What do Christian fundamentalists have against set theory?

[salvorhardin]

I've mentioned here before that I went to fundamentalist Christian schools from grade 8 through grade 11. I learned high school biology from a Bob Jones University textbook, watched videos of Ken Ham talking about cryptozoology as extra credit assignments, and my mental database of American history probably includes way more information about great revival movements than yours does. In my experience, when the schools I went to followed actual facts, they did a good job in education. Small class sizes, lots of hands-on, lots of writing, and lots of time spent teaching to learn rather than teaching to a standardized test. But when they decided that the facts were ungodly, things went to crazytown pretty damn quick.

All of this is to say that I usually take a fairly blasé attitude towards the "OMG LOOK WHAT THE FUNDIES TEACH KIDS" sort of expose that pops up occasionally on the Internet. It's hard to be shocked by stuff that you long ago forgot isn't general public knowledge. You say A Beka and Bob Jones University Press are still freaked about Communism, take big detours into slavery/KKK apologetics, and claim the Depression was mostly just propaganda? Yeah, they'll do that. Oh, the Life Science textbook says humans and dinosaurs totally hung out and remains weirdly obsessed with bombardier beetles? What else is new?

Well, for me, this is new:

"Unlike the "modern math" theorists, who believe that mathematics is a creation of man and thus arbitrary and relative, A Beka Book teaches that the laws of mathematics are a creation of God and thus absolute....A Beka Book provides attractive, legible, and workable traditional mathematics texts that are not burdened with modern theories such as set theory." — ABeka.com

Wait? What?

Link: http://boingboing.net/2012/08/07/what-do-christian-fundamentali.html

And for those who comment without actually reading the articles, let me also excerpt her conclusion (bolding mine):

Set theory, particularly the stuff about infinity, has a bit of that wibbly-wobbly, timey-wimey flavor to it. It doesn't make sense on the level of "common sense". It's dealing with things that aren't standard, simple numbers. It makes links between nice, factual math and floppy, subjective philosophy. If you're raised in Christian fundamentalist culture, all of that—every last bit—absolutely reeks of modernism. It's easy to see how somebody at A Beka would look at set theory and conclude that it's really just modernist propaganda. To them, set theory is just a step on the road to godless atheism.

...

If this sounds crazy ... you're right. It's pretty crazy. In fact, it's this kind of thinking, and my realization that it was based fundamentally on lying about everybody who wasn't a member of your religious tribe, that led me away from religion to begin with. Ironically. But there is a coherent thought process going on here, and I want you to understand that. If all you do is point and laugh at the fundies for calling set theory evil, then you are missing the point. This isn't about them being stupid. It's about who they think you are.

[LastDemocratInSC]

1. They think about mathematics the way the Greeks did in 500 BC, literally

The Pythagoreans didn't like what we now call "irrational numbers" because they believed that the beauty of mathematics demanded that all ratios be expressible as the ratio of 2 whole numbers. Another good example of ideology trumping reality.

And for set theory ... it's the basis of the SQL database language, so I suppose they skip that subject in their Christian Computer Science classes.

What fools they are.

[yodermon]

2. K & R for the Doctor Who ref n/t

[jade3000]

3. I'll be honest

I watched that video explaining set theory (follow the OP's link), and I will admit that I do not understand the infinity of infinities argument. Oh sure, I can watch the video and every word and image makes sense. But I can't learn what is obviously a very subtle and challenging mathematical concept in 7 minutes. But that's ok. That's why people have PhD's in mathematics. All I can say is "wow." That and maybe I need to take another semester of math.

[Manifestor_of_Light]

4. arrgghh.

Sending link to mathematician/physicist hubby.

[Jim__]

5. As noted in the OP, set theory is relative. Fundamentalists prefer absolutism.

"Unlike the "modern math" theorists, who believe that mathematics is a creation of man and thus arbitrary and relative, A Beka Book teaches that the laws of mathematics are a creation of God and thus absolute....A Beka Book provides attractive, legible, and workable traditional mathematics texts that are not burdened with modern theories such as set theory." — ABeka.com

Formal set theory is based on a system of axioms and so is dependent on what axioms are used. Fundamentalists prefer certain, definite answers.