Yesterday, I posted [this article][bozo] about the bozo who didn’t like his college calculus course because it wasn’t Christian enough. One of the commenters pointed out that there’s actually a site online where a college professor from a Christian college actually has [a collection of “devotionals”][devotional] to be presented along with the lecture in a basic calculus course.
\nThey’re sufficiently insane that I have to quote a couple of them. No comment that I could possibly make could add anything to the sheer goofiness of these.
\nFor the lesson on “Function Operations”:
\n>**God’s Surgical Improvements of our Actions**
\n>
\n>Genesis 50:15-21, Romans 3:9-10, 21-24
\n>
\n>One of the more horrible images in the book of Genesis is that of Joseph being
\n>sold by his brothers into slavery. This type of hate turned into evil act is a
\n>common occurrence in our world, too. In the Genesis situation, though, we are
\n>given the gift of 20-20 hindsight because we know the end of the story. God
\n>used the brothers’ evil action to prevent starvation of the descendants of
\n>Abraham. Joseph says, “You intended to harm me, but God intended it for
\n>good. ..” [Gen. 50:20] In the same way, God makes our unrighteous actions
\n>righteous through Christ. He surgically improves our actions to his own
\n>purpose.
\n>
\n>This idea of twisting something from one form into another is what happens when
\n>function operations work on elementary functions. You can start with two
\n>ordinary benign functions, the reciprocal function 1\/x and sin(x), say, and put
\n>them together. Depending on how you put them together, you can create
\n>something interesting and easily understood, like sin(x)\/x, or something with
\n>wild behavior, like sin(1\/x). Either way, you have twisted one object into
\n>something very different.
\nFor the lesson on the Limit definition of the derivative:
\n>**Secant Lines and Sanctification**
\n>
\n>Ps. 119:33-40
\n>In differential calculus we study how a slope of a linear function can be
\n>generalized to the slope of a function whose graph is curved, creating the
\n>derivative of the original function. The definition of derivative uses a
\n>sequence of lines (secant lines) drawn through two points on a function that
\n>are approaching each other and a single point on the function curve. The
\n>derivative value or tangent line slope is defined to be the limiting slope
\n>value of this sequence of secant lines. (See the figures below.)
\n>
\n> Figure 1 : Secant line between 1 and 1.8
\n> Figure 2 : Secant line between 1 and 1.5
\n> Figure 3: Tangent line to f at x=1
\n>
\n>Once a person has been called to be a Christian, we are redeemed by Christ but
\n>not released from following the law of God. We are justified once but continue
\n>with the process of sanctification for the remainder of our lives. This
\n>sanctification process is like the limit process of the secant lines
\n>approaching the tangent line. There is one distinction between the concepts of
\n>sanctification and secant line limits, however. In the mathematical contexts,
\n>we accept results that are “sufficiently close,” results that are in an
\n>epsilon-neighborhood of the desired quantity. While in our quest for
\n>perfection, the “better” we get the further we realize we are from satisfying
\n>all aspects of the law.
\nOk, just one more. This one just about had me rolling on the floor! For the lesson on the chain rule:
\n>**Chain Reactions**
\n>
\n> 1 Corin 5:16-21
\n>
\n>Once students have seen the chain rule for differentiation of composed
\n>functions, it is natural to extend the chain rule to nested functions, where
\n>there is more than two functions that are composed. Fun problems to
\n>investigate are ones that are repeated applications of the same function. Try
\n>differentiating tan(tan(tan(tan(tan x)))) or ln(ln(ln(ln(ln(ln x))))), for
\n>example. Working your way from the outside to the inside yields a derivative
\n>which is product chain of related functions.
\n>
\n>In a similar way, when we interact with other people there is a chain reaction
\n>to our behavior. Most people believe that abused children are more likely to
\n>become abusers themselves someday, for example. Less dramatic behavior also
\n>can have a reaction that extends beyond the initial engagement. A popular
\n>Warner Brothers film of 2000 “Pay it Forward” (based on a novel with the same
\n>name by Catherine Ryan Hyde) depicts how a chain of reactions to an initial act
\n>of kindness can change an entire community. Christians need to be specially
\n>mindful of this chain reaction, since we are ambassadors for Christ. Our
\n>verbal and nonverbal witness can yield unexpected results, especially under the
\n>influence of the Holy Spirit.
\nThis, apparently, is how “real” Christians are supposed to teach math classes. I seriously wonder how they have time to actually cover the *math* in class if they spend time on this gibberish!
\n[bozo]: http:\/\/scienceblogs.com\/goodmath\/2006\/08\/math_is_bad_because_it_isnt_ch.php
\n[devotional]: http:\/\/www.trnty.edu\/faculty\/robbert\/SRobbertWebFolder\/ChristianityMath\/Calculus.html#Chain<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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