Muad'Dib

What do you think of mathematics?

I'm working under the assumption that presuppositionalists claim that there is no valid approach from epistemology apart from the a priori assumption that the Bible [or whatever] is the inerrant revelation of God. To the best of my memory, this is what Jim Mitchell claimed a while back, and I've seen other presupp's say similar things. (If I'm mischaracterizing your position please let me know.)

So if a Christian mathematician were to prove the Pythagorean Theorem correctly, and I (unbeknownst to me) were to give an identical proof, would mine be wrong and his be right, despite the fact that the proofs are exactly the same? Why or why not?

Isn't mathematics the sort of thing where you can know things and prove things independently of your presuppositions about the divine--i.e., isn't there some degree of autonomy here?

It seems to me that pure mathematics (rather than applied maths, or physics) is a realm insulated and distinct from people's knowledge of God. What is the significance of this observation to the presuppositionalist viewpoint that all knowledge must be founded on the presupposition of the truth of the Bible?

Muad'Dib

Hmm...maybe this would have been better to post in Philosophy.