By Prof CK Raju*
Truth presupposes knowledge, which depends on the education system. During colonialism the church captured the education system worldwide. Church power comes from myths and superstitions. Through its capture of the education system, the church is able to instil those myths and superstitions in the minds of children worldwide. This enables it to indoctrinate impressionable young children for 15 to 20 years.
People expected only religious propaganda from the church. But the unexpected trick was that the church captured our education system by using a false history of science, which it initially erected during the Crusades. For example, in India, Macaulay used this false history of science in his Minute. The colonised never expected that the church propaganda could use a false history of science, to teach them to worship false gods of science. (Most of the colonised still believe the 19th century story that science and the church are at war.)
In some two centuries, nobody once cross-checked the false history of astronomy used by Macaulay (to change our education system), and we still worship the Christian priest Copernicus, yet another false god of science (as in the road named after him in Delhi). Instead of demanding evidence, the colonially educated, like all indoctrinated fanatics, are enraged when their false gods of science are challenged.
This church control over education is used to spread further false myths through our school texts (e.g. of Euclid and Pythagoras, or that Newton and Leibniz invented calculus). Indeed, the colonially educated defend those false myths, e.g. of Pythagoras, by repeating the related propaganda (that “Pythagoras had a [“superior”] proof).
But myths are not the end. Lies are rarely told without a purpose: false myths are used to spread church superstitions through the education system. The myth of Euclid and Pythagoras in our school texts is used to teach axiomatic mathematics, declared as “superior”.
As my calculus article points out (a) axiomatic mathematics adds absolutely nothing to the practical value of mathematics for science and technology, (b) it spreads the method of reasoning without facts (as conveniently adopted in the church theology of reason), (c) its difficulty (deliberately) makes the vast majority of people ignorant of math, even why 1+1=2. I demonstrated this last point in Jawaharlal Nehru University by offering a reward of Rs 10 lakhs for the proof of 1+1=2 (in real numbers, from first principles).
The church has ruled with the help of all sorts of falsehoods for some 1,700 years. Do you think the truth will prevail in our lifetime?
Axiomatic math (formal math) is difficult (even the proof of why 1+1=2). This difficulty adds nil practical value to any applications of math to science and technology or commerce. But it has political value, for it Bantuizes the colonially educated (including their mathematics professors) by making them collectively ignorant of the finer points of math, and dependent on Western authority to decide the validity of math (needed for science and technology).
This tactic (of instilling canine obedience to the West through colonial/church education) seems too difficult for the indoctrinated colonised to ever understand: they still fanatically believe (and teach and defend) stories of “Euclid” and “Pythagoras” without any evidence, and contrary to all available evidence, and common sense.
They sing praises of “rationality” without understanding that there are different kinds of reasoning, or that axiomatic math is modelled on the (political) church theology of reason (metaphysical reasoning which prohibits facts), a method of reasoning convenient to the church and developed during the Crusades against Muslims.
There seems little hope for the colonized, who have blindly believed in the stories of the various false gods of science told by the church (and e.g. Macaulay) without ever cross-checking the evidence in two centuries. They still believe colonial education came for science, not mental dominance, despite the manifest evidence that it made them ignorant of even why 1+1=2 (in Western ethnomathematics), as demonstrated by my Cape Town challenge repeated in JNU. The colonised will not budge until the Western master approves.
However, the coloniser is now in a bind. Church hegemony, globalised through colonial education, and a false history of science, tremendously amplified Western soft power, and persists long after the supposed end of colonialism, apartheid etc. However, that same hegemony also created axiomatic math (Western ethnomathematics) whose difficulty (sans practical value) now threatens Western hard power (through technological dominance).
It will be interesting to see what California, the technological hub of the US, does to resolve this internal conflict between Western soft power and hard power. And it will also be interesting to see what the rest of the world does: whether it chooses false Western stories and bad church philosophy, or easy math.
People expected only religious propaganda from the church. But the unexpected trick was that the church captured our education system by using a false history of science, which it initially erected during the Crusades. For example, in India, Macaulay used this false history of science in his Minute. The colonised never expected that the church propaganda could use a false history of science, to teach them to worship false gods of science. (Most of the colonised still believe the 19th century story that science and the church are at war.)
In some two centuries, nobody once cross-checked the false history of astronomy used by Macaulay (to change our education system), and we still worship the Christian priest Copernicus, yet another false god of science (as in the road named after him in Delhi). Instead of demanding evidence, the colonially educated, like all indoctrinated fanatics, are enraged when their false gods of science are challenged.
This church control over education is used to spread further false myths through our school texts (e.g. of Euclid and Pythagoras, or that Newton and Leibniz invented calculus). Indeed, the colonially educated defend those false myths, e.g. of Pythagoras, by repeating the related propaganda (that “Pythagoras had a [“superior”] proof).
But myths are not the end. Lies are rarely told without a purpose: false myths are used to spread church superstitions through the education system. The myth of Euclid and Pythagoras in our school texts is used to teach axiomatic mathematics, declared as “superior”.
As my calculus article points out (a) axiomatic mathematics adds absolutely nothing to the practical value of mathematics for science and technology, (b) it spreads the method of reasoning without facts (as conveniently adopted in the church theology of reason), (c) its difficulty (deliberately) makes the vast majority of people ignorant of math, even why 1+1=2. I demonstrated this last point in Jawaharlal Nehru University by offering a reward of Rs 10 lakhs for the proof of 1+1=2 (in real numbers, from first principles).
1,700 years old falsehood
How exactly do you imagine the truth will prevail when the education system makes people so ignorant even about 1+1=2? (Obviously, this is deliberate, to force them to depend on Western authority as the sole guide to truth.) How, then. will the colonial educated recognize the truth when they see it? (Will they consult the coloniser?) After all, don’t they still defend all their false gods of science without evidence?
The colonially educated never once supported my demand even for evidence for “Euclid” in our school texts: they are easily fooled and very content to continue believing the myths they were indoctrinated into believing as children. How then can the truth prevail?The church has ruled with the help of all sorts of falsehoods for some 1,700 years. Do you think the truth will prevail in our lifetime?
Axiomatic math (formal math) is difficult (even the proof of why 1+1=2). This difficulty adds nil practical value to any applications of math to science and technology or commerce. But it has political value, for it Bantuizes the colonially educated (including their mathematics professors) by making them collectively ignorant of the finer points of math, and dependent on Western authority to decide the validity of math (needed for science and technology).
This tactic (of instilling canine obedience to the West through colonial/church education) seems too difficult for the indoctrinated colonised to ever understand: they still fanatically believe (and teach and defend) stories of “Euclid” and “Pythagoras” without any evidence, and contrary to all available evidence, and common sense.
They sing praises of “rationality” without understanding that there are different kinds of reasoning, or that axiomatic math is modelled on the (political) church theology of reason (metaphysical reasoning which prohibits facts), a method of reasoning convenient to the church and developed during the Crusades against Muslims.
There seems little hope for the colonized, who have blindly believed in the stories of the various false gods of science told by the church (and e.g. Macaulay) without ever cross-checking the evidence in two centuries. They still believe colonial education came for science, not mental dominance, despite the manifest evidence that it made them ignorant of even why 1+1=2 (in Western ethnomathematics), as demonstrated by my Cape Town challenge repeated in JNU. The colonised will not budge until the Western master approves.
However, the coloniser is now in a bind. Church hegemony, globalised through colonial education, and a false history of science, tremendously amplified Western soft power, and persists long after the supposed end of colonialism, apartheid etc. However, that same hegemony also created axiomatic math (Western ethnomathematics) whose difficulty (sans practical value) now threatens Western hard power (through technological dominance).
It will be interesting to see what California, the technological hub of the US, does to resolve this internal conflict between Western soft power and hard power. And it will also be interesting to see what the rest of the world does: whether it chooses false Western stories and bad church philosophy, or easy math.
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*Indian computer scientist, mathematician, educator, physicist and polymath. Source: janvkalp@googlegroups.com
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