When Lies Are Decreed As Truth

One day, an absolute dictator king decided that 1 + 1 = 3.

King: I decree that from today onwards, 1 + 1 = 3. But to make life simple for you plebians, the rest of the mathematical rules will not change.

Is life as simple as what the absolute dictator king thought? Let see what happened after the decree.

Minister: Your majesty, what about 1 + 2? Is it still 3?

King: Didn't you hear what I decree? The rest of the mathematical rules will not change. So 1 + 2 is still 3.

Minister: What about the algebraic equation x + 1 = 3. What is the answer for x? Is it 1 or 2?

King: Well, maybe there are two answers to this equation, just like quadratic equations.

Minister: Okay, what about 1 + 1 + 1 + 1? Is it 4, 5 or 6?

King: What? You still cannot understand my decree? Only 1 + 1 = 3. The rest of the mathematical rules will not change. So, the answer is 4.

Minister: But if 1 + 1 is 3 and followed by 3 + 1 is 4 then 4 + 1, then isn't answer 5? Or if we do it as (1 + 1) + (1 + 1), then shouldn't it be 3 + 3 = 6?

King: Well, I suppose there will be 3 answers, like a cubic equation.

Minister: But this is not an equation.

King: Well, then get the mathematicians to work out new rules! Stop bothering me with these details!

So, the minister went to the mathematicians to work out a new mathematics to cater for 1 + 1 = 3. Very soon, the children started to get confused. Simple arithmetic become university subjects. Accountancy and science started to fail. Rockets cannot go to the moon with the new mathematics. New computers and software made to cater for this new mathematics could not work. The whole economy fell apart. Life became primitive again. The people became hunters and gatherers. Then the neighbouring countries came to attack with advanced weapons and conquered the kingdom. The king was captured and executed. Before his execution, the king said, "I cannot understand what had gone wrong. I had decreed that only 1 + 1 = 3. The rest of the mathematical rules will not change. It is all the mathematicians' fault. They made the new mathematics so complex."

For we cannot do anything against the truth, but only for the truth. (2 Corinthians 13:8 BSB ESV NIV)