Mathematics: Is God Silent? [Paperback]

James Nickel (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: 1988 | ISBN-10: 9991426213 | ISBN-13: 978-9991426211

This book revolutionizes the prevailing understanding and teaching of math. The addition of this book is a must for all upper-level Christian school curricula and for college students and adults interested in math or related fields of science and religion. It will serve as a solid refutation for the claim, often made in court, that mathematics is one subject, which cannot be taught from a distinctively Biblical perspective.

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Paperback: 434 pages
• Publisher: Ross House Books (1988)
• ISBN-10: 9991426213
• ISBN-13: 978-9991426211
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #9,540,000 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

57 of 75 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Good material, weak argument., December 28, 2002

By 

Fred Brooks (Lakenheath, Suffolk, UK) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Mathematics: Is God Silent? (Paperback)

This is a pretty good book on the history and philosophy of mathematics for interested laymen and high-school and college students. There is a wealth of interesting material, an extensive bibliography, and a careful and complete index.

The central philosphical argument is that the similarity of structure of the physical world and that of many branches of mathematics shows that God made them both, and therefore that mathematics is Platonically pre-existing and hence discovered, not invented, by man.

The fallacy, I think, is that most of mathematics, and especially most of the mathematics Nickel cites, was occasioned and designed for the explicit purpose of providing models for nature. In short, I cannot be surprised that the models resemble the things modeled, any more than that a map should resemble the terrain it describes. .

As an evangelical Christian mathematician and computer scientist, I was hoping for a book that set forth the "discovered, not invented" argument with logical clarity, for I have been puzzled by that view. Disappointingly, this book isn't it. Fundamentally it presses the argument first by assertion, and then by testimonials of agreement by various mathematicians. Nickels also extensively uses quotations from the many works of theologian and philosopher of science Stanley Jaki. He does not, so far as I see, address the "mathematics as modeling tool" argument.

Nickels does a fair and clear job of expressing what he calls "the majority view", that mathematics is invented, and he cites various scientists holding that view.

39 of 52 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Masterpiece: Tracing the Historical Significance of Math, October 28, 2000

By 

Richard Routh "Dr. Richard L. Routh" (Rutherfordton, NC USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Mathematics: Is God Silent? (Paperback)

James Nickel's work is a masterpiece! It does an excellent job of tracing the historical development of mathematics and reviewing its impact on history and philosophy. It is relatively easy reading, but not for lower than the high school level. Nickel clearly communicates the loud voice mathematics has had in showing God's hand in creation. He shows, from philosophical history, the societal implications when men fail to explicitily recognize God's role in mathematics.

36 of 53 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Nickels shows the necessity of a Biblical worldview for Math, November 17, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Mathematics: Is God Silent? (Paperback)

This book is delightful reading and a great aid to the Christian mathematics teacher. Nickels put mathematics into its historical context and in so doing shows how its development requires a fundamental assumption that the world we live in is rational and harmoniously ordered. Only the biblical God provides such a context.