I have been silent so far because the question of mathematics is difficult and I don't have a definitive answer.

However, I cannot remain silent on the repeated claims as if religion has anything to do with understanding, rightly or wrongly, the physical world that we live in.

Unlike psychoanalysis which endlessly attempts to understand and assign meaning to our dreams, the object of religion is to awaken from this nightmare that we call the world so that we can "remember" who we really are - God.

The confusion arises because historically, some people who claimed to be religious and to teach religion, were ALSO interested in understanding the world around us; and unfortunately they were believed because they taught it with the same authority. It is quite possible - and I've seen it several times myself, for someone to be a great authority on religion, yet prattle nonsense when it comes to describing the world (and the opposite is also all too common).

Dear Mr Opinion,

I'm sorry your math teachers were inadequate. Mathematics is much more than calculating and measuring. A blind person may not be able to appreciate a sunset, but a blind person can appreciate mathematical relationships.

Some blind mathematicians:

Leonhard Euler - Swiss mathematician and physicist who went almost totally blind at fifty-nine, but his productivity on mathematics did not decrease throughout his life.
Bernard Morin - topologist from France.
Lev Pontryagin - Soviet mathematician who went blind at fourteen. He continued mathematical study with the help of his mother Tatyana Andreevna, and made major discoveries in a number of fields of mathematics.
Nicholas Saunderson - English mathematician who went blind at the age of twelve months, held in high esteem by Isaac Newton.

They were not blind to the beauty of mathematics

Well what can I possibly add to those, who've eloquently shared their opinion on this fascinating subject ? Unfortunately I could never quite understand many of even the most basic mathematical concepts I tried so hard to grapple with at school, I simply couldn't 'get it' as the say ?

My first two years in High School, I was required to undertake Maths l & Maths ll, and ultimately my teachers must've finally realised I was essentially an utter dunce, mathematically at least. So in third year I was fortunate enough to be permitted to undertake General Maths studies instead. Consequently I managed to successfully pass in that subject, in the 1956 Intermediate Certificate Examination which at the time, was an important scholastic objective, back in the fifties and sixties.

Today, I honestly believe you can either 'do Maths' or you can't ? In which case, you just have to accept that you're not all that bright. Perhaps the only vocational avenues that may be available to you, post your schooling, are a railway fettler, general labouring, become an Infanteer in the Army, or as an absolutely last straw, join the police force ? And you know what they say about police officers, '...too lazy to work; too frightened to steal; and haven't got the brains to get a satisfactory job...' ? I didn't do too badly I suppose ? I participated in two of the four options mentioned above - Australian Regular Army and the Police Force.

Dear david f,

I didn't say anything about having inadequate teachers. It appears that your knowledge of English is as weak as your knowledge of mathematics. Just out of curiosity, what fields do you hold your degrees in?

Dear Mr Opinion,

You didn't say anything about having inadequate teachers. I assumed that your lack of appreciation for the beauty of mathematics was due to that. Of course it could be due to something else.

My degrees are in mathematics and physics.

Being an electrical engineer, and having done both pure maths, applied maths, physics and engineering, I found that mathematics was an important tool to describe or understand pretty much everything scientific.

As one of my professors once said, applied maths is the practical application of mathematics, Physics is applied maths applied to the physical world, and engineering is applied physics.