Is mathematics about numbers?

Is the law about money?

I think the two situations are much the same.  In principle, mathematics is concerned with all kinds of logical relationships, not just numerical ones.*  Yet many of the most powerful things we do with logic involve numbers, and mathematicians are the experts in their use.

As for the law, in principle, it is concerned with all kinds of human relationships, not just financial ones.  Yet so much of human relationships is regulated by money that inevitably lawyers have a special interest in this area.

*The Independent reassures Sudoku players: “There’s no maths involved.  You solve
  the puzzle with reasoning and logic.”

[30 December 2013]

Why did the Lord send his son to earth?  I was embarrassed to realize last night that it took me to age 58 to notice how I’d been hoodwinked by the standard narrative.

The line we’re fed is that he did it to help us sinners out, since we can be redeemed through Christ.

And yet if you look at it from God’s point of view, well, let’s face it, in the BC years he was nobody, with just a few Jewish believers.  Sending Jesus down changed that completely, a brilliantly successful advertising ploy.  Jesus made God go viral.

[22 February 2014]