Perhaps the Greatest Mathematician
- Georg Friedrich Bernhard Riemann (1826-1866) was perhaps the greatest mathematician in history.
- Leonhard Euler (April 15, 1707–September 18, 1783) was a devout Christian (Calvinist) who became the greatest mathematician of the eighteenth century and perhaps the most productive of all time.
- Carl Friedrich Gauss (1777–1855) was a German mathematician considered to be one of the greatest of all time, sometimes called the "the prince of mathematicians."
- Georg Cantor (1845-1918) was a Russian-German mathematician who is considered one of the greatest ever because he created the field of Set Theory.
- Augustin-Louis Cauchy (1789-1857) was a devout Catholic, and an extraordinary French mathematician, considered to be one of the top twenty of all time.
- Pierre Simon Laplace (b. Beaumont-en-Auge, March 23, 1749 - d. Paris, March 5, 1827) was a French astronomer and mathematician. Laplace is considered one of the greatest scientists of all time.
- John von Neumann (1903-1957) was perhaps the most brilliant man of the 20th century, based on his remarkable achievements and impressions by other smart people who knew him.
- Amalie[sic!] Noether (1882-1935) was a German mathematician who contributed to abstract algebra and theoretical physics. Albert Einstein described her as the most important woman in the history of mathematics.
I prefer "Riemann was one of the most influential mathematicians in history" over "Riemann was perhaps the greatest mathematician in history": while Riemann certainly was one of the greatest mathematicians of all time, many would argue that Gauss or Euler deserve to be called the greatest. --AugustO (talk) 08:25, 4 July 2018 (EDT)
Georg Friedrich Bernhard Riemann (1826-1866) is considered the greatest modern mathematician, That is as meaningful as Mozart is considered the greatest classical composer: it is just a starting point for an endless debate. --AugustO (talk) 06:15, 23 July 2018 (EDT)
- It's not a close question. Riemann was the greatest modern mathematician. Deniers of Christ don't like that because Riemann was a devout Christian, but here we give credit where it is due, without liberal denial.--Andy Schlafly (talk) 12:05, 23 July 2018 (EDT)
- Does there exist any source for this statement - other than your intuition? I failed to come up with surveys which put Riemann on the very top of the greatest modern mathematicians. --AugustO (talk) 15:24, 23 July 2018 (EDT)
- Perhaps you're looking too much at liberal sites, where Christians are routinely marginalized. Denying Christ means denying or downplaying those who accomplished greatness as motivated by their belief in Christ. Or do you deny the logical truth of that observation?--Andy Schlafly (talk) 00:55, 24 July 2018 (EDT)
- Does there exist any source for this statement - other than your intuition? I failed to come up with surveys which put Riemann on the very top of the greatest modern mathematicians. --AugustO (talk) 15:24, 23 July 2018 (EDT)
Andy, you are the only one I know who is obsessed with the religion or denomination of mathematicians. I don't deny that Riemann was great mathematician. Nevertheless you will have difficulties to find a mathematician who would call him "the greatest mathematician in history", or even "the greatest modern mathematician" - whether they know about his faith or not. Do you have any Christian sites or non-liberal rankings which put him on the very top? I'd be interested to see them.
But I'm afraid that you base your statement solely on one of your personal insights which are seldom shared by anyone else... --AugustO (talk) 07:07, 24 July 2018 (EDT)
- You don't address my point: "Denying Christ means denying or downplaying those who accomplished greatness as motivated by their belief in Christ." You also don't engage in any objective analysis of Riemann's greatness, such as the fact that he is the author of the greatest unsolved problem in math. Moreover, I find your repeated edits to the entry to be silly, rather than a genuine attempt at a compromise. I've locked the page accordingly.--Andy Schlafly (talk) 15:32, 24 July 2018 (EDT)
Andy, I just saw your edit adding the Wikipedia reference to this article -- would you please make it a permalink (since Wikipedia constantly changes and what it will say five years from now could be entirely different), since I can't edit the article myself? --1990'sguy (talk) 23:55, 24 July 2018 (EDT)
For example, even in the entry on Wikipedia, an encyclopedia generally biased against Christians, which contains a List of important publications in mathematics, Riemann is referenced 20 times, compar
Andy, how do you get these numbers? Omitting textbooks and ancient manuscripts, there are - according to my count - 99 different works mentioned in the list:
| author | number of works |
|---|---|
| Leonhard Euler | 6 |
| Bernhard Riemann | 5 |
| Alexander Grothendieck | 3 |
| Carl Friedrich Gauss | 3 |
| Joseph Louis Lagrange | 3 |
| Peter Gustav Lejeune Dirichlet | 3 |
| Jean-Pierre Serre | 3 |
Hilbert, Gödel, Neumann, Newton and a few others are listed with two works. While I could probably know which fields these mathematicians worked in, I would be hard-pressed to state their religious beliefs.
Andy, could you please link a webpage or cite a book which states that Bernhard Riemann is the greatest modern mathematician? You should change the introduction to the true statement "Bernhard Riemann is considered one of the greatest modern mathematicians". I imagine a high-school pupil who cites your insight in a homework and will then be berated as he cannot give any proper sources. At this moment, Conservapedia is the only place in the internet which declares Riemann to be the greatest modern mathematician. Such a bold statement needs a little bit more proof than a misread list from wikipedia.