This gem of a video is a full expression of the *backwards* way of thinking that infects all philosophy derived from Plato, including "rational Christians" (like William Lane Craig), who give life to the maxim that Christianity is "Plato for the people."
No, don't worry, I'm not going to engage in one of those "atheist" debates, in which I "own Christians with facts and logic." Those debates amount to two liberals arguing with each other over who's more liberal. To the contrary, it is logic that needs to be owned!
According to Craig, we should be in awe of the fact that "pure mathematics"—which, apparently, originated and exists in the netherworld of forms—just so happens to align with the real world. This must be God's work!
The very evidence that Craig cites outlines how math and logic are *not* pure forms but themselves derive from the world, our experience of it, and our power seeking within it.
You can stand in awe at how Pythagoras discovered that "pure mathematics" miraculously aligns with the sonic consonance of an octave. Or you could stand in awe of what really took place—that mathematics is, in fact, beautiful because it arose through music.
Pythagoras discovered math by being a musician, by seeking to create the most elegant mating call—and all that implies... (Math, too, is "erotic." This should not be taken as a criticism of math!)
There is something to be said for the wisdom of the common man that, while Newtonian physics can be explained to anyone, "String Theory" is so Byzantine that no one—except a priestly caste of eggheads—can make heads or tails of it. This is true!
This folk wisdom demonstrates the degree to which the latest in "pure mathematics"—or critical race theory or deconstructionism or whatever—has been alienated from the real world and now exists as academic masturbation involving symbols and jargon—references with referents.
Our physical experience of the world—and our domination of the world—*preceded* mathematics, which developed as a way of rationalizing this experience. We're amazed that math and the world align because we've overlooked the physical, biological imperative of the "pure" sciences.
Matthew said, "the last shall be first." This came from a parable about equal wages, and has been taken in a social and political sense—the Judeo-Christian rabble being "chosen," and thus usurping their proper superiors.
But "the last shall be first" is the core failing of Platonic (and, yes, Christian) thinking. It takes the *last* thing—the rationalization or "form" of experience—and posits it as the "first" thing. Christians and Platonists are, in this way, truly backwards.
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