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Feelings Instead of Facts and Figures?


Good news for those who (like me) struggle with math! Educators in the United States would now allow “students to answer mathematics problems by responding with whatever their feelings are telling them at the time”. [1] According to one educator,

Any emotion, feeling, statement, or catchphrase is an acceptable answer to most of the problems in the new mathematics standards… As long as students are being sincere, genuine, authentic, and true to themselves at the time they are answering the question, that’s all we can ask as educators. … Who are we to tell anyone that their own mathematical truth is wrong? [2]

So that means, for example, that one plus one equals three is now an acceptable answer as long as the student feels that’s the answer. As long as it makes the student feel good, the teacher would accept his or her answer. There is no right or wrong answer.

Now, let me assure you that that “news” is just from a satire website. Satire is “a literary composition, in verse or prose, in which human folly and vice are held up to scorn, derision, or ridicule.” [3] In short, the news is not true. It’s intent is to exaggerate (read: highlight) a disturbing trend nowadays even among supposedly Bible believers. For example, when it comes to sin, there are people who would (to borrow a line from a 1977 song), “It can’t be wrong when it seems so right.” They say that you can believe what you want to believe as long as you are sincere. Those who would question it would be labeled narrow-minded or, worse, bigots. But just as mathematical calculations are fixed and are not subject to opinions, so also there is an objective standard regarding what we believe and how we live our lives. Truth is not about feelings. It is about facts.

For the apostle Paul, sincerity is not enough when it comes to salvation.

Brothers, my heart’s desire and prayer to God for them is that they may be saved. For I bear them witness that they have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge. For, being ignorant of the righteousness of God, and seeking to establish their own, they did not submit to God's righteousness. (Romans 10:1-3, ESV. Emphasis added)

Note that they were sincere (“they have a zeal for God”) but they were so wrong as far as the standard is concerned (“but not according to knowledge”). It’s not even subject to a vote. Even when all people claim that they believe God would allow them to enter heaven just because they are sincere, that does not make it right. The Bible teaches that we are saved by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone (John 14:6; Ephesians 2:8-9; Acts 4:12).

Brothers and sisters, it’s not about what we feel. It’s about what God said.

[1] “Feelings Now Acceptable As Answers To Math Problems,” 3 October 2016, retrieved from http://babylonbee.com/.

[2] Ibid, emphasis added.

[3] “Satire,” Dictionary.Com, http://www.dictionary.com/browse/satire, accessed January 13, 2017.

EYRICHE CORTEZ

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