Mathology -- Converts Being Accepted.

In last week's episode of Young Sheldon, young Sheldon is caught playing Dungeons and Dragons. As a player of the game in the late 70's, I remember that some friends of mine were forbidden to play it by their religious parents. As the theory went, it was a Trojan Horse way to get kids to worship the devil. That is pretty much what happened on the show too so Sheldon is forced to go to Sunday school by his devoutly Baptist mother. In Sheldon's quest for all knowledge, which I applaud, he quickly reads the entire bible. Then he goes onto study other religions. In the end, he feels that the ultimate truth lies in math, and starts his own religion, Mathology. Here is a clip of the pertinent scenes.


Direct link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BICT7mu7uHs

This is not unlike what I believe. However, I disagree with the only sin being stupid.

To the main point, I do see an elegance to math that seems to be divinely beautiful in nature. I would say you have to get to ordinary differential equations to start to see the light. Anything before calculus is just boring arithmetic. So, it is hard to put in layman's terms, but I find it amazing how pi and e (the number) turn up in the answers to just about everything. What few times I get asked the meaning of life, I always respond that it is e.

I don't see how people can look at an equation like e^(pi*i) = -1 and not see order and beauty in the universe. Or everything you can do with Taylor's Expansion.

So, that is as close to a statement of faith as you'll ever get out of me. Okay, let the attacks begin.

p.s. Choice 9 should have been, I'm a Raëlian.

It still happens, but not always from religious parents.

https://www.thisamericanlife.org/635/chip-in-my-brain

Chip was a 6th grader, and over a number of years his basketball coach AJ convinced him that demons were real, the rapture was coming, that AJ could see and dispel the demons, and that Chip needed to stop playing World of Warcraft, and some other crazy stuff like how the Illuminati wanted to implant everyone with rfid chips so that they could exercise mind control.

It took the parents far too long to figure out what was going on, and now Chip is 20-something and still is suffering from the effects of what was in effect "programming"

OMG, the kid who plays Sheldon is
one of the most obnoxious child
actors I've ever seen. I couldn't
watch this show for even 5 min.

It's not his character, it's the kid.
Here's an example. The middle
girl on Modern Family, Alex, plays
a genius obnoxious kid. But she's
good at it, you don't dislike her
for being obnoxious because in
reality she's a nice little kid and
that comes through.

Young Sheldon makes me want to
slap his face, not a good reaction..

Quote: Evenbob

OMG, the kid who plays Sheldon is
one of the most obnoxious child
actors I've ever seen. I couldn't
watch this show for even 5 min...

I wouldn't call him obnoxious but he is supposed to be annoying to most people, much like adult Sheldon is. Personally, I find no fault with him at all. This probably explains why people find me obnoxious and annoying.

Quote: Wizard

I wouldn't call him obnoxious but he is supposed to be annoying to most people,

But it comes across as obnoxious. That's
why I used the Alex example. Her character
is majorly annoying to everybody, but the
girl actor isn't obnoxious about it.

Quote: Wizard

In Sheldon's quest for all knowledge, which I applaud, he quickly reads the entire bible.

Wasn't he an atheist already?

Quote:

To the main point, I do see an elegance to math that seems to be divinely beautiful in nature.

"Mathematics is an orderly thing of human invention." Isaac Asimov.

"Math is merely the handmaiden of physics." Nareed.

I was a teen atheist. Later decided I was agnostic. Now fit OK with Deist, but one who illogically wants to defend some Protestant positions.

ummm, I'm probably too much of a misanthrope to make a good Christian. At least I have to think misanthropy is a misfit for that faith.

Quote: odiousgambit

ummm, I'm probably too much of a misanthrope to make a good Christian.

How anybody can defend Xtionity at
all is a mystery to me. Defending a
myth is a pointless waste of time.

Quote: Wizard

I
To the main point, I do see an elegance to math that seems to be divinely beautiful in nature. I would say you have to get to ordinary differential equations to start to see the light. Anything before calculus is just boring arithmetic. So, it is hard to put in layman's terms, but I find it amazing how pi and e (the number) turn up in the answers to just about everything. What few times I get asked the meaning of life, I always respond that it is e.

I don't see how people can look at an equation like e^(pi*i) = -1 and not see order and beauty in the universe. Or everything you can do with Taylor's Expansion.

So, that is as close to a statement of faith as you'll ever get out of me. Okay, let the attacks begin.

I will say that Math did become an almost mystical experience once we got rid of numbers in college during my higher level math classes.

Quote: FrGamble

I will say that Math did become an almost mystical experience once we got rid of numbers in college during my higher level math classes.

I didn't know you soared so high in math. We should come back to that sometime.