Letters From Grandpa #536

• LETTERS FROM GRANDPA
• 536

Dearest grandchild,

Today’s letter will be about Romans 1:22: “Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools.” The point is that those who deny the truth are vulnerable to foolishness. Their denial of reality infects their minds like a disease and everything looks yellow to a jaundiced eye. Unbelievers can become so out of touch with reality that they deny that 2 + 2 = 4. The Hoover Institution made reference to this Oct. 29, 2019. I quote: “California’s latest K–12 test scores were released earlier this month. Despite spending 26 percent more per pupil after inflation since 2011, test scores remain low, and improvement is proceeding at a glacial pace. Just 40 percent of California schoolchildren are proficient at math. What should be done? Seattle’s idea is to teach their students that US math education is racist, is used to oppress people of color and the disadvantaged, and has been used to exploit natural resources.” How on earth is correctly adding numbers “racist”?

• Emma Colton referenced this bizarre malady in the Washington Examiner on Aug. 3, 2020: “A math education professor in New York City claimed that the equation 2+2=4 “reeks of white supremacist patriarchy.”
• Laurie Rubel, who teaches math at Brooklyn College, is quoted in the August 8, 2020 issue of Campus Reform as saying “that the idea of math being culturally neutral is a “myth,” and that asking whether 2 plus 2 equals 4 “reeks of white supremacist patriarchy.”
• The Toronto Sun published an article by Brian Lilley on April 4, 2023 “Saying 2+2=4 is an example of covert white supremacy, according to a group of influential math teachers in Ontario. Questioning them on their assertion simply means you are an anti-trans, anti- immigrant person who doesn’t like anyone who isn’t white.”
• Lisa Sygutek lamented April 12, 2023: “Never in my life did I think there would be a time when I could be called a racist if I asserted that the mathematical problem of 2+2=4 is a true statement.”
• Etc.

George Orwell wrote in his classic novel 1984: “In the end the Party would announce that two and two made five, and you would have to believe it. It was inevitable that they should make that claim sooner or later: the logic of their position demanded it. Not merely the validity of experience, but the very existence of external reality, was tacitly denied by their philosophy. The heresy of heresies was common sense. And what was terrifying was not that they would kill you for thinking otherwise, but that they might be right. For, after all, how do we know that two and two make four? Or that the force of gravity works? Or that the past is unchangeable? If both the past and the external world exist only in the mind, and if the mind itself is controllable—what then?”

• On July 23, 1983 an Air Canada Boeing 767 ran out of fuel at 41,000 feet only half way to its destination. The reason for the problem is that Captain Robert Pearson made a mathematic error. The “all metric” Boeing 767 was new to the fleet and measured fuel quantities in “kilograms” rather than “pounds”. Captain Pearson got confuse and figured wrong and his mathematical error caused them to take off with only half of the fuel they needed to reach their destination! Miraculously, when the engines quit the plane glided to an abandoned military base at Gimli, Manitoba and made a safe landing. Not only were the 61 passengers on Flight
• 143 saved, but also people on the ground were also spared. On that day the Winnipeg Sports Car Club was meeting at the airport and the area was cluttered with cars, campers, and hundreds of people. Children were even riding their bicycles on the runway. The point is, please don’t get in an airplane if the pilot doesn’t know that 2+2 = 4!

Peter C. Gotzsche, writing for the National Institute of Health, wrote: “Our prescription drugs are the third leading cause of death after heart disease and cancer in the United States and Europe. Around half of those who die have taken their drugs correctly; the other half die because of errors, such as too high a dose or use of a drug despite contraindications ” Being able to correctly add 2+2 might very well be important to your health!

The National Taxpayer Advocate Blog reported in April 2022: “Millions of taxpayers have received math error notices adjusting their returns, including the amount of recovery rebate credit (RRC), child tax credit, or other items claimed on their return. As of April 7, 2022, the IRS had issued 9.4 million math error notices of which 8.3 million of these are related to the RRC and the child tax credit.” Please don’t try to convince the IRS that 2+2 is not 4!

Galileo Galilei once said: “Mathematics is the alphabet with which God has written the universe.” It doesn’t matter where you were born or where you live, if you want to send a rocket to the moon you will have to use the same mathematical equations that every other nation uses. Further, if you do not believe that 2+2 = 4 you will not be able to do business in any international market. There are 7,000 different languages in the world but only one right answer when doing math. Even North and South Korea use the same math in spite of their political differences. It doesn’t matter what language you speak 2 + 2 still equals 4 in every nation on earth. To deny this is to deny reality!

Jesus is not “a” truth, He is “the” truth (John 14:6). Believing in Jesus puts you in touch with reality. The late Dr. Henry Morris wrote the book Men of Science, Men of God. In this book he gives brief biographies of 101 scientists who believed in Jesus and were scientific pioneers who laid the foundation for modern science. Please don’t allow the wisdom of this world to turn you into a fool.

I love you,

Grandpa Boyce