Just weeks after the State of Louisiana mandated that the Jewish Ten Commandments be displayed prominently in all public classrooms, we now see that Ryan Walters, Oklahoma’s state superintendent of public education, has imposed a directive requiring public schools to teach not only the commandments but also the Bible as a whole.
According to Walters, this requirement will ensure that school children understand the role the Bible played in American history. He seems convinced that Biblical excerpts will demonstrate this role, and although the Constitution doesn’t mention God, or Jesus, or Christianity, Walters says, “…the separation of church and state appears nowhere in the Declaration of Independence or Constitution.”
Walters is apparently ignorant of the U.S. Constitution’s Free Exercise Clause, which recognizes citizens’ right to believe and practice whatever faith they chose (or none at all), and of the Establishment Clause, which prohibits government from taking sides in religious disputes and from prejudice for or against anyone based on religion or belief.
Walters is sure “the left … can be offended, they can be mad, they can be upset.” He might be correct. But I think “the left,” instead of reacting as he predicts, should consider the value of teaching the Bible. Just maybe not in history classes.
Consider how very useful Biblical quotations could be in math classes.
In fact, I’ve collected a few examples I’ve seen in various places. Take a look.
Solomon had 700 wives and 300 concubines (1 Kings 11:3). If he lay with one wife or concubine every night, but took off one day per week for rest, how long would it take him to lie with all of his wives and concubines?
David captured the foreskins of 200 Philistines (1 Samuel 18:27). If David divided those foreskins into baskets of 40 foreskins each, how many baskets would he need?
The prophet Elisha summoned two she-bears to kill 42 children after they mocked him for being bald (2 Kings 2:24). One she-bear mauled twice as many children as the other she-bear. How many kids did each she-bear maul? (Use fractions.)
Jael killed General Sisera by driving a tent peg into his skull (Judges 4:21). If Jael could hammer 1.5 inches per blow, and the peg was 9 inches long, how many blows would she need to drive the peg all the way in?
Moses parted the Red Sea (Exodus 14:21). If he moved the water in the Red Sea at 1,000 cubic liters per second, how long would it take him to part the Hudson River?
There are 8.7 million animal species on Earth. Noah took two of each of them onto the ark. How many square cubits of space were required to accommodate all 17.4 million passengers?
Elijah killed 450 prophets of Baal (1 Kings 18:40). If it took him one minute to kill each prophet, how long would it take him to kill all 450, expressed in hours?
Jezebel was thrown from a window and died (2 Kings 9:33). If the window was 30 feet high, and she fell at a rate of 16 feet per second squared due to gravity, how many seconds did it take for her to reach the ground? (Use the formula s=12gt2, where s is the distance, g is the acceleration due to gravity, and t is the time in seconds).
For anyone skeptical of the usefulness of the Bible in math, consider that there is an entire book called Numbers.
Also, Genesis 1:28 specifically commands people to go forth and multiply.
You can’t make this stuff up.
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I’m an inveterate observer of human nature, writing novels about all kinds of people, some of whom happen to be gay or transgender or bisexual or intersex—people whose destinies are not determined solely by their sexual orientation or gender identity. Check out my work on my website.
These math problems are fantastically fun and biblically accurate! Thanks for bringing them to our attention, Robin! I may try to solve some of them just for the heck of it.