Mathematical ability-critical measure of human intellect?

Quote:

“Anyone who cannot cope with mathematics is not fully human. At best, he is a tolerable subhuman who has learned to wear his shoes, bathe, and not make messes in the house.” ― Robert A. Heinlein

This popular quote has always stuck in my craw. :hit:



My own personal position is, I have enough math education and knowlege to understand complex graphical representations of data, discern patterns and structures within sets of numerical data, and understand statistics concepts and their abuses and manipulations. In high school, I excelled at the logical proofs taught in Geometry, but lost interest and flunked out of algebra 2. For me, the bottom line is, I don't like fiddling with numbers, find it hard to stay motivated for any length of time. :o





There are vast realms of human ability that don't require mathematics at all. I'm curious to hear how widely Mr. Heinlein's above sentiment exists among scientifically-minded people in mathematics-heavy fields, versus areas where math isn't part of the daily routine.

via International Skeptics Forum http://ift.tt/15EJfBJ