it. The so-called information super highway in the form of social media has degenerated into a galaxy of bullshit blogs and glitzy websites eagerly catering to popular delusions and cognitive biases on a growing range of misinformation, religiosity, self help pabulum and other pseudoscientific drivel and psychobabble. What now passes for scientific research refers to scanning a few algorithm/AI platforms that confirm one’s biases, cognitive dissonance and prejudices and then mouse clicking away satisfied your dubious unconfirmed beliefs and dreams been corroborated without appeals to logic and rules of evidence. Easy access to huge volumes of useless data and information that passes for knowledge and wisdom, the debasement of a corporatized university education into a client/ consumer experience in which “the customer is always right,” and the fusion of news, mind destroying marketing and amusements a la Neil Postman into a 24-hour cycle of mind-killing spectacle have all contributed to produce our global anti-intellectual environment yielding a deeply ignorant narcissistic public nevertheless convinced it holds infallible knowledge and wisdom on a seemingly limitless range of often demanding topics. But there are reasons why logic and critical thinking programs have not been implemented into our schools; organized religion and our ruling capitalist oligarchs don’t want that. Formal democratic governance based on expert advice and popular ratification has therefore become nearly impossible, because increasing numbers of laypeople not only lack basic knowledge, but reject reason, logic and rules of evidence, effectively eliminating any possibility of logical debate. Strength of conviction, not persuasiveness of logic, determines the “winner” of disagreements, with more and more people succumbing to inbred biases and narcissistic self-congratulation on the grounds that, “I’m passionately convinced I’m right; therefore, how could I be wrong?” Bertrand Russell (1872-1970) referred to the arrogance, cognitive dissonance and willed ignorance with regard to their treatment and contempt for the vast majority of working classes and poor by ruling elites as a ruling class fiction. This rationalization and self-justifying myth has been deployed to dominate and manipulate lower classes to serve their conservatism, privilege, greed, power, wealth and private interests. Anarchists never tire of pointing out such inculcated and ingrained injustices which are all-too-typical of the religious as well, thus justifying uncomfortable beliefs, unethical unjust behaviour and maltreatment of others. Russell’s pessimistic claims regarding ruling elite delusion, cognitive dissonance, bias assumption and countless other forms of human intellectual dishonesty were consistent throughout his long 98 year life. Here in a collection of essays he wrote: “Holders of power, always and everywhere, are indifferent to the good or evil of those who have no power, except in so far as they are restrained by fear. This may sound too harsh a saying. It may be said that decent people will not inflict torture on others beyond a point. This may be said, but history shows that it is not true. The decent people in question succeed in not knowing, or pretending not to know, what torments are inflicted to make them happy.” (‘What Is Democracy, Fact and Fiction, 1961). Certainly it’s not just the free thinking anarchist who has utter contempt for all sources of power and violence, be they gods, the state or any other illegitimate authority. Independent thinking, critical thought, political dissent and radicalism of any stripe consistently expressed by the great mathematician, philosopher, pacifist and social justice activist Bertrand Russell have invariably been suspect and even criminalized, frequently subjected to police and their spy agency harassment and incarceration, military threats and other forms of state violence as well as criminal prosecution if sufficiently threatening to long standing vested interests of privilege, wealth and power. These ominous threats still exist in our so-called liberal ersatz “democracies” which have become a farce as fascism has returned with a vengeance including psychopathic tyrannical monstrosities such as Donald Trump and his meathead MAGA disciples. Despite the Humanist Enlightenment, Scientific Revolution and our increasing technological advancements, humans are not omniscient and in fact most are not too bright at all - many with the curiosity and intellect of a barnacle. Not only have intellects and IQs diminished in recent years, adherence to basic ethical principles such as the golden rule and behaviour has become abominable. Naturally there’s much that we do not know including the nature of consciousness, free will, origins of the universe and the nature and foundations of mathematics. Is mathematics, for example, merely a human construct, contrary to what some dualist Platonist mathematicians inform us or is it merely a branch of knowledge such as germ theory and evolution waiting to be discovered by any intelligent species in the universe? We can only hope that possible aliens will be far more intelligent than the vast majority of incredibly impulsive, bellicose and stupid cell phone zombie homo sap earthlings such as the ones portrayed in the 1951 sci-fi movie The Day the Earth Stood Still. [1] The two best philosophy courses I took in graduate school were Philosophy of Science and Philosophy of Mathematics which attempted to explain the origins and nature of these two great human endeavours, without which we’d be reduced to the conditions of the theocratic Dark Ages. Sadly, belief in medieval absurdities such as religion and pseudoscience prevail as about half of Americans for example believe in astrology and that the earth is 6000 years old. Mathematics needs to be liberated from didactic pedagogies that reduce the subject to mere memorization of rules and formulae, preparing students for the hierarchies, authoritarianism and profit driven capitalist workplace. An anarchist approach to mathematics for example would focus on not only the historical foundations of math but its conceptual and philosophical origins. Mathematics is being exploited by the profit motives behind algorithms that make important decisions in the markets (most trades on the stock market are determined by algorithms) and even crucial healthcare decisions. From this perspective a vision for a libertarian or anarchist math education needs to be developed, in addition to logic, reasoning, critical thinking and the numerous cognitive biases and logical fallacies such as cognitive dissonance and confirmation bias that plague religion and other anti-science, paranormal and so much other nonsense and superstitious belief systems. Historical and philosophical approaches to teaching mathematics need to be implemented into all mathematics curriculums both at university and the high schools. Inquiries into origins, conceptual analysis, philosophy and logic need to be added to mathematics at the very least by the junior high school level. Are some concepts universal, pre-existing our human appearance on the scene? To what extent and how did our conscious curiosities and inquiries develop sophisticated mathematical discoveries such as algebra, geometry, infinity, the calculus and laws of physics? [1b] One aspect of the anarchist or libertarian vision for teaching math, science, history and other subjects includes teacher autonomy, freedom from a hierarchical capitalist infused curriculum structure and math class as a non-coercive, inquisitive and exciting intellectual environment. [1a] Mathematics is argued by many progressives, including anarchists, to be essential knowledge for a non-capitalist anarchistic society based on real direct democracy, community, freedom and eventual abolition of the state that merely serves elite privilege and interests. Moreover, at least three communal potentialities for mathematics arise from an anarchist approach: in solving social and technological problems through application, as an analytic technology and for increasing individual flourishing via aesthetics and creativity. Everything today seems quantifiable and under the control of corporate elites including their mind numbing marketing bullshit that are colonizing the deepest regions of consciousness of uncritical credulous humans who have in themselves become mere automata and commodities. Our cybernetic capitalist controlled societies that include intrusive coercive mega-corporations, mafia banks, political dupes and education systems that have indoctrinated the masses creating psychological, material, social and political conditions that are profoundly undemocratic, supervised and managed (i.e., totalitarian). There are reasons that logic, critical thinking and understanding fallacious reasoning have not been implemented into our systems of education at any level; after all, they would threaten the domination and hegemony of ruling capitalist classes who control both the wealth via police, military and lickspittle politicians who serve and protect their interests in our fraudulent representative “democracies”. Anyone who has read anarchist philosophers such as Mikhail Bakunin, Peter Kropotkin, Emma Goldman, Noam Chomsky and the late David Graeber will understand this pathetic democratic farce. Dogmatic religious approaches to all these mathematical and scientific questions are superfluous and vacuous. For example, Thomas Aquinas is one of the most respected Christian theologians in history who made many claims regarding his god that including the all powerful surrogate deities on earth based on “divine right of kings” and assertions such as his god cannot create another god, commit suicide or create humans without a mysterious mystical immaterial “soul” that survives our physical death which was a convenient invention for life after death and other absurdities. Aquinas also rejects the notion that other sky tyrants might exist despite countless competing deities having been posited throughout history, most of which are forgotten because their societies and cultures died off. He also delved into mathematics declaring that god could not create a triangle which does not have the sum of interior angle equal to 180 degrees, at least according to the axioms and theorems of Euclidean Geometry. But when mathematicians such as Bolyai and Lobachevsky in the 19th century began questioning Euclid’s postulates restricted to two dimensions (plane geometry) such as the one regarding parallelism called the Parallel Postulate, they developed two new novel non-Euclidean geometries, one called Hyperbolic and the other Elliptical, allowing for novel approaches to physics by Einstein and others.
The many theories of the natural sciences appear to entail less certainty and are surely more open to revision or even rejection than in mathematics (referred to as theorems as opposed to theories). Because of this mathematics poses issues and conundrums of a quite distinctive nature for philosophical investigation; consequently philosophers of mathematics have assigned particular attention to ontological and epistemological problems. Notwithstanding the importance of mathematics to studies in the sciences, due to its subject matter, the philosophy of mathematics engages in a more esoteric and abstract realm than does the philosophy of science. Whereas the natural sciences investigate primarily empirical entities that are located in space and time, it is not at all obvious that this is the case for the abstractions and primarily formal logic that are deployed in pure mathematics. In addition, the logical approaches of inquiry in mathematics are primarily deductive whereas for the sciences they are inductive. Mathematics evolves from intuitive definitions and from assumptions called axioms and then proceed to prove theorems of the basis of these axioms such as a + b = b+ a. Concepts and clearly expressed definitions play important roles in both endeavours but notions such as limit theory and infinity are crucial to understanding calculus, for example, without which we relapse mathematically back to the 16th century. Perhaps the universe is infinite, considered in time and space; therefore no beginning (Big Bang or omnipotent Sky Daddy creator that violates the rules of causation and problem of infinite regress) - and no end with or without homo saps. [2] But even if the credulous cretins who have been sucked into the orifice of idiotic lotteries and the hyped up hysteria of gambling on pro sports on a mobile phone had taken an elementary high school course in probability, they would never be so incredibly stupid to waste their money - and more importantly precious time (life is short) on these moronic swindles. Are our day to day pathetic lives not sufficiently contingent, chaotic and random? Economics and the infamous financial and current bloated stock markets try to attain credibility and status by invoking mathematics but both of these so-called sciences are more mysticism and hucksterism than invoking science, logic and mathematics. As both the two most eminent 20th economists John Maynard Keynes and John Kenneth Galbraith admitted, “Economics and economists make astrologers and crystal ball readers look good”.
The big deal and latest boom-bubble-bust bailout iteration in the markets these days is AI (Artificial Intelligence) which will like many unpredictable characteristics of technology (like the addictive mobile phone creating a generation of discombobulated distracted zombies) will quite likely be a debacle. One concern is the quite obvious argument that computing machines are not capable of being moral (like the many power obsessed corporate and financial mafia psychopaths inhabiting planet earth) or even mathematical arising from thinking about the role of political, economic and social conflict of human existence. It seems to me that given the malleable character of human nature and the free floating dogmas surrounding the concept combined with normal day to day human conflict is primordial and therefore unavoidable: conflict is a fundamental and inescapable aspect of both the physical world and the social psychological domain. This is the notion of the famous Buddhist dictum that “all life is suffering”. This brings me to the stupid distracted cell phone addicted woman who dinged the rear passenger side of my 6 month old vehicle in a parking lot while I was picking up a computer part that took 15 minutes. You can never be safe enough even parking in a remote part of the parking lot – in this case at Best Buy. More wasted time on the line with ICBC and an appointment at a body shop. It is not that there aren't situations where conflict is minimal or even non-existent as the person who dinged my vehicle was sufficiently honest to file a claim and accept responsibility; but in today’s world intellectual, moral integrity and honesty are extremely rare and such incidents are usually not only uncommon, but transient. On the other hand, one might take the position that conflict can indeed be avoided with the elimination of certain socio-economic ideologies of greed, competition and conflict endemic to authoritarian undemocratic hierarchies such as capitalism instead of genuine bottom up direct democracy promoted by most socialists and anarchists. I submit that capitalism, overpopulation, the decimation of the natural world and a multiplicity of other issues such as stupidity and willed ignorance are the causes of the position one assumes with respect to the role of conflict that will determine one's stance with regard to AI and computers that run algorithms (the primary mechanism for most stock market trades) that are controlling much of our hopeless, meaningless, alienated and narcissistic lives. [3] I submit that vulture capitalism (aka neo-liberalism) is the final nadir of capitalism’s long-nascent project in the sense of its desire and successful transmogrification, transformation and co-option of everything and anything in its path that can be turned into profit - every object, every living thing, every factoid on the planet - in its image had not been realized to the same extent by any preceding ideology. Neo-liberalism happens to be the deadening theology, unlike its forerunners in the last three or four centuries since Adam Smith’s pronouncements that have the misfortune for all living matter of being coterminous with technological change on a scale that makes its complete penetration into every realm of being a reality for the first time in human history. And now there’s the aforementioned nightmare of AI, the possibility that humans will be transformed from the homo sap commodities that they are now currently into a superfluity. Multiculturalism, founded on false premises regarding notions of global cultures being equally rational, moral, just and free have even become embraced by capitalism because it enables the exploitation of people simplified beyond the capitalist’s wildest demented dreams. Just examine closely typical overkill television marketing whereby multiculturalism is invoked for profit; and education at every level that been redesigned to promote capitalist hegemony. Moreover, education especially at the university level has also become a commodity, combined with an expensive dumb and dumber business degree as the popular option. Everyone can and must now be an entrepreneur of the self as everything has been removed from the public realm and common good. Such attempts for freedom from intellectual conflict are analogous to the financial debacles (in 2007-09 and when covid-19 broke out) that the entire world experienced and will continue to experience, which involved an attempt by financial oligarchs to employ mystical mathematical techniques to eliminate risk and thereby make boatloads of money - for themselves. Yet in the end risk could not be eliminated because risk is an intrinsic element in all natural and human created endeavors, just as ambiguity and conflict are intrinsic to human contemplation. Thus the attempt to build an algorithm (a form of AI) to eliminate risk is the same sort of futile activity as the attempt to build a moral machine, or the attempt to write a program that will do mathematics or science in a human, creative manner. Such vain and arrogant attempts inevitably end badly. But the propensity for humans to make dubious assumptions about almost everything is widespread such as the ludicrous postulate, pronouncements and dogmas of religious supernaturalism and other superstitious gibberish and premises regarding human nature. People seem to need certainty in an uncertain contingent world plagued by randomness and black swans. This is especially true when it comes to containing the irrationality and randomness of economics and markets. Sometimes a matter of minutes or even seconds can be life changing such as being in one place rather than another. For an interesting take on time and place contingency, chaos and probability I recommend the 1988 movie Run Lola Run. If you covet certainty, there’s always death, taxes and the fictional delusions of religious faith. Or simply examine the debacles of the aforementioned financial markets that occur with regularity, despite the manipulations, lies, conflicts of interest and corruptions. After the 1929 capitalist collapse and subsequent Great Depression, capitalism ought to have been abandoned but it would seem capitalism will adapt to anything, even fascism as it did to avoid its mortal ideological enemies of socialism and anarchism. Mathematics is the Achilles Heel for many students, even at the high school level, but like most demanding intellectual disciplines, to master a difficult discipline such as mathematics requires not just a certain level of intelligence, but intellectual toil, frustration, self-discipline and a quiet environment for deep thought. As the great philosopher Spinoza once declared, “Anything excellent is as difficult as it is rare.” In this sense a subject such as math or physics is not that much different from an expert at anything challenging such as mastering a musical instrument or sport such as the piano, hockey or tennis: it demands dedication, self-discipline, hard work and organizational skills. Consider the amazing project in the early 20th century called Principia Mathematica, a massive intellectual project that took two great mathematicians and philosophers Bertrand Russell and Alfred North Whitehead over a decade to complete, often working exhausting 12 hour days. It was eventually published during the period from 1910 to 1913, a venture that attempted to derive mathematics from fundamental principles of logic. With no understanding of symbolic logic literally created by Russell, most people would not survive the first page, let alone the monumental three volumes of arcane symbolic logic. If my memory is correct, it took over 200 pages for Russell and Whitehead to arrive at 1 + 1 = 2. The project of Russell and Whitehead called Principia Mathematica was an astonishing accomplishment, despite a paradox that eventually demolished their ten years of arduous intellectual toil. Even an incredible man such as Russell had a desire for some modicum of certainty and he believed that if any was to be discovered, it would be in mathematics. Russell and Whitehead hoped to demonstrate that Mathematics could be derived from primary principles of logic. To facilitate the project Russell invented symbolic logic which has remained in place to this day. As I mentioned earlier it apparently took over 200 pages to arrive at 1 +1 = 2. The realization that after ten years of day after day checking and double checking propositions almost destroyed Russell intellectually and emotionally when a stifling paradox arose. But he was able to overcome these potentially life destroying setbacks and thereafter produce some great works of mathematics and philosophy, in addition to being a caustic social and political critic, social justice anti-war activist and pacifist who was also personally responsible for bringing Austrian Ludwig Wittgenstein to Cambridge. Without that, who knows where the brilliant eccentric Wittgenstein would have ended up doing. He was, after all, despite his brilliance - a very unstable, erratic and peculiar personality in addition to being a gay man in an era in which it was illegal and vilified by most people, especially among the intolerant religious. Russell went on to live a long a productive life, spending much of his time fighting injustice, violence, obscurantism such as religion and war (the first casualty being the truth). For the latter he was jailed during World War I for his pacifism but there a were many pious conservatives who would have imprisoned him for his sceptical writings condemning the banalities and idiocies of patriotism, imperialism and nationalism that included the superstitions of Christian obscurantism and other form of human stupidity, delusion and cognitive dissonance. [4] Like all public atheist intellectuals on the left, he paid a huge price personally, politically, socially and academically. Had he not been from an aristocratic background, it would have been far worse for the great Russell. Like Wittgenstein (from a very wealthy Austrian family), he gave away his inheritance and was destitute and impoverished for long periods, having to resort to writing articles for newspapers, especially after he was banished from NYU (thanks to the establishment Christian zealots in New York) where he was appointed professor of logic in 1940. Wittgenstein was a recluse; Russell on the other hand was a very sociable passionate romantic creature who loved women, the social life and the ongoing intellectual battles. A few years ago I read a fascinating book on the NYU incident called “Appointment Denied”. Despite the enthusiasm of students and faculty at his hiring, it was the local New York churches both Protestant and Catholic who had his appointment annulled, leaving him incapable of finding an academic position anywhere in the US. The same thing happened with many during the McCarthyism horror show in the post WW II era. The brilliant political scientist and prolific writer Michael Parenti who grew up in the Italian ghettos of New York City won a full scholarship to Yale and became a full professor at that same institution but was eventually fired and blacklisted during the Vietnam War for his anti-war activities. He often ended up in the same jail cell as Noam Chomsky and Norman Mailer following an anti-war demonstration invariably raided, dispersed and brutalized by the police. It would have happened to MIT professor Chomsky as well but at the time he was untouchable due to his international fame and global academic achievements in linguistics. The Christian churches and their silly puerile faith based beliefs still wield a lot of draconian power in local communities. I witnessed it in South Delta where I taught mathematics and in Surrey where we lived as medieval dark age dimwits, dolts and dunces hijacked the school board (a long and ugly story folks) and here in Chilliwack where corruption is rampant and the churches (Alliance Church – Stephen Harper’s hangout, Dutch Reformed and Mennonite Mafia) control pretty much everything, including the political apparatus at all three levels of government.
Closing Remarks Anyone who thinks we live in a free country that can even remotely be described as “democracy” is delusional. Freedom and real existing democracy are only permissible within the confines of narrow parameters of discourse. Ask or read the huge volume of work by an enlightened brilliant intellectual such as the Noam Chomsky who is 96 years old as I write today. If you violate those boundaries mentioned by Chomsky and Herman in Manufacturing Consent for example, you will have the full force of the undemocratic intolerance of the neo-liberal neo-fascist capitalist state on your back. There’s a long-standing adage and a truism within capitalist states that “freedom isn’t free”. Freedom within capitalist ideologies is a commodity like everything else, including not very bright or politically literate humans. Alongside the account by people such as the socialist biochemist Jacques Monod (read Chance and Necessity) one could add to that a full acceptance of Enlightenment intellectual and moral values never evolved because of the threat they pose to elite privileges: with their putative elite education, critical thinking and an earnest commitment to liberty and justice, who would put up with our relapse into plutocracy after the temporary era of thirty years of post–World War II social democracy and egalitarianism? Vested interests would be deprived of their traditional power and privilege. Religion and tradition remain convenient smoke-screens and mechanisms for corporatist oligarchy and the neo-fascist bullying billionaire classes as being a millionaire is now deemed chump change and a minimal monetary level for avoiding poverty in old age. It’s not a coincidence that classical Western liberalism tends to be suffering a serious disease and decline as it was in the 1930s when capitalist injustices made its hypocrisies and failures untenable. In order to defeat the left and popularity of socialism, the capitalist bastards embraced fascism. If the abandoned working classes and Muslim youth of North American and Europe for example saw a society living up to its stated commitment to justice, as part of proudly asserted Enlightenment mores, perhaps it would be easier for them to realize that Western liberalism is not synonymous with hypocrisy and elite effeteness. But fascism has returned throughout the world as it did between the two world wars with a few mutations such as the spectre of the monstrosity and idiocy of Donald Trump.
Notes: [1] If mathematics is innate and true throughout the universe then surely real numbers including the rational, irrational and transcendental such as π and e and notions of limit theory and infinity would surely be known and understood in the same way. A simple illustration of the infinite is the rational number one-third (1/3) which represented in decimal form is .33333....ad infinitum. All irrational numbers however such as the square root of 2 are expressed as infinite decimals. Even the infamous number line taught in junior high school math courses is infinite. This infinity also extends to the number of numbers between any two randomly chosen rational numerals such as 2 and 1.99999999999999999999999999 (include as many nines as you prefer). [1a] Current exploitation of mathematics by numerous Wall Street hedge funds and behemoth investment parasites like Black Rock are raking in obscene profits, It’s a stark example of the anarchist critique of algorithms and AI which have become the latest scheme that is creating a market bubble that as usual ends badly for the 99%, But the corporate criminals and financial frauds know they can rely on the capitalist nanny state for the golden parachutes and multi-trillion dollar bailouts. Consequently mathematical knowledge and expertise are highly regarded for the wherewithal of employing probability theory and statistical modeling to analyze, dissect, and predict outcomes for crony capitalists seeking to turn their money into yet more money. How this activity leads to economic inequality rested initially on a Marxist critique of capitalism in which labor is not compensated fairly for the value it contributes to the predatory immoral capitalist system. David Harvey, to cite one important anti-capitalist critic, updated the Marxist theories in explaining today’s neo-liberal Godzilla capitalism and its manipulative fraudulent financial markets: “The strong wave of financialization that set in after 1980 has been marked by its speculative and predatory style; deregulation allowed the financial system to become one of the main centers of redistributive activity through speculation, predation, fraud, and thievery” Sadly, mathematics is an integral part of such redistributive activity as since Trump’s election Leon Skum (appointed to Trumps cabinet to reduce social services to zero) has increased his hideous ugly stash of cash to almost one –half trillion dollars. [1b] Humans are plagued by cognitive dissonance and dozens of other prejudices, logical fallacies, biases and pitfalls of irrationality such as infinite regression of causation which are at the root of highly dubious anti-scientific arguments for the existence of god by Aristotle, Aquinas and their Christian successors. But these theocrats ruled and lived long before the Enlightenment and Scientific Revolution when mathematical conceptions of infinity such as limit theory and infinite series which provided the foundation for differential and integral calculus. But Christianity not only demolished the famous library at Alexandria, they destroyed all mathematical and scientific discoveries that conflicted with their vile draconian dogmas, leading to a thousand year intellectual vacuum called the Dark Ages. If the differential and integral calculus or transfinite arithmetic had been invented in Greece in the Fifth Century BCE and not suppressed by Christian doctrine, the histories of both science and religion probably would have differed dramatically. Perhaps an Isaac Newton, Gottfried Leibnitz or Pierre de Laplace would have emerged and the millennial long Medieval Dark Ages when religion ruled would have been subverted. But a litany of a system of belief and hegemony cannot be democratic, dynamic, progressive and valid unless it is responsive to skepticism and the most serious challenges, scrutiny and criticisms that can be launched against it. This is the essence of the scientific outlook. [2] When Napoleon queried the brilliant mathematician and cosmologist Pierre de Laplace regarding his astrophysical theories, especially why he left out God in his masterpiece on the universe and its possible origins, Laplace replied, “I have no need of that hypothesis”. [3] Intellectually and morally, conflict can be construed as logical inconsistency. We expect sound theories and rules for civilized living and especially sound mathematical theories, to be free from intellectual and moral flaws such as ambiguity, logical contradictions and paradox. The computer is a human programmed device which operates within such domains of logical consistency through algorithms which are computer programs. Paradoxes occur when algorithmic thinking and programming typically break down. An algorithm is characterized by having a well-defined temporal order - a series of rules applied in a systematic manner, if you will. The existence of such algorithms presupposes that specific areas of intellectual activity can be made conflict free. Thus, saying that a particular domain can be computerized (morality, for example) implies that the domain can be made intellectually conflict free in terms of being consistent and free of flaws as ambiguity, cognitive biases and paradox. The key word is sound judgment which ought to be the end game of any study of logic and critical thinking that have as yet not been introduced into our school curriculums, public or private. Algorithms are now implemented to make important decisions in the markets, including securities trading, and even in health care, not unlike the current hysteria and corporate embrace of AI which I hesitate to say will end up in unforeseen disasters. Just ruminate on what cell phones and social media have done to our minds as IQs are in free fall as we are producing a whole generation of distracted zombies plagued by an epidemic of ADHD and OCD. [4} According to the Mormon religion and their unreadable book the Book of Moron about 2500 years ago, the prophet Lehi escaped Jerusalem before its destruction and led his family with others to the Americas. His family descendants formed a tribe of Israel, Lamanites, named after his son, from which other prophets arose who wrote down on gold plates in an obscure unknown language the histories and influential lessons they taught to their family and acolytes. At approximately 400 CE, the last of these prophets Moroni buried the plates in what is now known as Wayne County in New York State. These lay hidden until on September 21st, 1823 a prophet called Joseph Smith received a vision and by divine guidance was led the next day to the burial site. A year later Moroni returned to Earth and led Joe Smith back to the plates and three years after instructed him to translate the tablets invoking the divine gift of revelation. In 1830 the completed translation of The Book of Mormon went on sale in Palmyra, New York. It is the distinguishing sacred text for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints now centered in Salt Lake City, Utah. I think it is safe to claim that at least 99.9% of the world (the non-Mormon population most of whom are plagued and diminished intellectually by one of the other of hundreds of superstitious religions and their countless deities) believes this story to be untrue. Not just false, but obviously and extremely outrageously and ludicrously false. This is not because they all think that it is irrational and ridiculous to believe God revealed his truth to the world by way of divinely selected homo saps. Muslims believe that the Qur’an is the word of God, dictated to the prophet Mohammed by the angel Gabriel. Many Jews and Christians believe that God gave to Moses Ten Commandments carved on tablets of stone and that Jesus was born to a virgin and declared the son of their god as he performed miracles and after execution by the Roman Empire for his revolutionary activities, rose from the dead. The sacred texts of Hindus, the Vedas, are also believed by many to have been revealed to Rishis (seers) by God. The list is long as you might consult H L Mencken’s essay “Memorial Service” dedicated to the hundreds of gods who are now not with us. There are many horrific sacred texts plagued by absurdities and insults to a Junior High School science student from dozens of religions which receive more respect than the The Book of Mormon. But there is not one that most people (especially humanists, atheists and skeptics) believe to be a genuine divine revelation. So the majority opinion about any given so-called revealed text is that it is not revealed at all. At the same time, many believe that one such text or set of texts is “revealed”. There is a delightful paradox here: the majority does not accept majority opinion. In other words, a majority believes in at least one revelation that the majority judges to be false. This is a constructive lesson for anyone who trusts the wisdom of crowds. As for the dubious “wisdom of crowds”, one might be tempted to re-read the mid 19th century book called Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds by Charles MacKay. Precious little has changed since then when it comes to bullshit, contempt for the truth and innumerable logical fallacies such as confirmation bias and cognitive dissonance. For some humor on Mormonism that could be quite accurately applied to any other puerile religions, check out the Aussie John Safran: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U58wgn-9Y3c https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Z27xVjXBbk John Safran Vs. God - The Pope Vs. The Dalai Lama
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